The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles could soon be required to take an incarcerated person’s employment history within the system and their low risk to reoffend into parole decisions.
While many bipartisan bills pass out of the House with little to no objection from either side, bipartisan bills over significant Republican rejection are rare. HB86 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, is one of those rare bills, gaining support from both Republicans and Democrats despite 23 Republicans—about a third of the party’s supermajority—voting against the bill.
The bill would require the Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider an inmate’s employment history while incarcerated when considering parole decisions, and the bill also encourages the board to consider an offender’s low risk to reoffend.
At the start of the day, the bill required the board to consider the reoffense risk, but Rep. David Faulkner, R-Montgomery, brought an amendment requested by the state’s district attorney’s to allow them to overlook the risk assessment if the board so chooses.
England has brought parole reform bills every session for years as the board has been under increased scrutiny for low parole approval rates that diverge from the recommendations of its own guidelines. One of the variables that has caused backlash is the denial of parole to inmates who already work outside the confines of the facility and are effectively considered safe enough to be in the outside world for most of the day while being required to return to prison at night.
The prison system as a whole has reached a new level of public spotlight as well, with the HBO documentary “The Alabama Solution” chronicling the poor conditions inside the system’s walls using contraband cell phone footage from inmates themselves. The documentary is nominated for an Academy Award, which will be decided in three weeks.
