Many of the job-related questions I get asked concern how or why a particular thing occurs or what will happen next. I tend to use questions I am asked as topics for articles, because I figure if at least two people ask a particular question, there are probably more who wonder the same thing. Many questions I get concern parole, simply because I deal with more family members and friends at least on the front end of parole than I do with probation. So here is a very basic guide on how parole works from a field officer’s view point in my state, Tennessee.
First, a felony crime must be committed and someone must be convicted of the crime in a court of law. That person must either be convicted or plead guilty and be sentenced to serve his sentence or else be placed on a suspended sentence (probation), violate that probation, and be revoked to serve his sentence.
Next he must serve a set percentage of that sentence in either a state prison or county jail. Felons are divided in offender ranges based on class of felonies and number of convictions. A felon who is considered a range 1 offender must serve a minimum of 30% of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. The higher the range, the more of the sentence must be served before being considered for parole. Now being eligible for parole is not the same as receiving it. Parole is not guaranteed just by serving a certain percentage of the sentence. The parolee must convince the Parole Board he or she deserves to get parole. This is done in what is called a grant hearing.
Now in my state, the potential parolee does not appear before the actual board. He appears in front of a hearing officer in a quasi-legal meeting similar to a court hearing. This hearing officer represents the board, but does not make the actual decision; he makes a series of recommendation, which the board will later vote on after reviewing the hearing, inmate records, and officer recommendations. All parole hearings are recorded for review by the board.
The inmate is informed of the date of his grant hearing. He is usually given a 30 day notice. He can have witnesses testify for him at this hearing. He can have a lawyer present if he so desires, although one will not be appointed and paid for by the state. The probation and parole office that serves the county of his original conviction has a worked designated as a victim coordinator. This person is notified and will check the file on the inmate to see if there is a victim of the inmate’s crime, or any other interested party who has been asked to be notified. If anyone is listed they are notified in writing of the date, time, and location of the grant hearing. They can go and can testify if they so desire. Victim testimony in particular carries weight with the Parole Board. The inmate’s family is also usually notified.
The inmate has to do several things to prepare for his hearing. One of the things he is supposed to do is prepare a release plan. An IPO, or Institutional Parole Officer helps him in this task. This officer is responsible for helping prepare inmates for release and helping them with various programs. A release plan is simply a plan detailing where the inmate plans to live and where he plans to work after he is released. His family usually helps the inmate in this. The inmate turns his release plan into the hearing officer at the grant hearing.
The inmate appears at the parole grant hearing and presents his case. The Hearing Officer has the inmate’s history available to him and has usually reviewed it before the hearing. This history includes details of his crime, his criminal history, his history on probation (if the inmate was ever on probation), his behavior while incarcerated, scores on various evaluation devices, psychological profiles, medical problems, employment history, ,history of drug abuse, etc.
The hearing officer questions the inmate about his crime, any issues he’s had while incarcerated, past behavior, why the inmate feels he should be released, his plans after release, any steps he’s taken to deal with issues such as drug abuse. The hearing officer also hears from any witnesses. He then makes a series of recommendations, which the board can agree or disagree with. First he decides to recommend for parole or not. If he doesn’t recommend for parole, he will recommend to serve the balance or to be reconsidered in a certain time period. The recommendation to serve the balance of the sentence is usually only made on inmates who have a year or less to serve. Most of the time the recommendation is to reconsider in 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. The officer may even recommend things the inmate can do to improve his chances for parole. If parole is recommended, the officer might also recommend special conditions, such as drug and alcohol treatment, paying of restitution, etc.
When the Parole Board reviews the findings of the hearing, they can agree or disagree with the recommendations. It takes three positive votes to release and inmate to parole. The board can impose any special conditions on the parole they think appropriate. When the vote is complete, notification is sent to the IPO to be signed. If the inmate is housed in a county jail it is sent to the appropriate parole officer. The release plan is then sent to the parole officer to investigate. The inmate is not released until a release plan is approved. Once the plan is approved and sent back to the home office, a Parole Certificate is generated, printed and stamped, and sent to the Parole Officer who reads it to the inmate, explains the conditions of his parole and the certificate is signed. The inmate is released on the date specified on the certificate.
