{"id":17848,"date":"2025-10-20T14:25:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/?p=17848"},"modified":"2025-10-20T14:25:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:25:04","slug":"parole-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/parole-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get started reporting on issues with parole release in your state"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Frustratingly little data exists about discretionary parole systems in the U.S. &mdash; a gap that hinders policymakers, incarcerated people, advocates, and journalists attempting to navigate the system, assess its effectiveness, and champion meaningful reforms.<\/p>\n<p>To fill the gap, the Prison Policy Initiative released a new report, <a href=\"\/reports\/parole.html\"><i>Parole in Perspective<\/i>,<\/a> designed to pull back the curtain on how discretionary parole works in 35 states (the states that still use it to release people serving a wide range of sentences). <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_part1.html\">Part one<\/a> of this report explores the makeup of parole boards and how they conduct hearings. <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_part2.html\">Part two<\/a> dives into the data on parole hearings and grant rates in these states, and the criteria that boards use in determining whether someone will be released.<\/p>\n<p><b>If you are a journalist reporting on parole, our report can help &mdash; <\/b>whether you&#8217;re just looking for an introduction to these systems or trying to investigate them in depth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"prelist\"><i>Parole in Perspective <\/i>answers basic questions like:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list\">\n<li><a href=\"\/reports\/parole_part1.html#map\">Which states<\/a> still have discretionary parole?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/reports\/parole_appendix1_boards_hearings.html\">Who<\/a> is making parole decisions in your state?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/reports\/parole_appendix2_grantrates.html\">How many people<\/a> are granted parole in your state every year? How has this changed over time?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/reports\/parole_part2.html#demographicsidebar\">How<\/a> <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_part2.html#decisions\">much<\/a> data does your state publish about parole release, compared to other states?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"prelist\">Our report can also serve as a starting point for answering more complicated questions about parole, such as:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list\">\n<li><b>How are parole boards making decisions?<\/b> <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_appendix3_criteria.html\">Our appendix table<\/a> breaks down which criteria boards are required to take into account in each state. For instance, some boards are required to consider a person&#8217;s age &mdash; a relevant factor as prison populations <a href=\"\/data\/aging_1999_2019.html\">get older<\/a> and as a growing number of states recognize youth under 25 as less culpable for their actions. Importantly, most boards place a lot of weight on factors that the applicant has no control over, such as the original crime for which they are locked up.<\/li>\n<li><b>Are punitive sentencing reforms forcing people to wait longer for parole hearings?<\/b> While our report does not discuss such reforms directly, <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_part2.html#paroleslideshow\">we show<\/a> that in almost every state, parole boards are holding significantly fewer hearings today than they did several years ago &#8212; suggesting that various factors, including <a href=\"\/blog\/2024\/01\/24\/zombie-politics\/#sentencing\">&#8220;Truth in Sentencing&#8221;-style<\/a> reforms, are having an impact.<\/li>\n<li><b>How much time is the board likely spending on each individual case?<\/b> Our report shows how many people <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_appendix2_grantrates.html\">have parole hearings<\/a> in an average year, by state; as well as <a href=\"\/reports\/parole_appendix1_boards_hearings.html\">how many members<\/a> each state&#8217;s parole board has. States vary widely in the size of their parole boards and how many members are required to hold a hearing.<\/li>\n<li><b>Is the availability of housing and programs shaping parole grants? <\/b>For example, our report shows which parole boards take someone&#8217;s reentry plan into account, which depends on housing and other services. The availability of in-prison programming also influences grant rates in states that consider someone&#8217;s accomplishments behind bars.<\/li>\n<li><b>How is the format of parole hearings affecting decisions? <\/b>As we explain in the report, a growing number of states are transitioning to virtual hearings &mdash; and a handful do not allow applicants to be present at their hearing at all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Questions about discretionary parole can come up on a wide range of stories: It is a key aspect of timely issues such as the <a href=\"\/blog\/2023\/08\/02\/aging\/\">aging prison population<\/a> and the <a href=\"\/blog\/2024\/01\/24\/zombie-politics\/\">&#8220;tough-on-crime&#8221; creep<\/a> among elected officials. We hope this report serves as a useful tool for reporters seeking to shine much-needed light on these systems. And for any questions about parole systems that the report does <i>not <\/i>answer, we&#8217;re here to help. Reporters can reach out to us through our <a href=\"\/contact.html?topic=Research_Media\">contact page<\/a> for quick assistance exploring these and other issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We explain how to use our 35-state report Parole in Perspective to jumpstart investigations into your state&#8217;s parole system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-17848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17848"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17860,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17848\/revisions\/17860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17848"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}