The Texas Parole Board considers over seventy thousand inmates for parole per year. A Texas Parole Attorney discusses these numbers

    Looking at the decade from 2002 to 2011 it is truly staggering the number of decisions made by the eighteen individuals that compromise the Texas Board Members and Commissioners.  Over that decade the number of parole considerations were 704,992. Although different members and boards votes vary to gain perspective it is helpful to look at averages.  Given these numbers each board office decided over 117,000 parole reviews. It is hard to put such a large number into perspective so lets look at the last two years. In 2011 the Parole Board made 77,405 decisions regarding an inmates parole and in 2010 the Texas Parole Board decided 77,542 individual cases.  To place those numbers into perspective during each year they decided cases of more individuals than could fit into Reliant football stadium.   On average this would mean each parole office decides over 12,500 parole reviews per year, roughly 240 a week or almost 50 per day.  These numbers do not include the additional thousands of cases in which the board is considering an inmate for mandatory supervision.

    It is clear from these numbers that Parole Board members each have an overwhelming number of decisions to make regarding the granting or denying of parole.  Given these staggering numbers it is hard to know how closely they are able to look at each individual case beyond the numbers reached from the Parole Guidelines and the summary of the offense and criminal history.  As Texas Parole attorneys we understand the emotional importance this vote has and the complex set of circumstances that lead to incarceration and that indicate weather a person will succeed on parole.  Often information relevant to deciding whether or not someone should be granted parole is not captured by the parole guidelines or other information provided to the parole board by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  As experienced Texas Parole attorneys we believe it is necessary to obtain as much information about the client and their support system and then make sure that the information gets before the Texas Parole board member who is deciding their case.

    If you are trying to help someone in a Texas prison obtain parole, contact the experienced Texas Parole attorneys at Topek and Topek.  We represent inmates in prisons across the state of Texas and have clients with families in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Galveston and cities across the state.