The New Vision: Alternatives to Incarceration Committee of the ReThink Justice DC Coalition, has published a report that examines the current processes by which parole and supervised release are revoked in the District of Columbia and the impact of those revocations on the District of Columbia’s jail and prison population. The report was unanimously endorsed at the coalition’s monthly meeting.
Initially drawn to the issue by reports of policy changes that may have led to increases in the jail population, the New Vision Committee’s attention turned to examining the substantial benefits to the District government and to its residents of creating a new DC Board of Parole, long a goal of justice advocates and most recently an imperative mandated by the federal government’s decision to “sunset” the United States Parole Commission which has served as the District of Columbia’s parole board for more than 20 years. Benefits include: a significant reduction in incarceration of District residents in the DC jail and in federal prison and a criminal justice system that reflects the values of District residents.
The report is titled: The Parole Revocation Process in DC: What DC Could Accomplish with Local Control
It has been published in two parts: An Executive Summary and the Full Report. Links to PDFs of these two documents are given below.