"Utah parole board wields power judiciously," is the title of Stephen Hunt's report in today's Salt Lake Tribune.
Members of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole would love to gaze into an inmate's future before releasing him back onto the streets.
"I wish we had a crystal ball, but all we have is good hard-headed common sense and a sensitivity to human nature," said Curtis Garner, board chairman.
The five board members -- two of them new this year and all lawyers with experience in the criminal justice system -- also have each other.
"A real strength is our ability to run thoughts and ideas past each other," Garner said.
Even though they make thousands of life-changing decisions every year, board members work largely in obscurity.
Current fiscal woes, however, have generated new respect for the parole board's role.
"In past years, the board has been a footnote in the discussions of state government," Garner said. "That is less and less so these days.
"The board has come to be seen as a relief valve for population problems at the prison."
In 2001, the board agreed to free more than 200 inmates up to nine months early to reduce overcrowding. Another mass release projected for 2010 was averted when lawmakers this year found funds to expand the Gunnison Prison.
Meanwhile, the board "builds bed-space sensitivity" into each decision by asking, "Who most needs to be in those beds," Garner said.
And:
The board members wield plenty of power, and they know it.
In Utah, judges hand down indefinite, or so-called indeterminate, sentences, such as zero to five years, one to 15 years and five years to life. It is the parole board that decides how long inmates actually spend behind bars.
Garner stressed that inmates are not entitled to a release date. "They have to earn it," he said.
The board has the same information judges do at the time of sentencing, and records and reports of everything an inmate does -- both good and bad -- while at prison.
"Public safety is the first concern, tempered by an equal concern for fairness to the inmate," Garner said. "We could keep the public safety by locking everyone up forever. But that would be wrong."
It would also be impossible since the state prison has only 6,700 beds, including space leased from county jails.
The board conducts about 4,500 in-person hearings a year. That equates to 4,500 inmates telling the board: "I take full responsibility for my actions."
"They all say it," Garner said. "We joke about it."
Garner added: "We get lied to a lot. We know that.
"But you can't become completely jaded. People do change and you need to be open to that possibility."
In fact, Garner said, statistics show that most inmates who come into the system at the age of 20, are out by the age of 40 and don't come back.
Yeates said an inmate's actions often speak louder -- and more honestly -- than his or her words.
"We look at programming," said Yeates, referring to substance-abuse counseling, sex-offender therapy and enrollment in high school and college classes. "What are they doing beyond their words?"
Harms said that one of the beauties of Utah's indeterminate sentencing system is that decisions are made with the passage of time.
"A judge doesn't know how an inmate will behave or how a victim will feel over time," Harms said. "We have that benefit."
Related posts are in the clemency category index. The 2005 report The Role of Mercy: Safegaurding Texas Justice Through Clemency Reform, examined best practices in executive clemency. The Appendix of The Role of Mercy contains comparative state information.
Role of Mercy was issued by Texas Appleseed and the Texas Innocence Network.
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