{"id":1223,"date":"2010-10-16T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2010-10-16T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-17T05:00:00","slug":"flopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/2010\/10\/16\/flopped\/","title":{"rendered":"flopped"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Flopped. That is what the men in prison call it when they go in front of the parole board and get back a disappointing decision. Essentially, the board defers a decision but the men will be allowed to petition and be heard again in 2-10 years.<\/p>\n

In July, I wrote about my day with the parole board <\/a>where I observed two “Murder Review” hearings.\u00a0\u00a0 As I wrote then, the stated purpose of such hearings is to:\u00a0\u00a0\u201ddetermine whether or not\u00a0the inmate is likely to be rehabilitated within a reasonable period of time so that the offender\u2019s sentence may be converted to life with the possibility of parole, post-prison supervision, or work release.\u201d<\/p>\n

To give a quick summary, the cases I sat in on were both for aggravated murder; the question was whether the convicted men could prove themselves \u201crehabilitatable\u201d so that they might have the possibility<\/em> of parole at a future date.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first man presented over 100 pages of records, proof, and testimony that he has worked hard in his 20-years in prison to change and grow.\u00a0 He has \u201cprogrammed\u201d persistently and thoroughly, participating in many educational and cognitive courses and experiences over the years.\u00a0 His crime was a truly horrifying case of domestic violence \u2013 there really is no excuse for that crime and no making up for it, and the man acknowledges that.\u00a0 Members of the victim\u2019s family came\u00a0to testify at the hearing, and their grief and\u00a0pain was readily apparent.\u00a0 They fear his possible release 10 or more years in the future, and they hope that he will serve natural life in prison.\u00a0\u00a0 The district attorney who attended the hearing called this man \u201ca monster\u201d and also asked that he be found \u201cnot likely to be rehabilitated in a reasonable amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months later, the decision is in and the man was flopped.\u00a0 He can petition to go in front of the parole board to attempt to prove himself \"\"<\/a>“rehabilitatable” again in two years.\u00a0 I’m told it could have been worse; he could have been flopped for 10 years.<\/p>\n

He has about 9 years left on the mandatory part of his sentence, so he had no hope of getting out any time soon.\u00a0 But I’m left to wonder, what does it do to one’s psyche when you are told you are not rehabilitatable and given a list of reasons why the parole board believes that is the case.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s hard to imagine a more negative label.<\/p>\n

The man just got the decision from the parole board this week and he is still processing it.\u00a0 He’s trying to figure out what more he could have done and what more he can do over the next years to prove himself worthy of the possibility<\/em> of a second chance.\u00a0 I don’t know what it will take for him to get a more favorable decision; it’s obviously difficult to prove and judge change and possibility.\u00a0 I am very glad that I was simply an observer in this process. \u00a0 I would hate to have to go in front of a board every 2 years to prove my possible future worth or to have to sit in judgment on someone else’s.<\/p>\n

Poker-themed t-shirts available from Lush T Shirts.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flopped. That is what the men in prison call it when they go in front of the parole board and get back a disappointing decision. Essentially, the board defers a decision but the men will be allowed to petition and be heard again in 2-10 years. In July, I wrote about my day with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}