Yale Law School clinic report looks at "Parole Revocation in Connecticut: Opportunities to Reduce Incarceration"
A helpful reader alerted me to this new report released by The Criminal Justice Clinic at Yale Law School. This press release from the school's website provides some background and a kind of summary of the report, which carries the title "Parole Revocation in Connecticut: Opportunities to Reduce Incarceration":
A new report highlights opportunities for the State of Connecticut to reduce the high rate of incarceration attributable to its parole revocation process. The report was written by the Samuel Jacobs Criminal Justice Clinic (“CJC”) at Yale Law School.
The report details the findings of a research project that began in the fall of 2015 after Governor Dannel Malloy announced the Second Chance Society initiative. To support that initiative, CJC agreed to undertake a study of parole revocation in Connecticut to explore ways to reduce incarceration and to facilitate the reintegration of parolees into society....
As part of the CJC study, students and faculty personally observed 49 parole revocation hearings in Connecticut in November 2015. Shortly after these observations, they reported the following findings to state officials:
- The Board of Pardons and Paroles (BOPP) revoked parole in 100% of the observed cases.
- BOPP imposed a prison sanction in 100% of observed cases.
- Nearly all parolees in the observed cases waived their due process rights in the parole revocation process.
- No parolee appeared with appointed counsel, even though several parolees seemed clearly to qualify for state-provided counsel under the constitutional standard.
- The typical procedures at parole revocation hearings made it difficult for parolees to contest disputed facts or to present mitigating evidence. Without counsel, incarcerated parolees did not have a meaningful opportunity to develop evidence in support of their claims.
In 2016, CJC administered a follow-up survey to parolees whose hearings it had observed. The survey revealed that most parolees did not understand the rights that they had waived during the parole revocation process. The survey also revealed that 79% of the parolees interviewed had lost jobs as a consequence of parole revocation....
Over the last two years, BOPP has begun to implement reforms to its parole revocation practices in response to the CJC study. In 2017, BOPP asked that CJC present additional recommendations in writing, which led to the release of this report.
Comments
Post a Comment