Parole Board basics

Parole Board Basics State of Georgia -- Board of Pardons and Paroles

T he State Board of Pardons and Paroles is a part of the executive branch of Georgia's government, authorized to grant paroles, pardons, reprieves, remissions, commutations, and to restore civil and political rights. In continuous service since its establishment by Constitutional law in 1943, the Georgia Board is one of the nation's most experienced, innovative, and respected paroling authorities.
The Board is made up of five Georgians appointed by the Governor to staggered seven-year terms subject to confirmation by the State Senate. Each year the Board elects a chairman from its members. In Georgia, state and county inmates may be granted parole only by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.
The Board also has authority to supervise offenders released by its clemency action. Its Field Services Division, which handles parolee supervision, has been accredited by the American Correctional Association since 1994, making it one of only a handful of the nation's community correctional agencies so honored. In 1996 the agency developed an innovative, results-based model of offender supervision, which has since captured national awards from the American Probation and Parole Association and the Council of State Governments.
The Parole Board's uninterrupted service for nearly six decades has provided a foundation of knowledge and expertise from which innovative solutions can emerge. Each year the agency welcomes delegations from other states and countries who study Georgia's models for adaptations to their own criminal justice needs. While proud of its status as a national leader, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles remains focused on one objective: providing safer communities for Georgia's citizens.

Parole wants input from victims As the State's executive clemency agency, the
Parole Board believes it can carry out its functions effectively only by gathering comprehensive information on offenders, including the impact of their actions on victims and the community. The Board's Office of Victim Advocacy works with victims or their families to answer their questions about parole, to ensure their views and concerns reach Board Members prior to their parole decision, and to keep them notified of activity on their case. Most importantly, Parole's victim advocates continually strive to make victims feel welcomed in the parole process.
Persons wishing further information about victims' rights and services may contact the Office of Victim Advocacy at 404-651-6668 or toll free at 800-593-9474. Those with Internet access may wish to visit the Board's Web site at www.pap.state.ga.us. Both the Victims Impact Statement and Victims Notification Form are available online and can be submitted to the Parole Board electronically.
The Board welcomes the public's views The Board welcomes relevant information
from any source which may shed additional light on a case. Because the Board begins its investigative process soon after an inmate enters prison, it is best to submit comments early. However, if correspondence received after parole consideration appears to contain significant information previously unavailable to the Board, the case can be submitted for reconsideration.

Who is eligible for parole? Except for those offenders sentenced to death, to life without parole, or convicted
under "two-strikes" legislation (see below), Georgia inmates are entitled by law to a consideration for parole. Eligible inmates serving a sentence in the custody of the Department of Corrections are automatically considered for parole, regardless of appeals or other legal action by the inmate or his or her representative. The earliest point during their confinement when they may be granted clemency is their parole eligibility date. Eligibility for parole does not imply release on parole.
Since 1979, the Board has evaluated non-life inmates using Parole Decision Guidelines, a model which provides a recommended period of confinement, including full term, based on the severity of the crime, and the presence of other risk factors. By majority vote the Board members either agree with the Guidelines recommendation or depart from it and render an independent decision. Guidelines assist the Board in making more consistent and soundly based decisions which are understandable for the inmate and accountable to the public. Life-sentence cases are not evaluated under Parole Decision Guidelines as crime severity and impact are overwhelming determinants in those decisions.
Two-strikes legislation, effective for crimes committed after January 1, 1995, mandates that persons convicted for the first time of murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, or aggravated child molestation serve all of their prison sentence without possibility of parole. Persons convicted a second time of any of those seven crimes receive a life sentence without possibility of parole. For all serious crimes, Georgia law establishes the minimum time an inmate must serve in prison before being eligible for parole.
Parole's 90-percent rule While Georgia's two-strikes legislation provides strict, no-parole sentencing for
the "seven deadly crimes," the Parole Board knows that all violent crimes have great impact on communities. After passage of the tough legislation, the Parole Board realized that the public needed assurance that the Board would maintain its pattern of conservative decisions on other serious, parole-eligible crimes. The five-member panel officially adopted a rule stating that offenders convicted of any of 20 specific felonies (listed below) would not be paroled prior to serving at least 90 percent of their court-ordered prison term. Since its effective date of January 1998, the Board has reviewed thousands of cases, adhering to its self-imposed directive.
Offenses falling under the 90-percent rule are: incest, feticide, robbery, car jacking, bus jacking, statutory rape, attempted rape, child molestation, attempted murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, vehicular homicide, cruelty to children, residential burglary, aggravated stalking, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, enticing a child, aggravated battery on an officer, and aggravated assault on an officer.

