February 21, 2025
You've been released from jail and have met with your parole officer. He has given you a long list of conditions that will include where you can go and with whom you can meet. The list seems endless for many, and due to the panoply of conditions, at least one in ten people on parole are sent back to jail on technical violations...
June 21, 2024
According to Indiana statistics, roughly 26,000 Indiana inmates have been reincarcerated, not for committing a new crime, but rather for a "technical parole violation"—such as missing an appointment or failing a drug test. Some of these violations act like a trip-wire that sends reentrants back behind bars for seemingly minor infractions, actions that neither serve the public or the reentrant.
May 7, 2024
The 1994 Crime Bill with its "three strikes" mandatory life sentence fed the fire of mass incarceration and actually did little to reduce crime. There is strong criminological evidence that life prison terms, with or without parole, do little to improve public safety because eventually people "age out" of the statistical criminal age group. Could there be a 2nd chance for some?
March 7, 2024
Adjusting to a culture so different from living inside a prison or jail is no small thing and it takes time. Your loved one needs to get a license, or get a schedule with a parole agent, find a job, learn to help out around the house, and get used to his or her new life. Remember they've been told what to do for a long time, and won't want to be told much from you. Go gently, but firmly, and ask for their help.
August 7, 2023
For those who think that ex-offenders can't make a stunning comeback, I give you Charles Dutton. He was sentenced to five years for manslaughter in 1967 after a knife fight in which a man was killed. Out on parole, he was arrested on robbery and handgun charges and was sentenced to the Maryland Penitentiary for three more years. After a fight with a guard, another eight years was added to his sentence. During that time he spent six days in solitary confinement for refusing to clean toilets.
