NCJ Number
98658
Date Published
1985
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This General Accounting Office (GAO) study examines (1) how the Federal Parole Commission makes parole decisions in cases involving organized crime figures and major drug traffickers, (2) the completeness of information given the commission for use in parole decisions in these cases, and (3) the impact of parole and 'good time' in reducing prison terms for these offenders.
Abstract
To determine how the commission makes parole decisions for organized crime figures and major drug traffickers as well as the completeness of the information as well as the completeness of the information given the commission to use in making these decisions, GAO examined 227 offender cases. To determine the impact parole and 'good time' had on reducing prison terms served by these offenders, cases were examined in 37 judicial districts where the greatest number of these offenders had been sentenced. The commission generally follows the same procedures of decisionmaking for all cases, including those involving organized crime figures and major drug traffickers. Since the GAO 1982 report criticizing the incompleteness of information given the commission, various actions have been taken to increase the amount of relevant information available to the commission. Of the 1,044 organized crime figures and major drug traffickers sentenced between January 1962 and July 1983 in the selected judicial districts, the commission made decisions for 676 of these offenders, granting parole to 390 offenders and denying it to 286. The commission made no decision for 193 offenders, and 175 were ineligible for parole. The median sentence imposed for the 390 paroled offenders was 120 months, and the median time served was 50 months. The appendixes contain guidelines for the commission's parole decisionmaking, and tabular data are provided.