The Board's other forms of clemency In addition to parole, the Georgia Board has
other forms of clemency to address specific needs of the criminal justice system. For example, a reprieve, which temporarily suspends a prison sentence, may be granted to an inmate for medical or compassionate reasons, such as attending the funeral of a family member. The Board may reduce a sentence by issuing a commutation, a form of clemency typically applied in administrative ways which does not affect prison time. Rarely used but essential as forms of last relief in a criminal justice system are two more widely known applications: commutation of an unjust sentence and commutation of a death sentence.
The Board may issue a pardon, which is a declaration of record that a person is relieved from the legal consequences of a particular conviction. The Board grants two type of pardons: one which acknowledges satisfactory sentence completion and subsequent law-abiding conduct, but which does not imply innocence of the crime; and a pardon which declares a person innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.
For detailed information about the Georgia Parole Board, visit the Web site: www.pap.state.ga.us
Who supervises the releasees? Georgia's parole officers hold four-year col-
lege degrees, undergo extensive testing for employment, and receive intensive training for their wide spectrum of responsibilities. They are certified state peace officers with authority to carry firearms and arrest parolees. Parole officers are law-enforcement professionals who place community safety as their primary mission.

Board records are confidential All information, both oral and written, received
by the Board in the performance of its duty and which is not public record elsewhere, and was not obtained in a public Board hearing, is classified as confidential state secret unless declassified by resolution of the Board. Confidential information can include investigative and supervisory reports, and recommendations for and against clemency.
What are the conditions of parole? An inmate granted a release by the Board
must abide by several conditions. Violation of any condition may result in arrest and parole revocation. Standard conditions of parole, which apply to all parolees, include following all instructions from the parole officer, gainfully working, abiding by all laws, remaining in Georgia, receiving permission to change address, paying any court-ordered child support, paying a parole supervision fee or a victim compensation fee, and, if applicable, paying restitution. Parolees may not own or use a gun or other deadly weapon.
In addition, the Board may impose special conditions appropriate to the individual case, such as drug and alcohol treatment, mental health counseling, prohibitions on travel or associations, bans on driving, or compliance with electronic monitoring procedures. Sex offenders, in addition to abiding by legally mandated registration with local sheriffs and school officials, are, if paroled, under stringent conditions which include regular polygraph examinations.
Georgia's award-winning Results Driven Supervision model encompasses strict supervision with focused intervention programming to alter criminal behavior. Parolees are placed on "tracks" of improvement in areas of education, substance abuse recovery, employment, and cognitive skills. Utilizing agencycreated training and existing community services, the comprehensive intervention does not add financial burden to taxpayers.

Parole notifications Prior to reviewing any inmate for parole, the
Board notifies and actively solicits comments from the prosecuting district attorney. If the Board reviews a case prior to the automatic consideration date, it notifies the sentencing judge and, again, the district attorney of the county where the inmate was sentenced so they may express their views. The Board also notifies those victims who have completed a Victim Impact Statement.
After the Board issues a parole order, a notice of parole is sent to the presiding judge, district attorney, sheriff of the county of conviction, and sheriff and police chief of the county and community in which the parolee will reside. The Board also notifies the victim if a Victim Impact Statement has been filed with the Board and the offense was a crime again the person, or if a victim of any crime requests notification.

To visit the Board Anyone wishing to speak with a Board repre-
sentative on behalf of an inmate may come to the Board's central office in Atlanta on the second Tuesday of each month, except holidays, between 8:15 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. No appointment is needed. Board representatives also conduct a visitors' day once a month in the Albany, Augusta, Macon, and Savannah parole offices. Please contact the Parole Board at 404-656-5712 to learn the scheduled dates of these meetings, which can vary.
To check on the status of a case By calling 404-657-9350, entering the prison
identification number of an offender, and following the voice menu directions, callers can learn where the case stands in the parole decision or supervision process.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles is an integral component of Georgia's criminal justice system. Like other law enforcement agencies it seeks to protect citizens from harm. To this end, the Board denies parole to dangerous, hardened, or otherwise undeserving inmates while enforcing strict parole conditions for those it does release. But the Board's vision must include long-range community safety as well. For this reason it provides paroled offenders with life coping techniques, employment training, and practical and formal education to aid their readjustment to society not only during the parole period, but afterward -- when all sentences have been served and no judicial or correctional restraints guide their behavior. For more information:

Telephone: 404-656-5651
Web site: www.pap.state.ga.us
State Board of Pardons and Paroles Floyd Veterans Memorial Building 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE Suite 458 East, Atlanta, GA 30334

Board Members: Walter S. Ray, Chairman -- Bobby K. Whitworth Garfield Hammonds, Jr. -- Dr. Betty Ann Cook -- Dr. Eugene P. Walker 2001 State Board of Pardons and Paroles -- Office of Public Information