This contains posts related to the issue of the District taking over control of it’s parole system.
Author: Malcolm C. Young This post was summarized from communications and testimony to the DC Council on the issue of the District taking over control of the parole function, currently under federal control. I have some experience in criminal justice and was a participant in the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety’s roundtable hearings …
Continue reading “Guest Editorial: Thoughts on Local Control of DC’s Parole Function”
The ReThink Justice DC Coalition has been actively advocating to transfer the parole function from federal control to local District control through the work of its New Vision: Alternatives to Incarceration Committee. Along with our partners in the Reentry Task Force, we’ve made a substantial contribution to the effort to establish an effective, humane, innovative …
Continue reading “ReThink Justice Reports and Testimony for Local Control of Parole”
The ReThink Justice DC Coalition has been actively advocating to transfer the parole function from federal control to local District control through the work of its New Vision: Alternatives to Incarceration Committee. Last year the ReThink New Vision Committee published a report titled Establishing Principles for the Creation of a Local Paroling Authority and in …
Members of the DC Reentry Task Force and the ReThink Justice DC New Visions Committee have published a three-page summary briefing presenting a blueprint for a new, District-controlled parole authority. This vision is needed now. With the upcoming expiration of the United States Parole Commission (USPC), the District has an unprecedented opportunity to design and …
Continue reading “A New Vision for a District-Controlled Parole Authority”
Co-chair of the DC Reentry Task Force, Louis Sawyer, was featured in this Washington Post article. He spoke of how his family took 14-hour road trips to visit him in federal prison in southwestern Virginia, until he was moved to a prison too far away for them to continue their visits.
What Happened The federal Revitalization Act of 1997 and subsequent legislation placed the management of the parole function under a federal agency, the U.S. Parole Commission (USPC). This past November, Congress authorized the elimination of the U.S. Parole Commission (USPC) in November 2020. This opened the door to returning these functions to District control. Now, …
Author: Phil Fornaci This post provides a concise summary of the background of this issue and answers key questions about this issue such as: What Should Happen Next?, How Do We Get There?, and Why Not Just let D.C. Superior Court Judges Replace the USPC?. It was taken from a recent memo written by Mr. …
Prison Policy Initiative has published a report–using D.C. as a case study–to show how much non-criminal – and often drug related – “technical” violations of probation and parole contribute to unnecessary jail incarceration. From their report: “In the nation’s capital, the scope of the problem is conspicuous. The Washington, D.C. Department of Corrections estimates that …
Continue reading “D.C. data shows how minor supervision violations contribute to excessive jailing”
There is a new report titled Establishing Principles for the Creation of a Local Paroling Authority in Washington, D.C. published today with this post. This was developed as a joint effort between the ReThink Justice DC Coalition and the DC Reentry Task Force. The report lays out 19 principles that a new local parole function, …
Continue reading “ReThink Justice and Reentry Task Force Report – Principles for a Parole Entity”
Local advocates have been calling for the parole function to be returned to District control for many years. The ReThink Justice DC Coalition’s New Visions Committee has been one of the groups deeply involved in this advocacy.
