Arrest History Now Factored Into Parole Guidelines

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Prisoner Ricky Wheat looks out from his cell at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, in Jackson, Georgia. / The Associated Press

Georgia’s system for deciding parole just changed for the first time in a decade. Last month, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles approved new guidelines for determining if inmates should get out of prison early. One of the changes includes a person’s prior arrest history, rather than just their conviction history. We talked more about this with Adam Gelb of the Pew Charitable Trusts and Marissa McCall Dodson with the Southern Center for Human Rights.