No Explanation Given for 6 Prisoners Denied Parole

After six of her clients have been denied parole, Leslie Mendez is challenging the parole board. According to Mendez, she has witnessed a systematic denial of reasons given to applicants as to why their parole has been denied which raised concerns as to whether the relevant considerations are being deliberated in the decision-making process. She says that if an inmate has undertaken sufficient rehabilitation efforts and there is no longer a reason to believe that they pose a threat to the public, then they should be granted parole. Mendez maintains that these legal considerations are being overlooked.

 

Leslie Mendez, Attorney at Law

“Parole doesn’t mean you’re free now without any conditions. There are parole conditions. And so now you are you have some freedom, but it’s a freedom that is very much conditioned. And you are under supervision and monitored to ensure that you have a gradual, safe, free integration into society. Because ultimately, we want society to be safe, while also ensuring that we bear in mind the and the interest in rehabilitating inmates and we can’t just throw people in prison and forget them forever. That’s just not the system that we have. And the concern right now is that it doesn’t seem that is being systematically applied at the parole and we are not even able to know how decisions are being made if you’re not giving reason. I will tell you if it is that I get a file or I get an inmate whose parole was denied and there’s an obvious very recent infraction that was violent. Okay, you know why it was denied, right? And again, that infraction is a violent infraction. I don’t, it’s obviously beyond reasonable for the parole board to deny  that inmate parole. So these are applications where they are not very recent infraction, at least to the knowledge, my knowledge or to the knowledge of the inmate that there are any infractions or there are anything to indicate that it’s an ongoing risk. So that’s why this is the cause for concern. Not that all inmates, once they’re parole, once they’re eligible for parole, are absolutely entitled for parole. No. But these applications are unique in the sense that from our vantage point, we’re not able to discern what is the cause for concern and because we don’t have access to that process or access to the reason, we’re not able to know what was the cause for concern on the parole boards.”