Sen. Robert Stewart, D-Selma, stands on the floor of the Alabama Senate on April 23, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Stewart reminded members of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles Tuesday about ongoing questions the legislators had about the parole process. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles Tuesday got a reminder of the fallout from last week’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting.
Sen. Robert Stewart, D-Selma, took the final moments of the meeting of the Alabama Re-Entry Commission to remind members of the Parole Board in attendance about the verbal commitment they made to his colleagues to answer questions about the parole process and potential disparities in it.
“This is my first time being this close to the Parole Board, and I just want to commend you for your service to the state,” Stewart said. “But I also wanted to say that I hope you are responding to my colleagues’ inquiries that have been unanswered, as well as the parole grant rate, the dramatic decline, as well as allegedly not following your own guidelines.”
Board chair Leigh Gwathney and Associate members Darryl Littleton and Gabrelle Simmons sat stoically as Stewart addressed them. Cam Ward, chair of the Re-Entry Commission and director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles eventually weighed in.
“This month, we were at a 25 to 26% grant rate,” Ward said. “I am pleased with the direction that I think we are headed. I will say, the way that you increase your grant rate on parole is to make sure you have a successful reentry program to send these people to.”
The department staffs the parole board with research and administrative work, but only the board decides who gets parole.
Gwathney faced hard questions from legislators at a meeting of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee last week.
Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, the chair of the committee, became so frustrated with what he perceived as Gwathney’s attempts to sidestep their questions that he raised his voice and demanded that she and her colleagues respond to the questions they posed back in January by the end of November.
Legislators asked the board about differences in the parole grant rates between applicants who committed violent crimes and those whose crimes are less severe. They also wanted to know about racial disparities in the parole grant rates; parole disparities and the relationship in the risk to reoffend.
Gwathney defended the actions of the Board during the 90 minutes that she spent at the podium speaking with members of the committee.
The board members attended the Re-Entry Commission meeting Tuesday to speak about the PREP center located in Perry County and how that factors into the Board’s decisions regarding parole.
The center, once a prison and overseen by the board, offers programming for those who are at a higher risk to reoffend. Enrollees receive services for mental health and substance abuse, as well as workforce development training for future employment.
“It needs to grow,” said Darryl Littleton, associate member of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. “We see a lot of individuals that need assistance, and the one way we can give them that assistance is prior to them hitting the streets on parole.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.