Montana Legislature sets sights on Parole Board's possible role in prison overcrowding

Examining whether board may be too stringent on granting or revoking parole for felons within Montana correctional system

HELENA — Montana’s parole board, which decides the fate of hundreds of state prison inmates each year, will be getting a hard look from the Legislature on its possible role in overcrowding Montana’s prison cells.

Beginning next month, a legislative panel kicks off a yearlong study of the board, examining whether the board may be too stringent on granting or revoking parole for felons within the Montana correctional system.

“We’re keeping so many people in prison for so long, nonviolent offenders, at tremendous cost to the taxpayer,” said Sen. Terry Murphy, R-Caldwell, the author of the bill leading to the study. “It just came to some of us that we really need to find out why that is.”

The study will be conducted by the Law and Justice Interim Committee, which has heard hours of testimony from families criticizing the board, accusing it of denying parole for their loved ones for no good reason.

Mike McKee, a retired financial adviser from Hamilton and chairman of the parole board since 2009, said last week that much of that testimony was “misinformation and half-truths being presented as facts.”  Read more...

Parole Supervision Helps Cut Recidivism: Montana Study

In a study of Montana ex-inmates, researchers found that offenders released early from prison without parole supervision are more likely to recidivate than those freed with parole supervision. Kevin A. Wright of Arizona State University and Jeffrey W. Rosky of the University of Central Florida believe that offenders who are released early are more likely to recidivate because they are not adequately prepared for reentry into the community. The study was published in Criminology & Public Policy, which is available only by subscription or to members of the American Society of Criminology.


Montana offenders released from prison on traditional parole supervision are required to have a detailed parole plan that includes housing and employment. The authors argue that given current pressures on correctional systems to reduce their budgets, it is unwise to do away with early release procedures. They say attention should be paid to the transition between prison and community reentry. In the same issue, Faye Taxman of George Mason University and Susan Turner of the University of California, Irvine, argue that correctional practitioners should look beyond the basic risk-assessment model of release and focus more on a client-centered approach, like the healthcare field. Journalists who want access to the papers should send a message to tgest@sas.upenn.edu.  Read more...