Thank you for writing to me. I have prepared this letter in an effort to continue to keep you updated on the current issues regarding parole and parole related issues.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT:
In United States v. Booker and United States v. Fanfan in a very unusual opinion, the Supreme Court ruled the 1987 Federal Sentencing Guidelines were no longer mandatory, but merely advisory, though they recommended the courts attempt to follow the guidelines. In a second part of the opinion the court ruled that judges could not increase the sentence imposed on the defendant based on certain factors, unless those factors are weighed by a jury. This is a major case in criminal law, especially to defendants who may have pending federal cases. Now I and other attorneys who practice before the federal trial courts, will be able to argue and possibly receive considerably less time for their clients than would have been possible under the 1987 Federal Sentencing Guideline.

5^TH CIRCUIT:
Court Rules - Former Inmate Can Sue Texas Officials For Rights Violations:
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Roderick Johnson, a former Texas inmate, who alleges prison officials deliberately denied him protection from prison gang members, who repeatedly raped, assaulted, and threatened him with violence and death, can move ahead with this lawsuit against the prison officials. The prison officials had argued they could not be sued because they were acting as public employees and had no reason to believe they were violating Johnson's Constitutional rights. However, the appeals court ruled it is the responsibility of prison officials to protect inmates from violence at the hands of fellow prisoners. Johnson is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers.

Court Rules - Must Give Inmate Hearing Prior to Imposing Sex Offender Registration:
Tony Ray Coleman v Doug Dretke the court ruled the parole panel's imposition of sex offender registration and therapy as conditions to his parole, without providing Mr. Coleman the opportunity to contest a sex offender status, violated his right to due process. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is authorized by Texas law to impose reasonable conditions on parolees to serve the interest of protecting the community and rehabilitating the parolee. When those conditions impact a liberty interest of the parolee they may be imposed only with justification. The Department may condition Coleman's parole on sex offender registration and therapy only if he is determined to constitute a threat to society by reason of his lack of sexual control. Absent a conviction of a sex offense, the Department must afford him an appropriate hearing and find that he possesses this offense of characteristic before imposing such condition. I would strongly recommend inmates who have no sex conviction, not waive their right to a hearing. Such waiver may allow the parole board to set any condition they would like without having to give the inmate the due process right to contest the parole board's perceptions of the inmate.

PRISON CAPACITY:
On Sunday January 16, 2005 the prison system held 150,575 inmates and was 97.3% of capacity. The prison system considers 97.5% capacity the level that it cannot safely exceed taking into account the need to house different types of offenders separately. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman, Mike Viesca said: "Based on the offender-population patterns we've seen, we believe it's possible that we may need to contract for beds by March." The report by the state's budget monitors said prisons are running out of beds faster than expected and the system may have to lease space in county jails. Counties that have excess capacity will be glad to contract with the state to house inmates, but wont be able to do so indefinitely. Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick said private prisons might be able to house excess prisoners.

The last time Texas Department of Criminal Justice sent inmates to county jails to serve out their sentences, the inmates had a harder time convincing the parole board to release them on parole because the county facilities lacked any self-help programs. Because the inmates could not participate in any programs to reflect they conquered his/her problems the parole board tended to deny parole to individuals sent to county jails.

The Legislative Budget Board also warned in the new report the state would have to build as many as five new prisons over the next six years if offenders continue to be incarcerated at the current rate. On Tuesday, January 18, 2005 prison officials said they might need to request an emergency appropriation to get through fiscal year 2005, which ends August 31, 2005.

Senator John Whitmire is concerned that 46% of the 77,000 inmates who were sent to prison during fiscal year 2004 were there because their parole or probation had been revoked. He stated: "We almost sent as many people to prison for violating probation and parole as we did by sending them directly from court."

LEGISLATION ABOUT PRISONS OR INMATES:
There are numerous bills filed both in the Senate and the House of Representatives affecting inmates and the Texas prison system. The following are some of the bills which I believe may have a greater impact on inmates and the prison system than most of the other pending bills. Please remember, a bill is not a law, it is merely a proposal which must pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives and be signed by the governor of the state of Texas before it becomes a law. The following bills are proposed legislation:

HB No 448
This bill proposes setting up a geriatric community inside the prison system for those inmates who are 60 years or older. It proposes screening and setting up personnel to assist in this screening process and providing for a 800 bed facility.

HB No. 440
This bill proposes when a defendant who is obligated to pay child support - prisoner/obligor is placed in custody for a period of at least 90 consecutive days, this confinement presents material and substantial change in circumstances upon the prisoner/obligor and the court shall suspend all child support payments during the prisoner/obligor's confinement unless the court finds the obligor has resources available to pay the child support payments.

HB No. 261
This bill proposes that the court shall order reasonable possession of or access to a grandchild by a grandparent if the grandparent requesting possession of or access to the child is a parent of a parent of the child and that parent of the child has been incarcerated in jail or prison during the three-month period preceding the filing of the petition for change of possession of the child.

