It is time to rethink parole. Prisons are stuffed beyond capacity and efforts at reform have had minimal impact and have failed to provide any meaningful dividends.

The mantra of many parole boards is that parole is a privilege not a right. There are many legitimate reasons to deny that privilege – ongoing and persistent failure to conform to prison rules, refusal or failure to complete rehabilitation programs or a pattern of past failures on parole.

There is little an inmate can do to immediately correct a majority of the reasons for denying parole. Other than the passage of time along with a persistent effort to complete programming and a genuine commitment to planning a meaningful reintegration into society, inmates cannot easily undo a parole board’s decision to deny parole.

Parole is subjective. There are about 1.5 million men in women in America’s state and federal prisons. Most of those men and women will be released someday. Would it be beneficial to society, and the inmate, if release came quicker and the inmate was better prepared to succeed?

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