MONTGOMERY — Outcry in Alabama continued for three weeks after inmates and their families and friends protested inhumane living conditions and an unjust parole process.

Inmates went on strike at many prisons in the state, boycotting their jobs in kitchens and cleaning, essential functions of the prisons. The strike ended Oct. 17, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.

But Democrat State Sen. Bobby Singleton said a bill he sponsored earlier this year, if it had been approved in the Alabama legislature, likely could have helped concerns concerning the parole process.

SB 215 would provide guidelines for which the three-member parole board — whom are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate — can grant or deny and inmate parole, though attempts in prior sessions were unsuccessful.

“This legislation would set up steps for (the parole board) to have to go through,” Singleton explained. “It’s not necessarily something that they’re mandated to do. But what we do is ask them to look at what has the inmate been like since they’ve been in. … We also want them to look at the victim and the victim’s family. We also want them to ensure that there’s a full understanding of the case and where we are now is that parolee’s life so we’re not retrying the case all over again. We want them to be able to be judged for where they are now, versus for where they were at the time that they committed the crime.”

The parole release guidelines, per the bill, “shall assess”:

• The prisoner’s risk to reoffend, based upon a validated risk and needs assessment, as defined in Section 12-25-32.

• Progress by the prisoner in complying with the Department of Corrections’ plan for reentry.

• Input from the victim(s), the family of the victims, prosecutors, and law enforcement entities.

• Participation in risk-reduction programs while incarcerated.

• Institutional behavior of the prisoner while incarcerated.

• Severity of the underlying offense for which the prisoner was sentenced to incarceration.

• Any interview or statement from the prisoner.

Currently, the parole board isn’t required to follow specific guidelines, however, the board adopted a baseline scoring criteria in 2020 to help inform its decisions. The guidelines were created “ensure the consistent review of certain common decisional factors for all offenders.” The scoring weighs severity of offense, risk assessments, disciplinary actions while incarcerated, participation risk-reducing programs and treatment, and stakeholder input.

“(The inmates) would have done everything that’s been asked of them of the parole board: make sure you stay clean … commit no other crimes while you’re in … get into certain programs … get into drug programs … get into welding … all the certificates that they can that will allow them to be able to be functional once they step outside the prison, and they still get denied,” Singleton said. “And what we’re seeing from that is some of these inmates that are getting denied and because of the rage that they go through after being a model prisoner and they still get denied, they go back and commit other crimes on other inmates while they’re there, because of the rage based on the fact that they got denied their parole.”

Since 2018, the rate of parole has dropped drastically.

In fiscal year 2017-18, that rate was 54%, with 3,732 of 6,996 parole cases granted, according to an Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Parole report. The rate dropped significantly in the following years, with parole granted in 31% of cases in FY 2018-19 and 20% granted in FY 2019-20. Of the 4,232 parole hearings the board heard in 2021, only 648 cases, or 15%, were granted parole.

According to an AP analysis of parole cases in Alabama, Black inmates are being granted parole less than half as often as white inmates Last fiscal year, 23% of white inmates were approved for parole compared to only 9% of Black inmates.

Singleton said the 2019 murder of Aniah Blanchard resulted in the parole board becoming less lenient with granting parole. Blanchard had been abducted from an Auburn gas station and murdered by a man who was out on bond for kidnapping and murder at the time.

“The state of Alabama did something totally reactionary and decided to shut down all paroles based off that,” Singleton said. “Our parole board at that time were only paroling very, very few people. and a number of people were applying for parole and there were no paroles happening. So we decided to come up with some guidelines and look at how guidelines are looked at and how the parole board should look at them and make sure that we put a commission in place to look at that process.”

SB 215 was read twice in the senate but was indefinitely postponed. Singleton said while the state has made some progress on sentencing reform, such as cutting back on prison time for convictions for small amounts of marijuana possession, there’s still a long way to go.

Singleton supports life without parole sentences, and instead maximum impose 30-year maximum sentences.

“We’ve got people in our prison that are 70, 80 years old and that are no threat to anyone that could definitely be released,” Singleton said. “I think that we just need to deal with that whole question of how long we’re holding folks in prison. and the fact is are we at the state of Alabama, doing anything to actually rehabilitate them?”

He suggested that the prisons document rehab participation of inmates to better help parole boards make decisions.

Southern Poverty Law Center representatives accused the state of refusing to prioritize parole and sentencing reform that would decrease the population in prisons that are already overcrowded.

“People are dying in the system right now because Alabama is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus money to build mega-prisons, but won’t prioritize parole, early release of nonviolent offenders and other reforms that could make this situation better,” said Jerome Dees, Alabama policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Until officials listen to those inside our prisons and begin to address the real problem of severe overcrowding, dangerous conditions will continue. Incarcerated people will continue to suffer in prison,” Dees continued. “This strike, as shown by its widespread nature, demonstrates the understandable frustration of those incarcerated and their desire to be heard.”

The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles did not respond to CNHI’s interview request.