MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s parole grant rate for eligible inmates has climbed to 20.4% through May, marking its highest level since 2019 according to a new report. The increase comes amid growing public and legal pressure following years of declining parole approvals.
While Leigh Gwathney, chair of the Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles, declined to comment to Alabama Daily News as to why the parole grant rates had increased, advocates for reforming the parole board argue that calls from the public as well as litigation are key reasons.
“I just want to assure you that what you’re doing is making a huge difference,” said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, recently to family members of incarcerated Alabamians.
England’s comments were made during a recent public hearing of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee where inmates’ families called for the state to reform its prison system, which remains among the most crowded and violent in the nation.
One chokepoint of Alabama’s overcrowded prisons, critics have said, has been the state’s low parole grant rates, which decreased from 53% in 2018 to just 8% in 2023.
“That’s why I kept saying over and over again, don’t stop; put more pressure, be more aggressive, call folks, because it is working,” England recently told ADN.
One of the more high-profile lawsuits against the state regarding its prison system names the parole board directly, and accuses the body of acting discriminatorily in its decision making process, as well as maintaining a low release rate to ensure a large supply of prison laborers.
The Alabama Department of Corrections has declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit. Lauren Faraino, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, has, like England, attributed the board’s rising parole rates directly to mounting public and legal pressure.
“This case is already having an effect on the parole board’s practices, as the board is aware of increased scrutiny,” Faraino told ADN in June.
The most recent report on parole decisions from the state shows that in May, the parole board granted parole at a rate of 25%, the single-highest monthly parole grant rate so far of the fiscal year, which begins in October.
Another statistic that saw improvement was the rate at which inmates given a low-risk assessment were granted parole.
In the aforementioned lawsuit, plaintiffs, which include current and former inmates, alleged that the parole board was granting parole at higher rates to moderate-risk inmates when compared to those assessed as low risk to retain inmates better suited for the state’s prison labor program, which often contracts with fast food establishments like McDonald’s and Burger King.
In fiscal year 2023, the parole board granted parole to low-risk inmates at a rate of 8% compared to 11% for moderate-risk inmates.
Now two-thirds into the current fiscal year, however, and that disparity has shrunk, with low-risk inmates being granted parole at a rate of 20% compared to 23% for moderate-risk inmates.
One statistic that did not improve, however, was the racial disparity among inmates who were granted parole, another significant component in the lawsuit against the state.
In the state’s report on paroles from October of 2022 to May of 2023, Black inmates had been granted parole at a rate of 7% compared to 9% for white inmates.
In the new report for the current fiscal year, which also covers data from October to May, Black inmates were granted parole at a rate of 15% compared to 26% for white inmates.
In total, the board granted parole to 379 inmates so far this fiscal year as of May, denying 1,475, a significantly higher rate than the 206 granted parole and 2,456 denied as of May during the previous fiscal year.