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Alabama’s parole grant rate continues to climb, though likely won’t eclipse 50%, director says

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama’s parole grant rate has continued to climb according to the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles’ latest monthly report, though is unlikely to ever eclipse the state’s peak parole grant rate of 55% without major reforms to state law, Director Cam Ward said recently.

The bureau’s latest report, which includes data for the month of July, shows that the Board of Pardons and Paroles granted parole to 21% of eligible inmates, bringing the average parole grant rate for the current fiscal year to 20.1%, the highest annual rate since 2019.

“My guess is by the end of this year, you’re probably looking at a 24% to 25% grant rate,” Ward told Alabama Daily News recently.

The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles’ parole grant rate through the month of July, 2024.

The board’s parole grant rate reached a peak of 55% in 2017 before a drop off every subsequent year; to 53% in 2018, 31% in 2019, 20% in 2020, 15% in 2021, 10% in 2022, and just 8% in 2023.

The steady decline has been attributed to several major reforms enacted in the last decade, including Senate Bill 67 in 2015, sponsored by Ward when he was a state senator, which introduced standardized risk and needs assessments that classified more inmates as high-risk, and thereby, less likely to be released on parole.

Additional reforms in 2019 to the parole board – along with the appointment of Leigh Gwathney as the board chair – have also been pointed to as contributing factors to the state’s shrinking parole grant rate.

Unless major reforms are made to state law, however, Ward said he doesn’t see the state releasing eligible inmates at 2017 levels ever again.

“I just don’t see it, unless there is some drastic change in the sentencing laws in how you deal with medical parole,” Ward said.

One lawmaker, Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, has made efforts to reform the parole board to increase its parole grant rate, having recently refiling a bill to mandate that the board follow its own parole guidelines, or to produce a report explaining any deviations.

Using inmate data such as risk assessments and behavioral history while incarcerated, the parole guidelines generate a recommended parole grant rate for any batch of eligible inmates over a set period of time.

July’s recommended parole grant rate, for instance, was 84%, despite the board granting parole to 21%.

Regarding England’s bill, Ward said that the board is already required to explain, in writing, why they denied parole to a particular inmate, but that he understood England’s intent with the proposal.

“What I think Rep. England wants is he wants to go into much more detail as to why, and I respect his position,” Ward told ADN. 

“But we as a bureau don’t take a position on any legislation dealing with their activity until such time the legislation impacts the reentry services we provide and the supervision we provide on my end.”

While the board’s parole grant rate through July of this fiscal year rose dramatically when compared to the same time last year, the disparity of inmates being released based on ethnicity or risk assessment grew.

From October 2023 – the beginning of the fiscal year – through July, white inmates were granted parole at a rate of 25% compared to Black inmates’ 16%.

For comparison, white inmates were granted parole at a rate of 6% compared to Black inmates’ 5% through July of 2023.

Inmates given a moderate risk assessment were also granted parole at higher rates than those with low risk assessments, though slightly less so when compared to the same time last year, a key complaint in a lawsuit against the state over its prison labor system, in which plaintiffs allege the board is intentionally denying parole to low-risk inmates to be used for prison labor.

Through July, inmates with a moderate risk assessment were granted parole at a rate of 23% when compared to low-risk inmates’ 22%. The same time last year, moderate-risk inmates were released at a rate of 7% to low-risk inmates’ 6%.

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