This study examines the response of the Colorado Board of Parole to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To mitigate the spread of the virus within correctional facilities, it increased the parole grant rate, expedited case review, and utilized special…
This report examines the challenges and opportunities that states faced in deciding whether to release people from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on the legal mechanisms available to jurisdictions and the factors that…
In response to the global pandemic in 2020, states and the federal government began to make non-routine releases from prison in order to reduce prison populations to allow for social distancing in prison facilities. This report is aimed at…
For most individuals who receive a prison sentence, the amount of time they will serve in prison is somewhat unpredictable because of officials’ discretionary capacity to exercise “back-end” release decisions, including parole release…
“Indeterminacy” is the product of uncertainty, after a judge has pronounced a prison sentence, about later official decisions that will influence the actual time served by the defendant. The uncertainty extends over many future decisions,…
Indeterminacy in prison sentences refers to the unpredictability of the actual length of time that will be served in prison compared to the length of the sentence pronounced by the judge. It reflects the degree to which back-end…
The Prison Release: Degrees of Indeterminacy Project state reports provide an overview of how each state approaches prison-release discretion and the relationship between rules for prison release and prison population size. We evaluate the…
Paroling authorities play an important, if often unrecognized role, in American prison policies. Discretionary parole processes decide the actual release dates for most individuals subject to confinement in 34 states. Additional leverage…
The Profiles in Parole Release and Revocation: Examining the Legal Framework in the United States examine the legal and statutory framework of state and federal parole release decision-making processes.
Nearly one million people are released or supervised under conditions established by state paroling authorities each year. The appointed members of those paroling authorities determine whether and when individuals are released from prison…
