A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge.
Usually the Parole Board is made up of judges and others with clear connections to the justice system; lawyers, social workers, probation officers and psychologists, etc.
The parole board in the US state of Connecticut has recently appointed a new member to their parole board and he isn't from any of the professionas above. He is a former prisoner.
The New York Times reports that: 'Mr. Ireland, 45, allowed his name to be suggested for a seat on the parole board this year. Nominated in October by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, Mr. Ireland is now serving provisionally, along with four other nominees, until state legislators vote on the appointments next year.
Timothy S. Fisher, dean of the University of Connecticut School of Law, got to know Mr. Ireland through work he does on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. Mr. Fisher championed the idea of adding Mr. Ireland to the board in a letter to Nancy Wyman, the lieutenant governor, in March.
“He has a very cleareyed understanding of the people in prison,” Mr. Fisher said. “How so many of them say ‘I didn’t do it,’ and yet he’s no fool. He’s been around them and he knows there’s injustice, but he also knows that there are people who will try to pull a fast one. I think he will be a more discerning judge of character on this board than almost anyone.”
The idea of having Mr. Ireland on the board appears to have originated with Vivien Blackford, a member of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission, according to people who supported the appointment.
“Having been in prison, he brings so much to the board because he understands the experience, the perspectives and the reasons that people do what they do,” Ms. Blackford said.
In 1989, a day after he turned 20, Mr. Ireland was convicted of raping and murdering Barbara Pelkey, a Wallingford factory worker.
The crime occurred when he was 16. He received a 50-year sentence and spent nearly half his life, from the age of 18 until he was 39, in prison. Despite his assertions that he was innocent, friends stopped believing in him, and family drifted away. Then, in 2009, DNA testing performed at the insistence of the Connecticut Innocence Project exonerated him and identified the real culprit.
Rather than spurn further dealings with the authorities, Mr. Ireland, 45, allowed his name to be suggested for a seat on the parole board this year. “I’ve been on the inside, and I understand the programs, the issues confronting the inmates,” he said.' http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/20/nyregion/ex-inmate-on-connecticut-parole-board-brings-an-insiders-view-to-hearings.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
While it has been proven that Mr Ireland was wrongly convicted and imprisoned, is there any reason why other, rightfully convicted prisoners, shouldn't be considered for positions on parole boards after they have been released back into the community?
For example the website for the New Zealand Parole Board describes its membership criteria.
Under the Parole Act, the Attorney-General must be satisfied members have:
- knowledge or understanding of the criminal justice system; and
- the ability to make a balanced and resonable assessment of the risk an offender may present to the community when released; and
- the ability to operate effectively from people from a range of cultures; and
- sensitivity to, and understanding of, the impact of crime on victims. http://www.paroleboard.govt.nz/about-us.html
Would some ex-cons meet these criteria? Those who have turned their lives around? Those who have shown remorse and have successfully been reintegrated into society?
Could they bring unique but relevent perspectives to the parole process?
What do you think?
It is proposed that in our country parole board membership should include former prisoners