Pubdate: Tue, 02 Dec 2003
Source: Birmingham News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2003 The Birmingham News
Contact:  http://al.com/birminghamnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45
Author: Carla Crowder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

STATE INMATES WIN EARLY RELEASE

15 Prisoners OK'd By New Parole Panel

MONTGOMERY - Thanks to Alabama's bulging prisons and bleeding budget,
a few drug addicts and thieves are on their way home early.

A second panel of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles met for
the first time Monday, approving 15 prisoners for parole. The board
denied 24 prisoners and continued one hearing.

Those approved include a man with a math degree who tutored fellow
inmates toward their high school equivalency diplomas, a father of
three who got entangled with drugs after his wife died in a car
accident and a 29-year-old prisoner whose mother wished the board a
Merry Christmas.

"Thank you for taking care of him for the time you had him," Emma
Locke told the board before it approved parole for her son Damien
Locke, who has served 10 years for burglary, robbery and drug possession.

Emma Locke and her daughter-in-law drove up from Point Clear near the
coast and spent Sunday night in Montgomery in order to speak to the
parole board. Prisoners do not attend or speak at their own hearings.

"We knew they had a new system and new people ... and we thought it
would look bad if no one showed up to support him," Locke said.

The majority of prospective parolees are nonviolent and on a "special
docket," so called because under normal conditions the prisoners would
not yet be considered for parole. Lawsuits against the Department of
Corrections and widespread crowding problems forced the state to speed
paroles.

When voters turned down Gov. Bob Riley's tax proposal in September,
the administration announced plans to relieve the prison crisis
through early paroles for nonviolent inmates and drug offenders. Soon
after, Riley appointed the new panel.

New members hearing cases Monday were acting chairman Cliff Walker of
Bessemer, a former vice president at AmSouth Bank; Don McGriff of
Montrose, a former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor; and
Jennifer Mullins Garrett of Montgomery, a former attorney with the
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

They will meet four days a week.

The original panel also is hearing cases.

With 27,000 prisoners, Alabama's prisons are about double
capacity.

Officials have said 5,000 to 6,000 prisoners may be released early.
There is no set number.

Relatives of about half the prospective parolees on Monday's docket
showed up to speak, driving from spots across the state. No victims
spoke against release to the new panel Monday, but eventually new
members will also consider violent cases in which victims are allowed
to testify, said Cynthia Dillard, assistant director of the board.

Statewide, the parole board is running a year behind schedule in
considering paroles for violent offenders. The delay is caused by a
state law requiring victims to be notified. Sometimes the victims have
moved, changed names or are difficult to locate, Dillard said.

Those denied parole Monday include drug offenders who got their hands
on more drugs while on work release and borderline cases whose
sentences end next spring anyway.

"My son has had a long history of somehow being able to get off a
little lighter and somehow hasn't discovered there are serious
consequences to his actions, so I'm not here to try to get him
paroled," said Melvin Smith of Andalusia, who described himself as a
pastor with two sons in prison.

Smith said his son, Samuel Lee Smith, 38, in for drug crimes, misled
him about Monday's activities, and he had no intention of asking for
his son's release.

"I could provide him with work and I could provide him with a place to
stay, but he already has that," Melvin Smith said.

Pleading for leniency:

Most of the relatives were there to plead for release.

James Lamar Phillips, 30, serving 35 years for stealing a car and
receiving stolen property, got a break. Parole was granted, in part,
because his aunt, a businesswoman from South Carolina, promised the
board she'd give him a job in her carpet company.

"He's really changed. And if there's any way, I can be - not a crutch
for him - but a helping hand," Cathy Walton told the board.

Parole board member Jennifer Garrett was generous with stern warnings
for the relatives.

"He has no excuse for not being successful this time out, but if he is
not successful, he's got major jail time in Alabama," Garrett told
Walton and other members of Phillips' family.

Muscle Shoals resident Rhonda Bratton, 27, was supported by her
parents, sister and Kate Richardson, of Aid to Inmate Mothers, a
Montgomery organization that helps female parolees find jobs and housing.

"She's had problems with drugs and alcohol. She is not a violent
offender," George Bratton said of his daughter, who would have been
eligible for parole in January, but her date was moved up because of
the special docket. "I had a problem 20 years ago, and I had to
straighten myself out," George Bratton said.

His daughter is serving 15 years for theft and receiving stolen
property.

Richardson found a spot for her at Birmingham's Aletheia House drug
treatment center, where she will spend the next two years.

Larry O'Steen, serving 10 years for two burglaries and drug
possession, also will get out early.

"Larry's not a danger to society. He was enrolled in a radiology
program," said his brother-in-law Stephen Edwards of Gulf Shores.

O'Steen's family, too, received helpful hints from the
board.

"If he comes back again, he's going to stay a long, long time," said
board member Don McGriff.

"We'll be sure to tell him that," O'Steen's sister Lonna O'Steen
said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin