Alabama lawmakers distance themselves from parole board, families say loved ones ‘stuck for life’

The Alabama parole board was called out by legislators and family alike during a legislative meeting in Montgomery on Wednesday, with one lawmaker adding that the legislature isn’t responsible for the parole board’s pattern of denials.

“Pardons and paroles ought to be here... to hear what you have to say,” Rep. Jim Hill, a former judge and Republican from St. Clair County, told loved ones of Alabama prison inmates who showed up to tell lawmakers the horrors of what can happen inside state lockups.

Family members of people locked in Alabama’s prisons flooded the meeting for the Joint Prison Oversight Committee and told stories of their loved ones for 90 minutes. Those who spoke detailed the rapes, deaths, assaults, extortions and more of their loved ones.

And some focused on the state parole board.

One mother, Karen Gann, spoke about her son. An Army veteran with no criminal record, he’s currently serving 25 years in prison. She, like most family members who testified, didn’t reveal her son’s name. The committee had urged the speakers not to share any identifying information for the fears of retaliation.

“I read this in the paper,” said Gann. “People come up for parole and they’re denied.”

Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Autauga County, nodded his head and said, “yes ma’am.”

She continued, “I’ve tried everything I can… you can’t get nowhere because once they put you in there, they throw the key away.”

“You’re stuck for life.”

Another woman talked about Alabama denying parole to inmates who are otherwise considered safe to work in fast food and public jobs during the day. Michelle McCloud told the committee about her brother, who’s 49 and has been locked up for murder since he was a teenager.

Now, she said, he’s on work release. He earns dollars a day working in the community and returns to the prison only to sleep at night. Yet, he’s been denied parole five times. “We don’t understand why and what’s the problem,” she said.

“If (he) is good enough to work in society earning $2 per day, but can’t be trusted to come home where he has a supportive and loving family…. he’s constantly being denied parole and doesn’t understand why, and neither does his family. Because he’s doing everything that’s required of him, including working in public with limited restrictions.”

An attorney, Lauren Faraino, who often represents individuals up for parole, spoke towards the end of the meeting. She asked why several public officials weren’t in attendance, including the parole board members.

“The parole board needs to be here,” she said, “because they are absolutely a part of the problem.”

“They were invited,” Chambliss swiftly interjected. He then took the blame, saying he invited them 30 days ago and that he would invite the board with more advance notice for future hearings.

“I will get them an invitation earlier next time.”

Faraino said Leigh Gwathney, the parole board chairperson “simply puts a rubber stamp on every case.”

Gwathney, who was appointed to the board in 2019, votes to deny parole more than her two colleagues, Darryl Littleton and Gabrelle Simmons. She also often seeks to put off hearings and send inmates back to prison for another five years – the maximum time allowed by state law.

Following the public comments, committee members made closing remarks. Some of those focused on the parole board’s role in the prison crisis and their lack of accountability.

Hill detailed the three branches of government and explained that the legislature doesn’t have any control over the prison system or the parole board, as those fall under the executive branch of state government.

“Remember this. The legislative branch of government, which is what we are, what you’re looking at, we do not direct the day-to-day operations of the Department of Corrections or the Board of Pardons and Paroles.”

“We can offer suggestions, we can do some things that perhaps call certain things to their attention… But the day-to-day operations of the parole board are not supervised, they are not directed by the legislative branch of government.”

Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said public pressure on the board from the media and from family members has made a difference.

“This sort of accountability has changed things,” he said. He said the conversations happening publicly today about the prison system and parole board used to take place behind closed doors.

He cited the parole rate—just 8% in 2023—and the rise it’s taken in 2024.

“It’s not enough… but the fact of the matter is this sort of accountability, the attention you’re drawing to this issue, has increased the parole rate. Sad to say that, because it should be based on data, guidelines, and an actual risk assessment of the person that’s standing in front of them, but it’s hard to deny the fact that as the pressure has increased, the media attention has increased, and your involvement… has increased our parole rate.”

“So I can’t encourage it enough, your involvement is helping.”

He added, “Now is not the time to get discouraged and get mad and point fingers, now is the time to continue to organize, build your army, and continue fighting.”

The meeting’s last speaker was Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile. She isn’t on the committee, but she showed up to speak as all other family members had, sharing her son’s experience inside Alabama prisons.

“Please make this a priority for us,” she said.

“If it was really something that was important to us, we would do something about it.”