Re: Question about parole in the US

On 2024-12-11 9:46 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

I just finished watching an HBO documentary called Nature of the Crime
and it had a rather surprising/puzzling factoid at the end. The film is
about parole and the process that a parole board goes through to decide
if someone who is eligible for parole should be released.

 

The factoid that puzzles me is this: "34 states have parole systems,
each with their own procedures". The thing I don't understand is what
happens in the other 16 states? (I'm not even going to get into DC,
Puerto Rico, Guam, and all of those places.) Do the other 16 states not
allow parole at all?? Or do they have some other process to decide if
someone has served enough time to be considered for release?

 

I'm having trouble believing that a state would have no process for
letting someone deemed no longer a major risk to society being released.
I don't know your Constitution well enough to cite a section that
guarantees all state (and federal) prisoners some kind of parole (or
parole-like) process for prisoners deemed deserving.

 My state abolished parole in 1978.
 Judges stopped giving indetermiinate sentences, but there's a different
procedure for good behavior and reduction of time in prison.

Ah, the world makes sense again! It just seemed unreasonable that a state could have no way at all to recognize a prisoner that had "learned his lesson" whatever that might mean.
--
Rhino