The inmate then becomes a parolee and must abide by the conditions of his parole which usually include not breaking any laws, maintaining a job, drug screens, paying supervision fees, visits at home, counseling, meeting with his officer, etc. Should the parolee fail to meet these conditions sanctions will occur. The severity of the sanctions is keyed to the severity of the infractions. Minor infractions might result in increased meeting with the officer, community service work, or counseling. Recurring infractions or more serious infractions usually result in ACRC interventions. The Administrative Case Review Committee is a board made up of parole and probation officers that review any problems that an officer is having with a parolee and develop a plan to fix them. It may or may not involve sanctions. This is the last step before a warrant is requested.
On the most serious of charges, a new felony arrest, absconding, or any behavior deemed a danger to the public, or violating a special condition or ACRC sanction, a violation report is sent to the Parole Board requesting a warrant. The parole officer writes a report detailing the parolee’s history of supervision, violations of parole conditions, and incarceration information. The officer can also request that any time when the offender has been missing or not reported be declared delinquent and, if granted, the parolee can not be credited with the lost time. The report is sent to a supervisor, who looks it over and signs off on it. It is then sent to central officer where it is reviewed and if deemed correct a warrant is drawn up and sent back to be lodged with the sheriff’s office, which serves it. Parole warrants do not have bonds on them.
The parole officer then draws up a notice of charges and a waiver and explanation of rights. These forms are taken to the jail and gone over with the parolee. An officer other than the officer requesting the warrant often does this, if possible. The notice of charges explains exactly what the parolee has been charged with and offers him the opportunity to plead guilty or not guilty. The waiver and explanation of rights explain to the parolee his right of prior notification of a hearing, what types of hearings he can request, and his rights to council.
A parolee has the right to be represented by an attorney at a parole hearing. He has a limited right to appointed council subject to the board’s approval. He can request a probable cause hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to justify a revocation hearing, or he can go straight to a revocation hearing. He can also just plead guilty to the violation and request a non-appearance hearing. He can defer his hearing on any new charges until the charges are resolved also. In this case, the board just accepts his guilty plea, calls a vote and if 2 members agree, the parolee is revoked.
A Parole Violation hearing, be it a probable cause or final revocation hearing, work similar to a court hearing. It is presided over by a hearing officer. The parole officer acts as prosecutor. The parolee may or may not be represented by an attorney. The hearing is recorded for board review. The rules of evidence are more relaxed than in a court of law. The hearing officer listens to the testimony of the parole officer and any witnesses he presents. The parolee or his representative have the right to cross-examine and present witnesses also. The hearing officer announces his findings at the end.
In a probable cause hearing he can recommend finding probable cause and set a revocation hearing date. In a revocation hearing, he can recommend revocation and recommend a period of time when the parolee can become eligible for re-release. The Parole Board will also have a Time-Setting Hearing at some point when they will decide how much time to declare delinquent, if any, and compute the sentence release date.
The Parole Board can do something else, too. Suppose I have a man who is released from prison onto my caseload. He has 5 years left on an 8 year sentence for aggravated burglary. He does well for a year then absconds, runs away. A warrant is issued declaring delinquency. Three months later he is found in another county. He has been arrested for multiple accounts of aggravated burglary and theft. I amend my warrant to include the new charges and serve the waiver and notice of charges. A hearing is set and he defers the rule 2’s, violations based on new charges. I only have to prove one violation to get a recommendation to revoke and I can prove failure to report to meeting and moving without permission, so he pleads guilty to them and is revoked with delinquency for the 3 missing months. He has 4 years to serve but is eligible for parole in 2 years. He is held in the local jail while his new cases pass through the grand jury resulting in a true bill for 3 counts of aggravated burglary.
The DA approaches my man’s lawyer and offers a deal. If the man will plead guilty to one aggravated burglary count and take 6 years to serve, they will drop the other counts and set it to run concurrent with his present sentence. This would give him an effective sentence of 6 years, but would probably move his release eligibility date at least a year further away. He takes it thinking he has a 6-year sentence. Then he finds he has a 10-year sentence. Why? Because he was on parole when he committed the new crime, he was in the department of corrections control and they can determine how he serves the time, so they can determine when he starts serving the new sentence. Many people don’t know the department of corrections can do this. It comes as a surprise to many people who find it out.