WHEN SHOULD AN INMATE CONSIDER HIRING AN ATTORNEY FOR PAROLE:
In the 11 years I have been representing inmates before the Parole Board, I have discovered that inmates and their families creating their own parole packages do not include evidence which could convince the Parole Board why they should release a particular individual from prison; or, they totally disregard the evidence and insist on arguing a position which is not backed up by facts.

The Parole Board does not retry an inmate's case. That is not to say that certain evidence could show the inmate was not an active participant of the crime, or the crime was not as heinous as it appears to be. Most individuals are not familiar with the Parole Board and attempt to make the evidence fit their theory of the case instead of allowing the evidence to lead them to a conclusion. If an inmate or the family members are not capable of objectively following the evidence to its logical conclusion and arguing from that evidence, then I believe representation by an attorney would be preferable.

Another problem with an inmate representing himself/herself or a family member representing an inmate, is the inability of the inmate or the family member to openly communicate and truthfully discuss the negative aspects of the inmate's file. On many occasions I have seen the inmate or his/her family members argue that the inmate was not an active participant in the crime, but instead was merely an observer who happened to be caught at the scene. Quite often, this can fly in the face of numerous witness statements, police reports, or trial testimony. When this occurs, the inmate or his/her family members lose all credibility, and the Parole Board generally denies parole. Obviously, a good parole attorney, who has maintained his/her credibility with the Parole Board will have an advantage when presenting documented information and/or arguing in the inmate's behalf to the Board. A good attorney will research every aspect of the case, the client's life, both in and out of prison, and based upon the evidence he/she has accumulated be able to present a strong, persuasive argument as to why his/her client should be released to parole. If he/she has followed the trail of evidence and has tailored his/her argument to conform to the evidence as to why the inmate should to be released to parole, the chances of the inmate receiving a favorable vote are greatly increased because of the attorney's credibility with the Parole Board Members and Commissioners.

Most family members do not understand that the Parole Board is made up of human beings and they, like anyone else, perceive certain information in a certain way. The easiest way to explain this is to understand the following: the Parole Board is the only entity available to release an inmate to parole. If the board believes an inmate has a particular problem and that particular problem has not been addressed, there is a strong probability the Parole Board will not release the inmate to parole. I often recommend that inmates take certain courses or follow certain courses of action even though there may not be any material facts contained within the file to cause the Parole Board to believe these actions are necessary. The cumulative evidence in an inmate's file might cause the Board to perceive the inmate has a need for a particular course of rehabilitation. For example, an inmate might need to participate in drug treatment/counseling, although he/she has never been arrested for any drug offense or even used drugs.

I also recommend that an attorney be hired if the family is incapable of writing a short story about the inmate which will grab the Parole Board Members' attention and cause them to want to read further about the inmate's life and aspirations. On average, the Parole Board votes on a file in less than four minutes. It is important to grab the Parole Board Members attention and cause them to desire to read further into the file. When I represent an inmate, I submit a parole assistance package to the Parole Board, they read it and then I am almost always granted about 30 to 45 minutes of the first voting member's time to argue in my client's behalf.

An inmate and his/her family should expect an attorney to diligently investigate every fact situation and follow the facts to a logical conclusion. The attorney should gather all the necessary facts, organize and design a parole package, and submit same to the Parole Board in a timely manner. Doing so will help the Parole Board understand the inmate's prior life, present prison life, the overall situation, and future goals. The package should be a means by which the inmate can communicate to the Parole Board. The attorney should request an appearance before the first voting board member. The inmate and his family should receive a copy of the parole package submitted to the parole panel. Finally, the inmate should be informed of the decision by the Parole Board whether it is favorable or not. If an attorney, or someone assisting the family, is not willing to do these things, then I would strongly recommend seeking assistance elsewhere.

RETAINING AN ATTORNEY:
One of the first things that an inmate or his/her family should know is that all documentation contained within an inmate's file is negative. Part of what I do, is present a person to the Board, instead of just another TDCJ number that represents one more convicted felon who is eligible for parole. The Parole Board generally spends approximately 2 - 3 minutes deciding whether to release and inmate to parole or not. I must get the board's attention, hold their attention and present a human being to them, who although convicted of a crime or crimes is a good candidate for release to parole and why.

