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Alabama lawmakers advanced a bill on Wednesday that would introduce oversight of the state’s parole board, which has drawn attention for its historically low parole approval rates.
The House Judiciary Committee approved HB40, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D- Tuscaloosa. It moved to the full House of Representatives for consideration, passing the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon with 8 votes in favor, 6 opposed and one abstaining.
The bill would create the Criminal Justice Policy Development Council to oversee the development of parole release guidelines. The three-member parole board would continue to decide whether inmates are granted parole, but they would be required to provide a written explanation whenever they deviate from their established guidelines.
The inmate could also appeal any deviations from the guidelines in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
“Over the years, I’ve said that this bill does not take away the discretion of the board itself. If you’ve been paying any attention to the news recently, you know the board has no oversight,” England said.
In 2019, the board was tasked with taking two years years of data to determine if the currently guidelines for parole were adequate. England reiterated that despite multiple attempts to request this data, nothing has been reported to the legislature.
At a recent Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting, Alabama Parole Board Chairperson Leigh Gwathney spoke and admitted to changing some of the scoresheets for inmates, and England said on Wednesday that regardless of what changes were made, those alterations make the scoresheets unusable for collecting data they’ve been seeking.
“I think it’s a recognition that the current Parole Board and the process itself is broken,” England said.
Alabama’s parole rate has dramatically dropped in recent years. In 2018, 53 percent of inmates were granted parole after hearings, but that number fell to a historic low of 8 percent in 2023. The parole rate rebounded slightly to around 20 percent in 2024.
“So at this point, the oversight is necessary because while you may agree with the results… there may be a point in the future where you don’t agree with the result and it’s been made quite plainly by the actions of the current board that there’s nothing that we can do regardless,” England said.
Updates to the inmate classification system, which is used by the prisons, the guidelines and risk assessment would be completed by October 2027 under the current version of the bill. The council would stand dissolved at the beginning of 2028.
