Revising the Florida Objective Parole Guidelines to Improve Prison Release Decisions

The Florida Parole Commission currently uses Objective Parole Guidelines which were established to prevent arbitrary and random parole decisions whether to release state inmates to parole supervision. These guidelines are based on scores derived from seven items relating to the inmate’s prior criminal history, time served in prison, age at first incarceration, prior supervision revocation, history of escapes, and whether the present offense was for burglary. In an effort to assist the Parole Commission Revise their Guidelines, The Center for Criminology and Criminal Justice provided recommendations and analysis to the Florida Parole Commission for revising their Parole Guidelines. This included follow-up and analysis of 255 parolees from 2004 to 2011.

Contacts

Principal Investigators: Thomas G. Blomberg, Dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology and William Bales, Ph.D.

Researcher: George Pesta, Ph.D.

Graduate Student: Ellie Sweeny

Research Partner: Florida Parole Commission

Dates: 2013

Funding Agency: In-kind