The rate of paroles granted to state prison inmates by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles dropped to 15% during the last fiscal year, the third straight year of decline.
The three-member board granted parole for 648 inmates and turned down 3,584 during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
The approval rate for the year was less than half the average of 37% for the previous 10 years.
The rate began to fall sharply after Jimmy O’Neal Spencer was charged with killing two women and a child in Guntersville in July 2018, eight months after he was paroled.
Critics of the decline in paroles say the board is not following its guidelines and not giving enough information about why it denies parole.
“It only took the one bad apple to have really changed this in the direction of lock them up, throw away the key,” said Aimee Smith, an attorney who has represented clients before the board for about 20 years.
Black inmates are being granted parole less than half as often as white inmates.
(You can see the parole board’s statistical report at the end of this story.)
The leader of an advocacy group for crime victims says the low approval rate reflects a prison population with 83% of inmates serving time for violent crimes.
“I mean, there are some horrible, horrible crimes and unless you sit there each and every day, and listen to all of them, you don’t realize how violent these people are,” said Janette Grantham, state director of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL). “And when we let one of them out, they’re going to go live next door to somebody.”
The board has reduced the rate of pardons it grants even more sharply than paroles. In fiscal year 2021, the board granted 27% of pardon applications, down from 79% two years earlier.
People who have completed their sentences can apply for a pardon to help get a job or occupational license or to regain certain rights like voting and owning a firearm.
The parole board, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, has full discretion over whether to grant paroles and pardons.
Inmates don’t appear at their parole hearings, held at the board’s headquarters in Montgomery. Lawyers, relatives, and other advocates for inmates can speak to the board. Those opposed to parole, including prosecutors, victims and relatives, and victims’ advocates, can also speak. The board huddles privately after each hearing, then announces its decision.
While board members have full discretion, there has been some effort to develop objective standards.
In July 2020, the board revised its parole guidelines to “ensure the consistent review of certain common decisional factors for all offenders.”
The guidelines assign a score to parole candidates based on factors such as seriousness of the offense, risk of reoffending, discipline record in prison, participation in programs, and others. Institutional parole officers interview the inmates and prepare the reports.
Scores of 0 to 7 suggest parole should be granted, while 8 or more suggest denial.
If the board made its decisions based only on the guidelines, many more paroles would be granted.
In fiscal year 2021, the guidelines recommended parole for 76% of inmates who were up for consideration. The board followed the guidelines only 39% of the time.
Cam Ward, a former state senator who is director of the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, which oversees supervision of parolees and probationers, said the board is not required to follow the guidelines.
“It is kind of disheartening if they’re not following their own guidelines,” Ward said. “They’re within the law because the law is so flexible on how they get to make those determinations. But I would hope that if they’re going to have these guidelines, you follow the guidelines.”
Ward said it would take legislation to give more weight to the guidelines.
“That’s the answer to those who are saying we just have such a low parole rate,” Ward said. “The answer is then you’ve got to have some more structure in place. So make it have teeth in those guidelines.”
The bureau is collecting data on the guidelines and plans to evaluate their effectiveness next year, according to the bureau’s statistical report.
“After validation of the guidelines, more information will be available on the actual predictive nature of this tool and therefore revisions may be necessary,” the report says.
State Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who is chair of the state Democratic Party, has been a critic of the board because of the decline in the parole rate and because of the racial disparity in paroles and pardons granted. Last fiscal year, 23% of white inmates considered for parole were approved, but only 9% of Black inmates.
England said he would support legislation that would make the parole board guidelines presumptive, which means the board would apply them or explain why it did not.
“Once you deviate from them, you have to give a reason why,” England said. “I think that’s very simple, in the sense that it would give some confidence in the system so people within it can have a better idea of what it takes to get relief. And also people outside of it have a better understanding of the decision-making process that they go through in order to reach their decisions. Because right now, I think it’s anybody’s guess.”
The parole board chair is Leigh Gwathney, a former deputy district attorney in Jefferson County and former assistant state attorney general. Associate board members are Dwayne Spurlock, a former federal probation officer, and Darryl Littleton, a former state trooper and executive security officer for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
For months, England has called for Gwathney to be replaced, saying he believes the board’s decision-making has grown worse since Gov. Kay Ivey appointed her in October 2019.
Earlier this year, Gwathney declined to respond to England’s call for her to be replaced. For this story, the board’s communications director did not respond to emails seeking comment about the parole rate and requesting an interview with Gwathney.
England sent AL.com statistics from the board showing a racial disparity in the number of pardons granted by the board, as well as the number of paroles.
Since November 2019, the board has considered about 4,700 requests for pardons, with approximately an equal number of white and Black applicants. The board has awarded pardons to 28% of white applicants and 18% of Black applicants.
“People talk to me all the time and say the paroles are about public safety,” England said. “But if that’s the case, then please explain to me how a racial disparity exists in pardons.”
To receive consideration for a pardon, an applicant must have completed their sentence or at least three successful years on probation. Applicants must cooperate with an investigation of their criminal history, personal and social history, and the circumstances of the crime. A pardon hearing is scheduled only after the investigation is finished.
England said those who successfully navigate that process should receive pardons. But the board is turning down 70% of white applicants and more than 80% of Black applicants.
