ARTICLE: Records of Illinois parole board show just how rarely inmates win release

Records of Illinois parole board show just how rarely inmates win release
Injustice Watch: By Emily Hoerner and Jeanne Kuang | July 27, 2018
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Parole board member has voted in favor of parole only once: Injustice Watch has published data from the Illinois parole board that reveals how infrequently people are granted release. In over three years on the board, former police officer Peter Fisher has voted against parole 160 times and in favor once. “William Norton, a former attorney and prosecutor, has been on the board since 2012,” reportsInjustice Watch. “Of 358 votes Norton has cast, he has voted in an inmate’s favor just five times—1.4 percent of the time.” Former social worker Edith Crigler has most often favored parole, voting yes in 32.5 percent of cases she heard. She said she focuses on a person’s progress since the crime rather than the crime itself. “You can really get to see that these women and men have made monumental leaps between what they did 30 to 40 years ago and who they are now,” she said. “A lot of our board members are former police officers or prosecutors, and they look at the letter of the law.”

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