Leigh Gwathney, Chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles speaks during a hearing in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. Gwathney faced sharp questioning from Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday over what they perceived as her unwillingness to answer questions about the parole process. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)
The chair of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles Wednesday faced withering questions from Democratic and Republican lawmakers frustrated by what they perceived as her unwillingness to answer questions about the state’s parole process.
Members of the Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee accused Leigh Gwathney and the state board of ducking inquiries from the committee earlier this year about parole grant rates; possible racial disparities in the parole grant rates, and potential correlations in the parole grant rates and the risk to reoffend.
“Madame chair, you said that you would answer the questions that day we sat in your office,” said Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, the chair of the committee. “You said that, so what has been going on from the time that you said that you would answer the questions to today, disregard? How could we interpret it any other way? It has been months.”