By Mike Cason
The rate of paroles granted to state prison inmates by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles dropped to 15% during the last fiscal year, the third straight year of decline.
The three-member board granted parole for 648 inmates and turned down 3,584 during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
The approval rate for the year was less than half the average of 37% for the previous 10 years.
The rate began to fall sharply after Jimmy O’Neal Spencer was charged with killing two women and a child in Guntersville in July 2018, eight months after he was paroled.
Critics of the decline in paroles say the board is not following its guidelines and not giving enough information about why it denies parole.
“It only took the one bad apple to have really changed this in the direction of lock them up, throw away the key,” said Aimee Smith, an attorney who has represented clients before the board for about 20 years.
Black inmates are being granted parole less than half as often as white inmates.
(You can see the parole board’s statistical report at the end of this story.)
The leader of an advocacy group for crime victims says the low approval rate reflects a prison population with 83% of inmates serving time for violent crimes.
“I mean, there are some horrible, horrible crimes and unless you sit there each and every day, and listen to all of them, you don’t realize how violent these people are,” said Janette Grantham, state director of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL). “And when we let one of them out, they’re going to go live next door to somebody.”
The board has reduced the rate of pardons it grants even more sharply than paroles. In fiscal year 2021, the board granted 27% of pardon applications, down from 79% two years earlier.
People who have completed their sentences can apply for a pardon to help get a job or occupational license or to regain certain rights like voting and owning a firearm.
The parole board, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, has full discretion over whether to grant paroles and pardons.
Inmates don’t appear at their parole hearings, held at the board’s headquarters in Montgomery. Lawyers, relatives, and other advocates for inmates can speak to the board. Those opposed to parole, including prosecutors, victims and relatives, and victims’ advocates, can also speak. The board huddles privately after each hearing, then announces its decision.
While board members have full discretion, there has been some effort to develop objective standards.
In July 2020, the board revised its parole guidelines to “ensure the consistent review of certain common decisional factors for all offenders.”
The guidelines assign a score to parole candidates based on factors such as seriousness of the offense, risk of reoffending, discipline record in prison, participation in programs, and others. Institutional parole officers interview the inmates and prepare the reports.
Scores of 0 to 7 suggest parole should be granted, while 8 or more suggest denial.
If the board made its decisions based only on the guidelines, many more paroles would be granted.
In fiscal year 2021, the guidelines recommended parole for 76% of inmates who were up for consideration. The board followed the guidelines only 39% of the time.
Cam Ward, a former state senator who is director of the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, which oversees supervision of parolees and probationers, said the board is not required to follow the guidelines.
“It is kind of disheartening if they’re not following their own guidelines,” Ward said. “They’re within the law because the law is so flexible on how they get to make those determinations. But I would hope that if they’re going to have these guidelines, you follow the guidelines.”
Ward said it would take legislation to give more weight to the guidelines.
“That’s the answer to those who are saying we just have such a low parole rate,” Ward said. “The answer is then you’ve got to have some more structure in place. So make it have teeth in those guidelines.”
The bureau is collecting data on the guidelines and plans to evaluate their effectiveness next year, according to the bureau’s statistical report.
“After validation of the guidelines, more information will be available on the actual predictive nature of this tool and therefore revisions may be necessary,” the report says.
State Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who is chair of the state Democratic Party, has been a critic of the board because of the decline in the parole rate and because of the racial disparity in paroles and pardons granted. Last fiscal year, 23% of white inmates considered for parole were approved, but only 9% of Black inmates.
England said he would support legislation that would make the parole board guidelines presumptive, which means the board would apply them or explain why it did not.
“Once you deviate from them, you have to give a reason why,” England said. “I think that’s very simple, in the sense that it would give some confidence in the system so people within it can have a better idea of what it takes to get relief. And also people outside of it have a better understanding of the decision-making process that they go through in order to reach their decisions. Because right now, I think it’s anybody’s guess.”
The parole board chair is Leigh Gwathney, a former deputy district attorney in Jefferson County and former assistant state attorney general. Associate board members are Dwayne Spurlock, a former federal probation officer, and Darryl Littleton, a former state trooper and executive security officer for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
For months, England has called for Gwathney to be replaced, saying he believes the board’s decision-making has grown worse since Gov. Kay Ivey appointed her in October 2019.