- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
Parole in California is a period of supervision following release from prison. Persons who serve determinate sentences (set terms such as three years, five years, or seven years) are released on parole automatically after they complete their entire sentence. “Lifers,” persons serving indeterminate sentences (such as twenty-five years to life), are eligible for parole as well, but only after they are found “suitable” for parole. Those serving sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and those given a death sentence are not eligible.
Once a lifer is eligible for parole, the Board of Parole Hearings holds a formal hearing to determine suitability for parole. California law states that the Board shall grant parole unless overriding concerns for public safety exist.
- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
When a lifer is eligible for parole depends on a number of factors. Except for youthful offenders, elderly offenders, and those sentenced to life after a non-violent third-strike offense (discussed below), a lifer is eligible for release on parole after serving the numeric maximum term that the court imposed for all convictions. For a person serving a twenty-five-years-to-life term, for example, eligibility occurs after twenty-five years, less good time credit. This is called the person’s Minimum Parole Eligibility Date.
For persons who committed their crimes before reaching the age of 26 and who were given a life sentence, eligibility for Youthful Parole is as follows:
- If serving an indeterminate term of less than 25 years to life, during the 20th year of incarceration
- If serving an indeterminate term of greater than 25 years to life, during the 25th year of incarceration
A lifer may be eligible for Elderly Parole under California law when:
- The person reaches age 50 and has served 20 continuous years in prison, or
- The person reaches age 60 and has served 25 continuous years in prison
Finally, under California Proposition 57, most people serving an indeterminate term for a nonviolent third-strike offense are eligible for a hearing after completing the full term of the primary offense; that is, the maximum term applicable by statute to the underlying nonviolent offense.
Except for Youthful Parole, parole for lifers occurs only following a formal hearing by the Board of Parole Hearings in which a panel of the Board determines whether the inmate is “suitable” for parole. A modified process determines Youthful Parole, with great weight given to the youthfulness of the inmate at the time of the offense. Youthful Parole hearings are not covered by this article.
- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
In the sixth year prior to the inmate’s Minimum Eligible Parole Date, the Board holds a consultation hearing with the inmate in which the Board reviews the inmate’s record and makes recommendations to assist the person in selecting and participating in prison classes and programs to enhance the person’s chance of being found suitable for parole.
In the months before the hearing, the Board’s Forensic Assessment Division conducts a “Comprehensive Risk Assessment” to evaluates the person’s risk of committing future violent crimes: whether he or she is a low, moderate, or high risk of committing violent crimes compared to other lifers. While an inmate may refuse to participate in a Comprehensive Risk Assessment, which involves psychological and other evaluations, the refusal means that the Board will have only older data and prison records to go on to determine suitability for parole, often putting the inmate at a disadvantage.
At least 60 days before the hearing, the Board must provide the inmate with a “Master Packet,” which is all the information that the Board will consider in the lifer parole hearing to determine parole suitability. The Master Packet contains, among other documents:
- A case summary
- The inmate’s criminal history and the offense for which he or she was incarcerated
- Prison disciplinary records
- Documentation of participation in self-help programs, educational programs, work assignments, or other positive activities
- The Comprehensive Risk Assessment
- Letters in support of and in opposition to parole
The Board will also have access to the inmate’s “Central File,” which contains more extensive information about sentencing and prison programming and behavior than the documents in the Master Packet. The inmate has a right to review the Master Packet and Central File documents except those deemed confidential.
An inmate also has the right to counsel for the parole hearing, and the attorney will meet with the inmate and review the documentation and hearing procedures with the inmate.
- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
The purpose of the lifer hearing is to determine whether the inmate is suitable for parole. This requires weighing suitability and non-suitability factors. Factors tending to show suitability include:
- The inmate did not personally use a deadly weapon in committing the crime
- No victims suffered injury or threat of injury during the crime
- The inmate played an insignificant role in the crime compared to others
- The inmate has no or few prior criminal convictions
- The inmate has not committed a violent felony in the last 15 years
- Past and current conviction(s) show a pattern of decreasing assaultive behavior or decreasing severity of crimes
- The inmate did not violate prison rules
- The inmate participated in available vocational or educational programs, work assignments, or available rehabilitative or self-help programming to address the circumstances that contributed to criminal behavior, such as substance abuse, domestic violence, gang involvement, or sexual offending
- Prior to the offense, the inmate had a stable social history
- The inmate has shown signs of remorse
- The inmate is at an advanced age
- The inmate has a realistic post-parole plan for housing, employment, and rehabilitation
Factors tending to show unsuitability include:
- The inmate has a record of committing violent crimes
- The inmate committed prior sadistic sexual offenses
- The inmate used a deadly weapon when committing the crime
- A victim was injured or suffered threat of injury during the crime
- The inmate was convicted of large-scale criminal activity
- The inmate played a significant role in the crime
- The inmate has many prior criminal convictions, including juvenile convictions
- The inmate has committed recent violent crimes
- Past and current convictions show a pattern of increasing assaultive behavior or increasing severity of crimes
- The inmate violated prison rules
- The inmate failed to participate in available vocational or educational programs, work assignments, or rehabilitative or self-help programs
- The inmate has an unstable social history
- The inmate unreasonably refuses to acknowledge his crime or lacks insight into his criminal behavior
- The inmate has no realistic plans for post-parole housing, employment, or rehabilitation
The weight to be given these factors is up to the Board.
- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
The parole suitability or “lifer” hearing is held one year before the inmate’s Minimum Eligible Parole Date. Ordinarily, three members of the Board compose the panel that determines suitability, not more than one of which may be a deputy commissioner. However, if a backlog of parole cases exists, two members may compose the panel.
