Articles & News

June 7, 2008

State revamping parole rules

By Bill McCarthy, bmccarthy@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE -- With nearly 40 percent of Wyoming prison inmates waiving their chance for parole, the state has begun putting together rules aimed at encouraging them to take part.

While in Cheyenne earlier this week, the state Parole Board worked through proposed rule changes to bring to the Department of Corrections.

“We’re still hashing it out,” said Patrick Anderson, executive director of the Wyoming Board of Parole on Friday.

As discussed by the board, the new rules would allow convicts to continue to accrue 10 days a month of good time while on parole as they do while incarcerated without violations.

“I believe it will be a very effective tool,” said Patrick Anderson, executive director of the Wyoming Board of Parole.

The change provides an incentive for successful completion of parole and something that can be taken away for misbehavior.

The board also is considering “intermediate interventions” for parolees.

Rather than having parole taken away for violations, the parolee could be sent to county jail for up to 30 days or be placed in a community corrections program for up to 60 days.

Those options are available for parolees and probationers under intensive supervision, but they have not been available for other parolees.

For less serious violations, parolees could lose privileges, be assigned community service or have personal liberties restricted with such things as curfews or house detention.

Once the Department of Corrections is on board with the rules, they will be sent to the governor for his review.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal will have the option of approving them in their entirety or in pieces or rejecting them altogether.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a law allowing the Parole Board and Department of Corrections to adjust parole rules. Freudenthal signed it.

The legislation becomes effective on July 1. Anderson hopes the governor will have looked at the rules and be ready to implement them then.

Inmates may be rejecting their chances for parole hearings now to avoid programs such as treatment for substance abuse, anger and criminal thinking.

“It may be a symptom of the problems that brought them to prison in the first place,” Anderson said. “We really want to nail down the reasons.”

A criminal justice professor at the University of Wyoming has begun a study on the issue.

Barbara LeMaitre, chairwoman of the board during this week’s meeting, is a victim’s advocate in Gillette. She said she once believed in “lock them up and throw away the key,” but that has changed.

When inmates walk out of prison with no treatment, they are much more likely to break the law again, she said. And the majority of convicts will get out at some point.

Parole provides support for reintegration, such as establishing employment and housing so the convict is not just turned out on the street with his old habits and with few opportunities to make an honest living, she added.