United States Parole Commission

Last updated

The United States Parole Commission is the parole board responsible for granting or denying parole to, and supervising the parole releases of, incarcerated individuals who fall under its jurisdiction. [1] It is part of the United States Department of Justice.

Contents

Jurisdiction

The commission has jurisdiction over:

  1. Persons who committed a federal offense before November 1, 1987
  2. Persons who committed a D.C. Code offense before August 5, 2000
  3. Persons who committed a Uniform Code of Military Justice offense and are parole-eligible
  4. Persons who are serving prison terms imposed by foreign countries and have been transferred to the United States to serve their sentence [1]

Additionally, the Commission has the responsibility to supervise two additional groups for whom they do not have parole jurisdiction:

  1. Persons who committed a D.C. Code offense after August 4, 2000
  2. Persons who have been placed on probation or paroled by a state that have also been placed in the United States Federal Witness Protection Program. [1]

History

Initially known as the United States Board of Parole, [2] the board had three members and was established by legislation on May 13, 1930 as an independent board. The first chairperson was Arthur DeLacy Wood. As a result of an order of the Attorney General, the Board began reporting directly to him in August 1945. Further legislation was passed on September 30, 1950 which placed the Board under the Department of Justice. [3]

Congress passed the Parole Commission and Reorganization Act which took effect in May 1976. The Board was re-titled the United States Parole Commission. The Act also incorporated the regions that had been established by a prior pilot project, required explicit guidelines for decision making, required written rejections, and established an appeal process. The Comprenhensive Crime Control Act of 1984 brought major changes to the Commission. While preserving the Commission's jurisdiction over persons who committed offenses prior to November 1, 1987, it established determinate sentences for federal crimes; thus federal prisoners after that date are not eligible for parole consideration. [3]

Although the Commission was to be abolished in 1992, the life of the Commission was extended by the Judicial Improvements Act of 1990, the Parole Commission Phaseout Act of 1996, and the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act of 2002. The 1996 act required the Attorney General to report annually beginning in 1998 on whether the Commission remained cost effective. The 2002 act extended the life of the commission until November 2005. [3]

The "United States Parole Commission Extension and Sentencing Commission Authority Act of 2005", Pub. L. No. 109-76, 119 Stat. 2035, extended the life of the USPC until November 2008.

The "United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2008", Pub. L. No. 110-312, 122 Stat. 3013, extended the life of the USPC until November 2011.

The "United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2011", Pub. L. No. 112–44, 125 Stat. 532, extended the life of the USPC until November 2013. [4]

The United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2013, Pub. L. No. 113-47, 127 Stat. 572, extended the life of the USPC until November 2018. [5]

The "United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2018", Pub. L. No. 115-274, 132 Stat. 4163, extended the life of the USPC until November 2020. [6]

The "United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2020", Sec. 4201-4203 of the "Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act", Pub. L. No. 116-159, 134 Stat. 709, extended the life of the USPC until November 2022. [7]

Commissioners

NamePositionAppointed ByYear Appointed
Patricia K. CushwaActing Chairman George W. Bush 2004
Charles T. MassaroneCommissioner Barack Obama 2012 [8]
vacant
vacant
vacant

[9]

See also

Related Research Articles

A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction.

Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parole</span> Provisional release of a prisoner who agrees to certain conditions

Parole is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or else they may be rearrested and returned to prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment by the United States federal government</span> Legal penalty in the United States

Capital punishment is a legal punishment under the criminal justice system of the United States federal government. It is the most serious punishment that could be imposed under federal law. The serious crimes that warrant this punishment include treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempted murder of a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases.

A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand. A related concept is the board of pardons and paroles, which may deal with pardons and commutations as well as paroles.

Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term of imprisonment for certain crimes, commonly serious or violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are instituted to expedite the sentencing process and limit the possibility of irregularity of outcomes due to judicial discretion. Mandatory sentences are typically given to people who are convicted of certain serious and/or violent crimes, and require a prison sentence. Mandatory sentencing laws vary across nations; they are more prevalent in common law jurisdictions because civil law jurisdictions usually prescribe minimum and maximum sentences for every type of crime in explicit laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Kidnapping Act</span> United States federal criminal law prohibitting kidnapping

Following the historic Lindbergh kidnapping, the United States Congress passed a federal kidnapping statute—known as the Federal Kidnapping Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1) —which was intended to let federal authorities step in and pursue kidnappers once they had crossed state lines with their victim. The act was first proposed in December 1931 by Missouri Senator Roscoe Conkling Patterson, who pointed to several recent kidnappings in the Missouri area in calling for a federal solution. Initial resistance to Patterson's proposal was based on concerns over funding and state's rights. Consideration of the law was revived following the kidnapping of Howard Woolverton in late January 1932. Woolverton's kidnapping featured prominently in several newspaper series researched and prepared in the weeks following his abduction, and were quite possibly inspired by it. Two such projects, by Bruce Catton of the Newspaper Enterprise Association and Fred Pasley of the Daily News of New York City, were ready for publication within a day or two of the Lindbergh kidnapping. Both series, which ran in papers across North America, described kidnapping as an existential threat to American life, a singular, growing crime wave in which no one was safe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act</span>

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA) is a United States federal law providing formula grants to states that follow a series of federal protections on the care and treatment of youth in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems.