The inmate has a right to be present at the hearing, as does the district attorney and any victim. A person who was a victim of a prior felony of which the inmate was convicted may also attend. The inmate is entitled to be represented by an attorney at the hearing. The public is not permitted at the hearing, although anyone may submit a statement to the parole board supporting or opposing parole.
Generally, the panel will open the meeting by reciting facts about the person’s social and criminal history, or “pre-conviction factors,” that weigh on suitability. Documentation for these factors is found in the Master Packet, particularly in the Comprehensive Risk Assessment.
Next, the panel focuses on the crime for which the inmate was incarcerated. If the inmate was convicted after a trial, the panel assumes that the facts found at trial are true. It will then ask questions on details of the crime and the surrounding circumstances, such as provocation and the inmate’s state of mind at the time. Discussion of the facts and circumstances of the “commitment offense” may take up a large part of the hearing.
After obtaining information about the crime, the panel moves on to post-conviction factors: the inmate’s prison record. This inquiry includes questions about any institutional rule violations the inmate committed and the lifer’s participation or lack of participation in education, vocation, job-assignment, and self-help programs available in prison. While documentation of the inmate’s prison record exists, the inmate benefits from providing testimony about his or her behavior and rehabilitation in prison to demonstrate suitability for parole.
Finally, the panel will probe the lifer about his or her “parole plan”: where the inmate will live, work, and continue rehabilitation (if applicable) once released. A realistic, specific, and supported post-release plan will help demonstrate that the inmate poses little threat of future violence. Letters concerning financial, emotional, or employment support from the lifer’s family, friends, or past employer can have a big impact on the panel. On the other hand, if the lifer has no set plan for where he or she will reside and/or has no record of marketable skills, the panel may see that as an indication that the lifer will pose an unreasonable risk of danger to the public.
The panel members and the inmate’s attorney may ask other questions of the inmate to help the panel determine suitability. The inmate has a right to answer or not to answer; however, the panel generally looks upon the refusal with disfavor and will then make its decision without input from the inmate on his present behavior and state of mind.
The district attorney is permitted to make a statement at the hearing and to propose questions that the panel should ask the inmate but does not question the lifer directly. After the district attorney’s statement, the inmate’s attorney may ask other questions of the inmate to clarify any issues or raise issues that were not raised before.
If the hearing is not the first parole hearing the lifer has had, the panel will have the record of the prior hearing(s) before it. It may use the record to question the lifer on changes that have occurred since the last hearing or on inconsistencies in the lifer’s statements.
After all evidence is presented, the district attorney, then the inmate’s attorney, then the inmate, and finally the victim may make closing statements to the panel. The panel may consider all “relevant and reliable” information introduced at the hearing relating to the suitability and unsuitability factors listed above. The victim’s statement must be considered by panel; otherwise, the panel may give whatever weight it wants to the evidence presented and may even refuse to consider some evidence that it deems irrelevant to the issue of suitability.
- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
What Happens After the Hearing?
Immediately after the hearing, the panel consults and makes a decision on parole on the spot, stating its reasons for the decision. Although the Board’s discretion in making a decision is “almost unlimited,” California law states that the panel “shall” set a release date following the hearing unless the panel finds that the inmate would pose an “unreasonable risk of danger” to the public if released; that is, that the timing and gravity of the current offense and/or of past offenses are such that public safety requires a more lengthy period of incarceration. In making this decision, the panel may consider special conditions of treatment or control under which the prisoner could be released that would protect the public.
Despite the language in California law that the Board “shall” set a release date following a hearing, the law does not require the Board to schedule an inmate’s release when it reasonably believes that the gravity of the offense for which the inmate is incarcerated indicates a continuing danger to the public.
However, if unsuitability is based on the circumstances of the current offense or past conduct, the Board must cite some evidence of aggravating facts beyond the basic elements of the crime. The Board must also find that past criminal or other misconduct has a nexus or connection to current dangerousness.
If an inmate is found suitable for parole, the panel sets a release date.
If an inmate is found unsuitable for parole, the panel sets the time for the next hearing as follows:
- In 15 years, unless the panel finds that public safety does not require a period longer than 10 years
- In 10 years, unless the panel finds that public safety does not require a period longer than 7 years
- In 3, 5, or 7 years, where consideration of the public and victim’s safety does not require a longer denial
- Who Is Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- When Is an Inmate Eligible for a Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens Before the Lifer Hearing?
- How Is Suitability for Parole Determined?
- What Happens at the Lifer Hearing?
- What Happens After the Hearing?
- Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
Is the Decision of the Panel Appealable?
An inmate cannot appeal the decision of the panel to deny parole, although every decision to grant or deny parole is reviewed automatically by the Board’s Decision Review Unit, which may reverse or modify the panel’s decision for factual or legal errors. This review must take place within 120 days of the initial decision. After that, the decision is final.
Parole grants and denials are forwarded to the governor of California. If the lifer was convicted of murder, the governor may, within 60 days of the date the Board’s decision becomes final (120 days), reverse or modify a decision on his or her own without a hearing, using the same criteria the Board used to make its decision. In all lifer cases, the governor may review the Board’s decision at any time up until 90 days before the person’s scheduled release date. The governor can refer a case back to the Board to reconsider the decision via an “en banc” review (nine members of the Board hold a review).
The only way to challenge a parole denial (whether an initial denial or a reversal of a grant of parole) is through a habeas corpus action, a proceeding that is separate from the parole proceeding. Reversals of parole decisions, however, are rare, considering the wide discretion the Board has in making its determination.