The Alabama parole board just released proposed new guidelines for who should get a second chance, making it harder for some people to be recommended for parole.

The proposed guidelines are more strict in terms of how they rank an inmate for parole readiness, weighing the inmate’s original crime more heavily than the previous guidelines and putting more emphasis on behavior in prison.

The parole board had long ignored its own guidelines. In 2023, the board finished the year with a staggering 8% parole rate — the lowest in recent years. That same year, the board’s own guidelines recommended about an 80% grant rate.

The new guidelines, posted on the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles website and signed last week, revise the criteria used as an aid by the three-member parole board when deciding which inmates should be released on parole. They do not serve as binding rules. The proposed update comes several years after due by state law.

The proposed revisions primarily concern how the board should weigh an inmate’s institutional behavior and disciplinaries while incarcerated, their participation in treatment and programs while in prison, and their original offense.

Alabamians who want to comment on the changes are encouraged to contact the bureau through July 4.

The board, and the bottleneck blocking people from leaving an overcrowded and dangerous prison system, became the subject of AL.com’s series ‘Denied: Alabama’s Broken Parole System’ throughout 2024.

In 2024, the parole rate jumped to 20%, but the guidelines still suggested between 75%-90% of eligible applicants be paroled.

At a meeting with lawmakers from the bipartisan Joint Prison Oversight Committee last fall, parole board Chairperson Leigh Gwathney talked about the board’s existing guidelines. Those guidelines, which Gwathney said were set in 2018 prior to her appointment, were last revised in 2020.

At the time, Gwathney said that she didn’t know who set them or their reasoning.

She remains the most consistent ‘no’ vote on the board.

The parole guidelines consist of a scoresheet, with numbers correlating to how someone fits into the score that can show if a person would be a good candidate for parole. The higher someone scores, the less likely they are to be recommended for parole.

The old guidelines recommended inmates with a score of up to 7 be recommended for parole, and over 8 be denied. The revised guidelines make it slightly tougher to get a positive recommendation. They call for a score of up to 5 be recommended for parole grant, but a score of 6 to 8 would now be considered neutral and could be recommended for either a grant or denial. A score over 9 would be grounds to be denied.

While state law requires the three-member board to consider the guidelines before a parole decision is made, the board members do not have to follow them. Gwathney said at that October meeting that she sometimes changed the scores.

Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, pointed out at the meeting that Alabama law requires the board to review the guidelines every three years, seek public comment and share them on the parole board website. “You’re about two years overdue,” said England in October.

“Fair enough,” Gwathney replied.

At the time, she said the guidelines revision was an “ongoing conversation.”

Other guideline changes in the revised version posted on the bureau’s website revolve around behavior in prison. Previously, the guidelines scored an inmate based on if they had no disciplinaries, and how many violent or non-violent ones were accumulated throughout the year. The revised guidelines make a disciplinary offense involving violence within the last 12 months a score of 3, versus the previous score of 2.

The 2020 guidelines rank the severity of an inmate’s original offense as ‘low’, ‘moderate’, or ‘high’, with ‘low’ scoring a zero and ‘high’ scoring a 2. The new guidelines put more weight on some original crimes, proposing the scoring of a ‘low’ offense as a 1 and adding a ‘very high’ offense level with a score of 4.

Documents attached to the revised guidelines explain that sex offenses will be considered as ‘very high,’ while any case with a victim must be scored at ‘high’ or ‘very high.’ Felony crimes involving personal injury will be considered ‘very high,’ too.

At a meeting last month, Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, said one of the main problems with the current board is that it follows its own guidelines sparingly. The senator also said the board has not followed the law that requires it to update those guidelines, which are intended to be a tool to help evaluate suitability for parole.

Chambliss said the board should follow the guidelines or change them, as they are mandated to do by law. He told the Judiciary Committee that it is important for the Legislature to let state agencies know they cannot ignore the oversight role of lawmakers and requirements in the law, such as the parole guidelines.

“A lot of state agencies are watching right now,” Chambliss said. “And if this committee allows this agency to not follow they law, they’re going to do the same thing.”

Anyone wanting to comment on the proposed changes should contact Alatia R. Midkiff at the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Written remarks can be mailed to Midkiff via the legal department, located at 301 South Ripley Street in Montgomery, zip code 36104.