Parole Board briefs committee on hearings, presumptive parole, earned time and victim notification

Dean George, chair of the Parole Board, and Mary Jane Ainsworth, the board’s director, gave the Corrections & Institutions Committee a detailed briefing on Jan. 29 on how the board schedules and conducts hearings, the mechanics of presumptive parole, and operational issues including victim notification, earned time, and a counsel conflict.

Board operations and caseload: Ainsworth said the board held 694 hearings in 2024 involving people incarcerated or on community supervision, and that 152 individuals waived hearings (128 waived initial‑eligibility hearings and 24 waived parole‑violation hearings). The board has seven members; three members sit for each hearing date. The board schedules hearings primarily Tuesday–Thursday with an overflow Thursday each month and typically runs 10 hearing days per month.

Presumptive parole and the shift away from furlough: The pair described the Justice Reinvestment II changes that created presumptive parole and changed supervision practices. Under the board’s explanation, presumptive parole is an administrative review that can set conditions and parole placement without an in‑person hearing when a person meets statutory eligibility criteria and no disqualifying factors apply. Ainsworth said presumptive parole cases fell from around 12 in 2021 to…