Title 18 of the United States Code is the main criminal code of the federal government of the United States. The Title deals with federal crimes and criminal procedure. In its coverage, Title 18 is similar to most U.S. state criminal codes, which typically are referred to by names such as Penal Code, Criminal Code, or Crimes Code. Typical of state criminal codes is the California Penal Code. Many U.S. state criminal codes, unlike the federal Title 18, are based on the Model Penal Code promulgated by the American Law Institute.

The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims, and abolished in 1982. Then, its jurisdiction was assumed by the newly created United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and United States Claims Court, which was later renamed the Court of Federal Claims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal sentencing in the United States</span> Overview of criminal sentencing in the United States

In the United States, sentencing law varies by jurisdiction. The jurisdictions in the US legal system are federal, state, regional, and county. Each jurisdictional entity has governmental bodies that create common, statutory, and regulatory law, although some legal issues are handled more often at the federal level, while other issues are the domain of the states. Civil rights, immigration, interstate commerce, and constitutional issues are subject to federal jurisdiction. Issues such as domestic relations, which includes domestic violence; marriage and divorce; corporations; property; contracts; and criminal laws are generally governed by states, unless there is federal preemption.

In the United States, the law for murder varies by jurisdiction. In many US jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first-degree murder and felony murder are the most serious, followed by second-degree murder and, in a few states, third-degree murder, which in other states is divided into voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter such as reckless homicide and negligent homicide, which are the least serious, and ending finally in justifiable homicide, which is not a crime. However, because there are at least 52 relevant jurisdictions, each with its own criminal code, this is a considerable simplification.

Federal parole in the United States is a system that is implemented by the United States Parole Commission. Persons eligible for federal parole include persons convicted under civilian federal law of offenses which were committed on or before November 1, 1987, persons convicted under District of Columbia law for offenses committed before August 5, 2000, "transfer treaty" inmates, persons who violated military law who are in federal civilian prisons, and persons who are defendants in state cases and who are under the U.S. Marshals Service Witness Protection Program.

Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 556 (1883), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that followed the death of one member of a Native American tribe at the hands of another on reservation land. Crow Dog was a member of the Brulé band of the Lakota Sioux. On August 5, 1881 he shot and killed Spotted Tail, a Lakota chief; there are different accounts of the background to the killing. The tribal council dealt with the incident according to Sioux tradition, and Crow Dog paid restitution to the dead man's family. However, the U.S. authorities then prosecuted Crow Dog for murder in a federal court. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984</span> 1984 United States law reforming federal criminal statutes and procedures

The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 was the first comprehensive revision of the U.S. criminal code since the early 1900s. It was sponsored by Strom Thurmond (R-SC) in the Senate and by Hamilton Fish IV (R-NY) in the House, and was eventually incorporated into an appropriations bill that passed with a vote of 78–11 in the Senate and 252–60 in the House. It was then signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. Among its constituent parts and provisions were:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal law in the Marshall Court</span>

The Marshall Court (1801–1835) heard forty-one criminal law cases, slightly more than one per year. Among such cases are United States v. Simms (1803), United States v. More (1805), Ex parte Bollman (1807), United States v. Hudson (1812), Cohens v. Virginia (1821), United States v. Perez (1824), Worcester v. Georgia (1832), and United States v. Wilson (1833).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal law in the Taney Court</span> Aspect of U.S. judicial history (1836–1864)

The Taney Court heard thirty criminal law cases, approximately one per year. Notable cases include Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), United States v. Rogers (1846), Ableman v. Booth (1858), Ex parte Vallandigham (1861), and United States v. Jackalow (1862).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimes Act of 1790</span> US bill

The Crimes Act of 1790, formally titled An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes Against the United States, defined some of the first federal crimes in the United States and expanded on the criminal procedure provisions of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Crimes Act was a "comprehensive statute defining an impressive variety of federal crimes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimes Act of 1825</span> U.S. federal law

The Crimes Act of 1825, formally titled An Act more effectually to provide for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States, and for other purposes, was the first piece of omnibus federal criminal legislation since the Crimes Act of 1790. In general, the 1825 act provided more punishment than the 1790 act. The maximum authorized sentence of imprisonment was increased from 7 to 10 years; the maximum fine from $5,000 to $10,000. But, the punishments of stripes and pillory were not provided for.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2013</span>

The United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2013 is a federal law that extended the existence of the United States Parole Commission an additional five years until November 2018. The law also requires the Commission to file a report with Congress on their activities. The United States Parole Commission is the parole board responsible to grant or deny parole and to supervise those released on parole to incarcerated individuals who come under its jurisdiction. It is part of the United States Department of Justice.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Mission". U.S. Parole Commission. Archived from the original on 2006-08-06. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  2. ↑ "Organization, Mission and Functions Manual: United States Parole Commission". 27 August 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-07-27.
  3. 1 2 3 "History of the Federal Parole System". U.S. Parole Commission. Archived from the original on 2006-08-16. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  4. ↑ "H.R. 2944: United States Parole Commission Extension Act of 2011" . Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  5. ↑ "H.R. 3190 - All Actions". United States Congress. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "Public Law 115-274" (PDF). United States Congress. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  7. ↑ "Public Law 116-159" (PDF). United States Congress. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  8. ↑ "DOJ:USPC: Parole in the District of Columbia". Archived from the original on 2013-01-13.
  9. ↑ "Meet the Commissioners". 12 January 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.