Redemption Earned News Today

A bill to allow parole applicants to attend their hearings virtually and address the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles stalled in a House committee Wednesday after one legislator introduced major modifications to the legislation. Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, tried to submit changes to SB 312, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, during […] The post Alabama House committee delays bill allowing parole applicants to participate in hearings appeared first on Alabama Refle...

David Karp is a sociologist, as well as director of USD’s Center for Restorative Justice

A former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice runs a legal nonprofit, Redemption Earned, that helps aging and sick inmates win release from prison. Last year, 10% of Alabama prisoners received parole.

Alabama currently refuses to allow those given the privilege of earning their parole the opportunity to even be present at their own parole hearing.

Thousands of people are released from prisons and jails every year with conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and infectious diseases.

After spending 38 years in the Alabama prison system, one of the most violent and crowded in the nation, Larry Jordan felt lucky to live long enough to regain his freedom.

Life expectancy fell in the United States in 2021 for the second year in a row, a trend linked to COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic. But experts also say the trend underscores the lasting health consequences of mass incarceration. Research from the early 2000s suggests the death rate for people leaving prison was 3.5 times higher than the general population in the first few years after their release.

As U.S. life expectancy falls, experts say incarceration has serious health impacts. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of people in prison or jail in the developed world.

In a nation with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, imprisonment speeds the aging process, research shows. Some experts complain the federal government isn’t collecting or releasing data that could identify disease patterns and prevent deaths.

As U.S. life expectancy falls, experts say incarceration has serious health impacts. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of people in prison or jail in the developed world.