RUMOR 2010

(1) Rumor - President Obama passed a Bill to require TDCJ to return all Good Time taken from inmates due to disciplinary cases. This is not true! The President of the United States has no power to compel any change in State law. He can only recommend passage of a Bill to the United States Congress and the United States Senate and the House of Representatives would have to vote and pass the Bill. No such law was passed.

(2) Rumor - President Obama has passed a law requiring all inmates who have served 85% of their sentence must be released. No such law was passed. Again, this is not true.

(3) Rumor - Texas Governor Rick Parry is ordering the closing of 20 or more prison units in the State fo Texas due to the budget cuts he is making effective September 1, 2010. You need to understand the legislative process in Texas to understand how this could not be occurring. In Texas the legislature meets every 2-years, it last met in 2009, and set the budget for a two-year period. TDCJ is funded through the summer of 2011. There will be no closing of prisons in 2010. Presently, TDCJ is moving inmates held in private facilities back to TDCJ units. This moving of inmates held in private facilities back to TDCJ units may have been what sparked this rumor. Again, there will be no closing of 20 prisons or one prison in 2010.

(4) Rumor - TDCJ is closing down some of the older units as the prison population has decreased enough to allow this and the older units are no longer cost effective and the maintenance cost are too high. This is not true as I explained in rumor number 5 above.

(5) Rumor - A new law has been passed indicating if a parolee has a Motion to Revoke his parole filed, a hearing officer will no longer conduct the hearing and instead the revocation will be heard by a criminal court judge with all the rules of evidence and Constitutional safeguards attached. This rumor has no basis in fact or law.

(6) Rumor - There is a Bill pending in the United States Congress which will grant commutation to prisoners who are serving a life sentence for a crime committed when the inmate was a minor. I cannot locate such a Bill as of April 2010. Even if it existed, the United States Congress can only address Federal crimes not State crimes. This is not true.

RUMORS 2009

(1) Rumor - The Parole Board can only deny an inmate’s request for parole once (an example 2D-nature of crime) and once this reason has been used the Parole Board cannot deny an inmate again for the same reason. The theory being, to do so would be double jeopardy. Unfortunately, for the inmate this is not true. The Parole Board can continue to deny you for any reason and they can use the same reason repeatedly.

(2) Rumor - I previously explained in the section dealing with Bills that were not passed and enacted into law, the rumor circulating throughout the prison system about a change in the law on 3g or aggravated cases is not true. The legislature has not changed the law regarding parole eligibility for 3g or aggravated cases. An inmate convicted of a 3g or aggravated case or having an affirmative finding of the use of a deadly weapon will have to serve one-half of their sentence day for day before they will be eligible for parole. No such law was passed.

RUMORS 2008

(1) Rumor - The Parole Board will release inmates to parole who have a non-violent case if they will enroll in the armed services. I have contacted the head of the Parole Board, Rissie Owens and inquired about this rumor. I was informed there is no such agreement between the military and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. I also contacted an Army recruiter who informed me the military has changed their requirements and they are accepting non-violent felons into military service.

(2) Rumor - When an inmate is reviewed for parole and the Parole Board denies the inmate for a particular reason, for example 2D, the Parole Board cannot at any subsequent review use the same reason again for denying the inmate parole. This is not true, the Parole Board can continue to use the same reason to deny the inmate for parole review after review . There is no double jeopardy for denying the inmate release to parole for the same reason every time the inmate comes up for review.

(3) Rumor- There is a rumor circulating that if an inmate is denied parole and his/her guideline score indicates he/she should have been granted parole then the inmate can write to Senator Whitmire’s office and Senator Whitmire will intervene and the inmate will be released. There is absolutely no basis of fact in this rumor. Senator Whitmire is not intervening in any parole board decisions and it is a waste of time to write to him and inform him of the parole board’s decision.

RUMORS 2007

The entire parole board will be fired in a new parole board appointed and this will increase the number of inmates released.

Fact: The seven parole board members are appointed by the governor for a six-year term. Only the Governor, who appointed the parole board members, may remove those members from the parole board. When a parole board member is appointed he/she is appointed for a six-year term, unless removed by the Governor. The remaining members of the parole board are Parole Commissioners who are state employees and are protected by the Civil Service Act and cannot be fired or removed unless they commit a felony or a crime of moral turpitude. It is my belief the commissioners will, over the years of their service, become the institutional memory and voice of the parole board, and may, through their experience and time served on the board, become more knowledgeable, and therefore have more influence than the appointed parole board member. This could occur because the members will only serve a six-year term, unless reappointed, and the Parole Commissioners will have served for many years and have more experience than the newly appointed Parole Board Members. Under the present system, the commissioners and the appointed parole board members votes are equal, when they are voting for parole or discretionary mandatory release. It is my belief, the parole commissioners will become much more influential the longer they serve on the parole board.

There is presently a rumor circulating that the Legislature is changing the law affecting 3g offenders. The present law requires the inmate serve one-half actual time before he/she is eligible for parole if he/she is convicted of a 3g offense. Supposedly, according to the rumor, the Legislature has passed a law rescinding the one-half requirement for any crime defined as a 3g offense making all inmates first parole appearance before the parole board possible after serving only one-fourth of their sentence. The first parole review, according to the rumor, will be eligible when the inmate has served one-fourth of his sentence and that one-fourth will be computed by adding the actual time the inmate has served plus any good time credits, and when the actual time served in the good time credits equal one-fourth of the sentence the inmate would be eligible for parole. FALSE. There is no such legislation proposed to date. I have reviewed all of the bills pending before the criminal justice committee, which is the committee all criminal laws must go through before they are approved for a floor vote, and there is no such law proposed or filed by any legislator.

Next rumor circulating: Because of the recent scathing critique of the parole board by the Sunset Commission, the entire parole board will be replaced and a new group of individuals will be appointed. FALSE. I have found nothing indicating there is any basis for this rumor. While the Sunset Commission’s critique of the parole board was harsh, there is no indication the Governor is contemplating removing any parole board members or commissioners. The Governor is only able to remove those parole board members he appointed. The members are appointed by the governor and they serve for a six-year term. There are seven parole board members. The parole board is made up of the seven parole board members and 11 commissioners. The commissioners are civil servants and may not be removed unless they commit a felony or a crime of moral turpitude. They do not have a term limit and they do not serve at the pleasure of the Governor. Because of the law allowing the Governor to remove only those parole board members he appoints, he could only request the resignation of the seven parole board members. He could not request the resignation of the remaining parole board commissioners.

There is presently a new rumor circulating that the Legislature is changing the law affecting 3g offenders. The present law requires the inmate serve one-half actual time before he/she is eligible for parole if he/she is convicted of a 3g offense. Supposedly, according to the rumor, the Legislature has passed a law requiring the parole board to compute the inmates work time when calculating when the inmate has reached one-half of his sentence. FALSE. There is no such legislation proposed to date. I have reviewed all of the bills pending before the Criminal Justice Committee, which is the committee all criminal laws must go through before they are approved for a floor vote, and there is no such law proposed or filed by any legislator.