Q What does Parole look at in Texas? A Texas parole lawyer discusses the factors the Parole Board uses to decide.
The Texas Board will see and use a great deal of information when making there decision. Broadly speaking the Texas Parole Board uses a system called the parole guidelines. Under this system they use various types of information about the offender to assign them with a score. They use two general categories
- Offense Severity class
- Static and Dynamic factors.
The offense severity class is a ranking from low to highest that the Texas Parole Board has assigned to every offense in the Penal Code that could lead to prison. The static and dynamic factors are used to obtain a score between zero and 19. The lower the score the better in terms of an offenders likelihood of being granted parole. These factors include:
- Static Factors: age at the time the offender was first sent to prison as an adult or juvenile, employment history, prior incarcerations, parole history and the current offense.
- Dynamic factors: gang involvement, programs completed during incarceration, behavior while in prison, prison custody level and the offender’s current age.
Based on the two categories they arrive at a number between one and seven that purports to represent the offender’s probability of success on parole. Additionally, the parole board will look at factors such as drug and alcohol history, mental health history and will review information regarding their plans for parole. The parole board also will send out notices to victims asking if they would like to have input.
The parole board will also look at information in support of the offender such as letters from the offender’s support system and information about their plans if paroled. If you or a loved one’s parole is going to be decided soon please contact us. We can help to insure that the parole board sees all the relevant information in support of parole. We can create a parole packet in which we give the parole board as many reasons to vote for parole as possible. Additionally, we often correct misunderstandings that led to a parole guideline score that was not truly representative of our clients likelihood of success on parole. Call us at 713-651-1444 for a free consultation at our Houston office. Although our office is in Houston we practice across the state and have represented families in Austin, Dallas, McAllen, Fort Worth and San Antonio.
