New Research Finds that Parole Boards Are Overlooking Evidence of Transformation
A recent Prison Policy Initiative report confirms what many in our community have long known: parole boards are weighing static factors like criminal history and victim opposition more heavily than evidence of transformation.
The report found that nearly every state with discretionary parole is granting release to fewer people each year, and many held fewer hearings in 2024 than five years prior. The pattern is troubling: static factors like criminal history, victim and law enforcement opposition, and the nature of the original offense often outweigh demonstrated growth and readiness to return home. In other words, the system is measuring the past more than the present.
For the people in our programs, readiness to return home isn't theoretical. It's built season by season, through connection to land, community, and self. Research consistently shows that access to meaningful rehabilitative programming reduces recidivism significantly. In California, people who completed rehabilitative programming reoffended at nearly half the rate of those who did not. Yet only 5% of California's corrections budget goes to rehabilitative programs, and most people released from California prisons still have not participated in any. Land Together participants return to prison at a rate of 2.3%, compared to California's statewide rate of 39%. That's not an anomaly. It's what happens when people have real access to transformative programming.
That transformation has to count.