Trapped by the System: Parole in America

On a rainy afternoon late last year, 47-year-old Joseph Bostic stepped off a Greyhound bus -- homeless, jobless, and $37 shy of penniless -- into New York's bustling Port Authority station. Bostic was returning to Brooklyn after finishing his second term in the New York state prison system. From 1983 to 1990, Bostic had served out his first prison term for a manslaughter conviction. After seven years he had been let out on parole, but knew that if he violated his parole conditions he'd go back to jail. So he did his best to stay clean.

He did a pretty good job, too, except for one small crime that society wouldn't normally take too seriously -- in 1997, Bostic overdrew his checking account by $341. And for that, he spent three years in prison.

Statistics describing prison populations and crime in America reveal a paradox. Though crime rates are falling, the prison population is still growing. Why are more people going to prison than are committing crime?

In cases like that of Joseph Bostic, an explanation can be found in the dysfunctional institution of parole. An August 2000 Department of Justice (DOJ) study revealed that from 1990 to 1998, there was a 54 percent increase in the number of parole violators returning to prison. Of the 423,000 paroles that came to a conclusion in 1998, 42 percent ended up with the parolee going back to prison. In some states those percentages are much higher; in California, nearly 70 percent of the people entering prison last year were back because they violated their parole.

Some of these repeat offenders, to be sure, have committed serious crimes. But some of them, including many who are trying to go straight, are faced with parole conditions that are so strict that even things like chronic unemployment can be considered just cause for reincarceration. At the same time, services to help parolees reenter society are scarce, and laws protecting ex-offenders from housing and employment discrimination are virtually non-existent. To make matters worse, when parolees are convicted of even the pettiest crimes -- like Bostic was -- due process is legally suspended and often violated in order to reincarcerate them.

"Parole sets people up for failure," American Probation and Parole Association president Carl Wicklund says. Wicklund calls the current approach to supervising ex-offenders "tail-em, nail-em, jail-em." He scoffs at the idea that most parole supervision methods are "tests" to see if ex-offenders can make it in the outside world, saying the term is too mild.

"I would call them an obstacle course," he says.

Tail-em

Parole is the period of law enforcement supervision that typically follows release from prison. For a prisoner who has served the minimum term of his sentence, it's an alternative to further incarceration.

Before a prisoner is granted parole, a parole board reviews his case to determine whether he is ready to be released. If the board judges that he is, it gives him a release plan, which prescribes the conditions of his parole. Release plans frequently include conditions like abstinence from drugs and contact with other ex-offenders, retention of gainful employment, and periodic reporting to a parole officer. If a parolee violates any of these conditions, or is charged with committing a new crime, he is subject to reincarceration.

After his first term in prison, Bostic's parole conditions required him to meet bi-weekly, then monthly with the parole officer assigned him by the parole division and to report all instances of police contact to him. During their meetings, the parole officer filled out a report detailing any problems Bostic reported having, any instances of police contact, and any change of address.

Bostic's parole officer was fairly easy-going, Bostic said. Others are much more stringent. Some make unannounced visits to parolees homes, which are allowed by law, and patrol the neighborhoods where parolees live, trying to catch them violating a parole condition or committing a new crime. Some parolees who have curfews report that they receive check-up calls and drop-by visits from their parole officers ten-minutes after their curfews.