Parole Board

A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand. A related concept is the board of pardons and paroles, which may deal with pardons and commutations as well as paroles.

A parole board consists of people qualified to make judgements about the suitability of a prisoner for return to free society. Members may be judges, psychiatrists, or criminologists, although some jurisdictions do not have written qualifications for parole board members and will allow community members to serve in that capacity. A universal requirement is that the candidate for membership has to be of good moral fiber.

In the United Kingdom parole board members are also drawn from a wider circle of professions. The boards typically makes a judgement about whether a prisoner will affect public safety if released, but do not form an opinion about whether the initial sentencing was appropriate. The boards are non-departmental public bodies respectively of the UK government (Parole Board for England and Wales), the Scottish Government (Parole Board for Scotland), and the Northern Ireland Executive (Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland).

There are 52 parole boards in operation in the United States. Some states require all members to possess a four year degree, while others do not. Each state has a different requirement for parole board appointment.

On the federal level and in the District of Columbia, there is no longer parole. The United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines (enacted in 1987) discontinued parole for those convicted of federal crimes for offenses committed after November 1, 1987. This truth in sentencing legislation requires federal prisoners to serve 85 percent of their sentences. The United States Parole Commission remains the parole board for those who committed a federal offense before November 1, 1987, as well as those who committed a D.C. Code offense before August 5, 2000, a Uniform Code of Military Justice offense and are parole-eligible, and persons who are serving prison terms imposed by foreign countries and have been transferred to the United States to serve their sentence.

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