Parole Reform
As incarceration rates increase, parole has become a critical mechanism for controlling Alabama’s bulging prison population. In the early 1990s, a significant portion of Alabama’s prisoners were paroled, but in the past decade parole grants plummeted even as prison overcrowding reached crisis proportions.
The Attorney General’s Office opposes nearly all parole grants and has even pressured Parole Board members into rescinding parole determinations.
Stringent parole conditions and a lack of support for those re-entering the community have created a high recidivism rate among parolees, who face – among significant obstacles to employment and housing – a complex and time-consuming process to achieve restoration of their right to vote. Alabama has one of the highest disenfrancisement rates in the United States.
News
EJI Challenges Homelessness and Permanent Punishment Caused by Alabama's Community Notification Act
November 18, 2009EJI is working to assist people who have been forced into homelessness, denied critical medical care, and subjected to permanent imprisonment as a result of Alabama's Community Notification Act.
Alabama Leads Nation in Sentencing Black Kids to Life Imprisonment
July 27, 2009A national study found that more prisoners today are serving life sentences across the country than ever before. Alabama ranks among the top three states for number of life sentences imposed and is the national leader in racially disproportionate sentencing of children to life in prison.
State of Alabama Pardons Former EJI Client Mack Kirby
July 17, 2009On July 8, 2009, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a formal pardon for former prisoner Mack Kirby. The Board’s decision, which was unanimous, restores Mr. Kirby’s voting rights and ends his parole supervision.
Terminally Ill Man Released Under New Medical Furlough Bill
June 3, 2009The Alabama Department of Corrections granted its first medical furlough to Omar Rahman under a new law that allows for release of some geriatric, incapacitated, or terminally ill prisoners.
U.S. Supreme Court to Address Judicial Ethics Amid Succession of Judicial Misconduct Scandals Nationwide
February 25, 2009The United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in Caperton v. Massey about whether West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin violated the Constitution when he cast the deciding vote in favor of his campaign contributors, who spent $3 million to get him elected to the appellate court.