'No one has an answer': Racial disparities accelerated in Alabama parole grants for 2020, 2021

The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles has slowed its parole grant rate in recent years, and existing racial disparities in parole grants have accelerated. 

Data collected by the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles shows parole grants for Black applicants dropping at a much faster rate in 2020 and 2021 than for whites. The statistics have taken center stage in a fight over legislation aimed at getting the Board to explain its decisions and improve oversight of decisions. 

"If you're a Black (parole) applicant, your white counterparts are two times more likely to get paroled," Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, the bill's sponsor, said at a Wednesday press conference.

In 2019, 34% of Black applicants were granted parole and 36% of white applicants received it, according to statistics compiled by the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. In 2020, just 16% of Black applicants received parole, while 29% of white applicants did so. In 2021, the number of Black applicants getting parole fell to 8%.

Cam Ward, the director of the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, said Wednesday there had been racial disparities in pardons going back to 1999, the first year with data available, but said the increase in 2020 and 2021 was notable.

Ward said, "No one has an answer," on the disparities, which he said could reflect deeper issues in the system, from arrests to convictions.  

"Every single state is dealing with the same disparities," he said. "No one has an answer."

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Through a spokesman, Leigh Gwathney, chair of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, declined comment on Thursday. The Alabama Attorney General's Office, which opposes England's bill, said in a statement Thursday that the statistics were irrelevant without a survey of the crimes committed.

"These statistics, presented without any of the relevant context — the seriousness of the crimes for which the individuals were convicted, their records in prison, their time served, et cetera — would be irresponsible to use to imply prejudice in parole grants," the statement said. "Race is not a criteria for parole consideration."

Alabama changed its parole process in 2019 after a prisoner, mistakenly classified as low risk, was paroled. The prisoner, Jimmy Spencer, was later charged with murder in the deaths of three people, including a 7-year-old, during a robbery spree. Since the changes and the appointment of Gwathney, a former prosecutor, to the board, parole grants have plummeted. According to a report last year from the ACLU's Campaign for Smart Justice, parole denials went from 46% in 2017 to 84% through 2021. 

Families of incarcerated individuals who spoke at the press conference on Wednesday expressed frustration over what they called an arbitrary process, saying their loved ones had followed guidance for getting released, only to see the board reject them without explanation. David Files Sr., whose son David was convicted in 2006 on a murder charge, said his son was denied parole despite completing classes and compiling a strong behavioral record. 

"I don't understand why the Parole Board sets up these things for an inmate to meet," Files Sr. said. "And in David's case, all the requirements are put in place, and then the Parole Board says it doesn't matter."

England's bill would create a Criminal Justice Policy Development Council that would update inmate classifications and create parole guidelines for the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The council would also develop risk assessments for inmates who have committed felonies. 

The council would have to send the proposals to the Board of Pardons and Paroles by Oct. 1, 2024. Under the bill, the Board would have to adopt guidelines for parole that would include the severity of the crime; input from victims; the prisoner's risk of reoffending; compliance with re-entry efforts; behavior within the prison and statements from the prisoner. 

If the Board did not follow the guidelines, it would have to explain why. The bill would also give an inmate denied parole by the board the chance to appeal the decision to Montgomery Circuit Court. A judge would rule on the appeal, without a jury.

The bill was scheduled for a vote on the House floor on Tuesday. England pulled it after what he described as a lobbying campaign by prosecutors against the bill. 

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Tuesday that "we should absolutely expect and demand that parole rates decline," citing the high percentage of inmates in Alabama prisons convicted of committing violent crimes.  

"This bill is highly problematic in that it would undermine the Board’s independence — a hard-fought victory of the 2019 reforms — and make it more difficult for the Board to deny parole," the statement said. 

England said Wednesday that accepting the board's approach meant accepting the racial gap in paroles.

“If anybody out there, including the attorney general and the district attorneys out there, are telling you this is the way it’s supposed to be, you need to ask them to explain to you that all that independence, and all of that subjectivity, has created a racial disparity,” he said.

Ward and Barry Matson, the executive director of the Alabama District Attorneys Association, said in interviews this week that they opposed the idea of a council overseeing the Board. Ward said the Bureau is currently drafting its own new guidelines, as required under the 2019 changes. 

"He’s got good intentions, and I think he’s trying to make good changes," Ward said. "I’m not sure about the council idea."

Matson said he did not like the idea of one board supervising another board.

"That board could develop the rules and regulations to control the other board," he said. "This didn’t seem like a good plan."

From the floor of the Alabama House on Tuesday, England said that in the past year, seven inmates over the age of 80 were denied parole. Of the 64 people over the age of 70 who went before the board last year, only seven were granted parole, he said. 

"All the evidence we've seen is that the older you get, the less likely you are to re-offend," he said. But in our system, the older you get, the less likely you are to be released." 

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.