Prof. Reitz Quoted in The New York Times Magazine Regarding Parole for Inmates Serving Life Sentences

Professor Kevin Reitz was quoted in a New York Times Magazine article entitled “Can You Talk Your Way Out of a Life Sentence?” He explained that, as an inmate “[y]ou have about 3 percent of the procedural rights before a parole board as you would in a courtroom. The parole board has more power over a state’s prison population than all the judges in that state, but they have no job security. So they’re extremely vulnerable politically, but they have extreme power over incarceration policy. To me that’s a terrible combination—they live in an atmosphere of fear and risk-aversion.” Prof. Reitz added that he favors a system with diminished parole board discretion that would “put prisoners in control to some degree of their release date.”