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Since 2019, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles has been mired in controversy due to plummeting parole approval rates amidst an overcrowding crisis in Alabama prisons. Although parole approval rates began to see a slight increase in 2024, incarcerated people who appear to be prime candidates for parole continue to be denied despite meeting the board’s own standards.
In October 2024, the Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee grilled the parole board’s chair, Leigh Gwathney, in relation to the board’s low approval rates and inconsistencies. Committee Chair Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, was among the most outspoken critics of Gwathney and the board during the hearing.
“The [Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles] is saying they meet these criteria, and almost three-quarters of the time, the board says it doesn’t matter if they meet these criteria, we are not going to parole,” Chambliss said during the hearing. “It seems like one of the two needs to be adjusted to reality. And I don’t know which. I am just looking at it and trying to figure it out. You set the rules, the board sets the rules, they are called parole guidelines. I am having a hard time understanding conformance to your own rules.”
Now, Chambliss is attempting to restructure the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles through a new bill introduced this legislative session, SB324.
Currently, the board of paroles is composed of only three members with the board’s chair appointed by the governor. Under Chambliss’ bill, the board would be expanded to five members, with the board itself appointing the chair from among its members every even-numbered year.
The legislation would also require that at least two of the board’s members be former law enforcement officials with at least 10 years experience with a law enforcement agency. Currently, only one member of the board is required to have such qualifications.
Additionally, the bill creates a schedule for future parole considerations when the board denies parole to an incarcerated person.
“For inmates serving a sentence of 20 years or less for a conviction of a nonviolent offense” the board must reconsider their parole “no more than two years” after the initial parole request was denied. That timeline is set to no more than 10 years “for inmates serving a life sentence for one or more violent Class A felony offenses” and to no more than 180 days for cases of medical parole. In all other cases, the board would be required to reconsider an incarcerated person’s parole no more than 5 years after denial.
The governor would retain the responsibility of appointing members to the board, but members would have to be confirmed by the Senate before they begin serving. Senate confirmation is already required of parole board appointees, but under current law they may begin serving their terms before being confirmed or rejected by the Senate. Board members would continue to serve six-year terms under Chambliss’ bill.
SB324 is currently awaiting consideration by the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee.