“If a person has done everything necessary to be eligible for a pardon, then that should be more of a rubber stamp, a process that goes around the current parole board,” England said. “Nobody in the system is trying to get a pardon just because they want to frame it and put it on their wall. They’re trying to get a pardon because they want to vote. They’re trying to get a pardon because they want to get their gun rights restored. They’re trying to get a pardon because they’re trying to get a job. So, why would the state of Alabama stand in your way? But more specifically, why would the state of Alabama stand in your way because of your skin color?”
England said he supports legislation to create a second parole board to relieve a backlog of parole and pardon cases. Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, proposed that bill this year, but it did not pass.
Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles legislation on the parole board, sentencing, and other criminal justice issues. Whatley, who works in the private sector as an attorney, represented an inmate before the parole board last summer.
“I know that parole granting has dropped considerably in the last few years,” Whatley said. “But that’s not to say that wasn’t what needed to happen. Each case is individual upon itself.”
In July, the board denied parole for Whatley’s client, Patrick Barnes of Montgomery, who had served 10 years of a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter in 2010 for a drunk-driving crash that killed Renota Tyus, who was 21 and a father of two. It was the third parole hearing for Barnes, who has spent several years at the Childersburg work release center, working private sector jobs before the pandemic struck.
Tyus’ teenage son told the board members how his father’s death had affected him and his sister and asked the board to deny parole. Tyus’ mother, Carolyn Tyus, a victims services officer for the Montgomery County DA’s office, stood by her grandson as he spoke.
The board unanimously denied parole for Barnes in July and set his next hearing for 2026, the maximum five-year time between hearings.
A report prepared by an institutional parole officer for a 2019 hearing described Barnes as a model inmate and recommended parole. The report said he had completed eight prison programs, such as for substance abuse, career readiness, and reentry.
“He has accomplished everything that has been asked of him since he’s been incarcerated,” Barnes’ father, Pat Barnes, said.
“The message that’s coming from the Pardons and Paroles Board to the inmates is it doesn’t make any difference what you do, how good you are, how well you act, the things that you accomplish,” Pat Barnes said. “You’re not going to be paroled. It’s just not going to happen. And so, it really is just a bad message that’s being sent out there. That message of no hope.”
Grantham, the director of VOCAL, a non-profit organization established in 1982 to help crime victims, said the group opposes parole for violent offenders, sex offenders, and those who have harmed a child or elderly person.
Grantham, whose brother, Coffee County Sheriff Neil Grantham was murdered by a former jail inmate in 1979, refers to statistics on Alabama’s prison population from the Alabama Sentencing Commission to help make her point that public safety is the reason for the low parole rate.
Almost 5,000 of the approximately 18,000 inmates in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections are serving time for murder or manslaughter.
“I take that very serious because you can restore most everything and make a victim whole but you cannot get back a person that’s been murdered,” Grantham said.
(You can see the report on the prison population from the Alabama Sentencing Commission at the end of this story.)
One of the women that prosecutors say Spencer killed in 2018 was Martha Dell Reliford, 65, a VOCAL member, Grantham said. Spencer is also charged in the deaths of Marie Kitchens Martin, 74, and Martin’s great-grandson, Colton Ryan Lee, 7. His murder trial is set for Jan. 10, 2022.
Spencer had a long criminal record, including three convictions for escape, when he was paroled.
“This is why dangerous people need to be in prison,” Grantham said. “We can’t get those lives back.”
Smith, the attorney who regularly represents inmates seeking parole, said she’s concerned that inmates who have been in prison for many years are not getting a fair review because of the seriousness of their original offense. Smith believes there is a pattern of automatically denying inmates with Class A felonies, the most serious level, and setting their next hearing at the maximum time span of five years.
“I’ve had several who were absolutely qualified good candidates. And I hated it because I knew they would be denied just because they had a class A in their past,” Smith said.
Smith said there are inmates serving long sentences who were convicted before the sentencing guidelines adopted in 2013 brought more uniformity statewide.
“I think there are a lot of people still in there serving these really long sentences that probably now would not have that same sentence,” Smith said.
Alabama lawmakers have proposed bills to allow inmates sentenced before the 2013 guidelines to apply to the courts where they were convicted for new sentences, but those bills have not passed.
Grantham points out that parole is not the only way Alabama releases inmates before the end of their sentences. Judges impose split sentences, which require inmates to serve part of their time behind bars followed by a period on probation. Last year, more inmates were released on split sentences than on parole.
According to the Alabama Sentencing Commission, more than 10,000 inmates have been released from prison over each of the last three fiscal years. The proportion of those released on parole has declined, while the proportion released under split sentences has increased. In fiscal year 2020, split sentences accounted for 41% of prison releases, compared to 12% for paroles and 29% for inmates who completed their sentences. Another 18% were released for other reasons.
In October, Brian Lansing Martin was charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner and William Mealback Jr. in north Alabama. Martin had served a little more than three years of a 10-year sentence for manslaughter when he was released in 2016 under a law that allows inmates to receive “good time,” which is intended to credit inmates for avoiding disciplinary problems while in prison. The deadly consequences of Martin’s early release has raised questions from law enforcement, including Attorney General Steve Marshall who questioned how Martin qualified for early release.
Grantham said she hopes the board does not adopt a policy of relying more heavily on the guidelines.
“I mean, it’s going to be a sad place to live if we make the decision on the safety of our state based on a checkmark on a piece of paper,” Grantham said. “That’s just one of the tools. That’s not the only tool that they have to go by.”
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