Alabama lawmakers sharply questioned the head of the state parole board about low release rates and why lawmakers had not received information they requested months ago. Leigh Gwathney, chairwoman of the three-person Board of Pardons and Paroles, appeared before the Legislative Prison Committee. The session was marked by a series of terse exchanges as lawmakers accused Gwathney of not answering questions, reports the Associated Press. Alabama’s parole rate has plummeted. The percentage of inmates granted parole after a hearing fell from 53% in 2018 to a historic low of 8% last year. The rate rose back to about 20% this year but it continues to be below the recommendations of state-created guidelines that suggest more inmates are worthy of release.
Gwathney defended the board’s procedures, saying it gets information from a variety of sources and that each side is given equal time to make a case for and against parole. Rep. Chris England said the parole rate didn’t rise until the state was shamed for the scant number of releases. England said after the meeting that it is clear that the system is broken. “The idea that only 8% of applicants out of the entire parole-eligible population are the only people that can get out — it’s just asinine,” England said. In 2020, Alabama adopted advisory guidelines, including a scoring system, to help determine if an inmate should be paroled. Parole rates significantly lag what the guidelines recommend. The board’s decision matched the recommendation in about 25% of cases in 2024. Gwathney told lawmakers that none of the current board members wrote the guidelines and that she would “never make a decision based upon a quota.” The plummeting parole rate came amid an ongoing prison crisis that has seen the state struggle with both overcrowding and finding enough security officers to staff prisons.
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