Data Source: See Appendix Table 2 of this report for state parole data sources. (Graph: Leah Wang, 2025)

This graph originally appeared in Parole in Perspective: How parole decisions are made.

Of the 35 states which have discretionary parole for many or most prison sentences, 30 states had hearing data over the same time period. A green line indicates an increase in the number of parole hearings from the earliest to the latest year of available data.