Why should an inmate hire an attorney to represent him before the Parole Board? Although I do not have any facts about the tasks performed by other attorneys when representing an inmate, I can explain to you some of the tasks I perform which may be part of why my fees are sometimes higher than other attorneys. I conduct a thorough investigation of the inmate's life and gather any and all documented facts, among other things. Initially, a questionnaire exceeding 100 questions is sent out to each client, the trial attorney is contacted if possible, court documents are gathered, medical records and psychological reports are gathered, TDCJ records such as minute sheets, time sheets, disciplinary records, etc. are gathered, trial transcripts are purchased, appellate briefs and any and all other such documentation is gathered, read and analyzed. Upon completion of the investigative stage, a personalized package for each client is then prepared and submitted to the Board along with a request to appear before the Board to argue in my client's behalf. Also, when I am hired well in advance, I am able to work with the inmate to assist him/her in preparing himself/herself to be as favorably viewed as possible. As you can see, there is an extraordinary amount of work involved to meet the standards and requirements I have set for myself in thoroughly representing an inmate and it is a very time consuming and work intensive job. Time is always of the essence and the more time I have to perform the tasks at hand by being hired well in advance of the inmate's eligibility date, the better for my client. Every inmate is eventually going to be reviewed by the Board. If I am hired well in advance of an inmate's eligibility date, I will have the needed time frame within which to help prepare an inmate to be a good candidate for release to parole, to gather the needed information and prepare the written documentation to be submitted to the Board, and to argue in behalf of my client before the Board if granted an appearance.

If you decide to hire me and do so well in advance of your eligibility date, I can design a time payment plan for your family or loved ones, but I must be paid in full before I submit the parole package or request an appearance before the Parole Board to argue for the inmate's release to parole. If you wait until the last minute, the entire fee is going to be due immediately. The time payment plan has been very helpful to many of my clients who have limited financial resources and thereby allowed them to hire me without causing them financial distress because they have hired me many months or even years in advance. (Example: I was able to help such a family convince the Parole Board to release an inmate who had been convicted of possessing 5 kilos of cocaine to a FI-1 parole on the inmates first parole review date)

Therefore, should you wish to hire me to assist you with parole or any parole related issues, time is of the essence. There is no time to waste. A competent parole attorney must have a minimum of 3 months prior to the 6 month review stage of an inmate's file by the Board to investigate, gather documentation and produce a worthwhile parole assistance package. The investigative stage conducted by this office is a very time consuming and expensive matter and requires a considerable amount of dedication and work to complete. Do not wait until your file is almost in review status or in review status to hire an attorney. Documenting every aspect of my client's life, his/her accomplishments, his/her rehabilitation, as well as many other factors, along with the credibility I have built with the Board Members, are some of the reasons I have been able to maintain an 80% release rate for my clients over the many years I have represented inmates before the Board.

PAROLE ASSISTANCE:
Many inmates and their families contact me regarding parole assistance. Unfortunately, a great deal of the time, I am unable to offer my assistance due to the fact they have waited too late to contact me and there is just simply nothing I can do. Parole assistance is a time-consuming task and much of our work is done far in advance of the parole eligibility date. The packages prepared by this office are not some type of a form which simply requires us to "fill in the blanks." Each package is individualized and therefore there is a lot of work that must be done well in advance of an inmate's parole eligibility date. My packages will meet my very high standards as well as the Board's expectations from me. I will not lower or compromise these standards or expectations for any reason. Should you decide to obtain my services to prepare a parole assistance package, do so well in advance of your parole eligibility date. Some Parole Boards are presently voting on some files 4 months prior to the first review date. Once a set-off is received, there is no appeal from the Parole Board's decision and a special review is very difficult to obtain.

PAROLE REVOCATION:
Should you receive the privilege of parole, dutifully abide by the stipulations and regulations placed upon you. However, if you find yourself in the revocation process, please do not hesitate to contact me immediately. A parole revocation hearing occurs within 30-days of being incarcerated unless there is a preliminary hearing.

Time is of the essence to prepare you and your file for your potential release to parole or defend you at a parole revocation hearing. Although there is no guarantee of the results from my representation and assistance to you regarding your legal issues, I assure you I will do so in a professional and diligent manner.

REPRESENTATION OF INMATES:
I would like to state there are some individuals who are preying upon inmates and their families offering parole assistance who are not licensed attorneys. For your protection as well as your family members or loved one(s) please be informed, if you are considering hiring anyone other than a licensed attorney to assist you, take heed that the law requires under Govt. Code 508.083 (a) A person who represents inmates for compensation must: (1) be a licensed attorney licensed in this state; and (2) register with the division.

Please do not send any of your documentation to me prior to retaining me. On numerous occasions, inmates who have not retained my services have sent documentation to me requesting that I review it. I am sorry to say that I cannot perform that type of free service. I am contractually obligated to spend my time working on the files of paying clients. Also, I cannot and will not be responsible for such documentation nor can I afford to pay postage cost to return it, therefore it must be destroyed. So please, unless I am your retained attorney, do not send any of your documentation to this office.

Again, thank you for writing to me. I hope I have answered some of your questions and also updated you on some of the current parole related issues. Whatever your decision may be, I wish you the very best of luck. Remember, now is the time to prepare for your possible release to parole.