The California Alliance for Parole Reform is a community-based coalition advocating for fair and accessible pathways home from prison through the parole release process.
Our coalition has recognized a disturbing and undeniable pattern across our experiences as legal practitioners, community organizers, policy experts, formerly incarcerated advocates, service providers, and loved ones of incarcerated people navigating the discretionary parole process. Thousands of incarcerated community members are being denied parole for reasons that have nothing to do with their “dangerousness”, and everything to do with their differences. Parole applicants who have mental health conditions, disabilities, cognitive impairments, transgender or gender non-conforming identities, or different English language abilities, are far less likely to be granted parole than their counterparts. Emerging research shows that Black parole applicants are up to three times less likely to be granted parole than any other race, and that those who cannot afford a private attorney are half as likely to be granted parole than those who retained a private attorney. In our own work, we have seen far too many of our community members and loved ones be denied parole for arbitrary reasons, despite the tremendous work they had done to transform themselves and prepare to rejoin their communities.
In response to these injustices, our organizations have come together to educate the public about the broken discretionary parole system and to advocate for policy change. We believe that parole decision-making should be fair, transparent, and accountable to the public, and our advocacy is guided by our belief that everyone is capable of change and healing, and that all people are worthy of freedom and dignity.
The founding members of our coalition are the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, UnCommon Law, Initiate Justice, Californians for Safety and Justice, Smart Justice California, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and ACLU Northern California.