MaKayla Phifer, an advocate with VOCAL (Victims of Crime and Leniency), testifies before the Board of Pardons and Paroles during a hearing in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. The parole board finalized new guidelines to determine an applicant’s fitness for release last week. (Stew Milne for Alabama ReflectorReflector)
The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles finalized new parole guidelines on Thursday after allowing the public to review and comment on them for the past several weeks.
The finalized version, announced Friday, is nearly identical to one that the parole board made available for comment at the end of May. The major changes involve an increase in weights given the severity of the original offense for parole applicants and more consideration of applicants’ behavior, both positive and negative, while incarcerated…