Texas Parole Guidelines Annual Report: 2011 Page: 4
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HISTORY OF THE PAROLE GUIDELINES
Pnor to 1984, both parole and executive clemency acts required the affirmative action of the Board of
Pardons and Paroles and the Governor before relief could be given Statutory changes made by the
68th Legislature had a significant impact on agency operations in fiscal year 1984 Article IV, Section
11 of the Texas Constitution was amended to remove the governor from the parole process and make
the Board of Pardons and Paroles the final parole authonty for the state Senate Bill 396 designated the
Board as a statutory agency with exclusive authonty to approve paroles, increased Board membership
to six members to be appointed by the governor, and gave the Board authonty to revoke paroles and
issue warrants for the arrest of administrative release violators
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (Board) used Salient and Significant Factor Score sheets
when making parole decisions The Salient Factor score sought to classify parole candidates according
to their risk for succeeding or failing under parole supervision The Significant Factor reflected the
seriousness of the offense committed If parole was denied, an offender was set-off and the case was
reviewed within one year, or was given a serve-all where the offender remained in pnson until released
to mandatory supervision or until discharged sentence in prison
The Board adopted the PABLO Scale in 1983 to assist board members to use similar critena when
making parole decisions It calculated the level or nsk of an offender by evaluating the offender's rating
on twenty variables, which included cnminal history, juvenile history, substance abuse history, age at
the time of the offense, education, etc
The legislature mandated that the Board incorporate parole guidelines, with minmum release critena,
into parole decision-making in 1985 The guidelines were to be developed according to acceptable
research methods and be based on the seriousness of the offense and the likelihood of a favorable parole
outcome
The Board replaced the PABLO Scale with parole guidelines that combined measurements of parole
nsks with PABLO Scale to define the parole nsk score in 1987 The risk factors consisted of mne
vanables that have been shown to be associated with recidivism (number of prior convictions, number of
prior incarcerations, age at first incarceration, commitment offense, number of pnor parole or probation
violations, history of alcohol/drug dependence, employment history, level of education, and release
plan) The offense seventy assigned the most severe offense the offender was serving time for into one
of four levels (aggravated, high severity, medium seventy, and low seventy) Finally, the time served
item was used to adjust the risk and offense severity score
The actual formula for computing the parole score was as follows
Parole Score = [(Risk/Offense Severity) + percent of Time Served]X 1 9
When the computed score reached a certain score, the Board could set a tentative parole date that could
be over-ridden by the Board at its discretion However, the reasons for over-ndes had to conform to a
limited set of over-ride factors established by the BoardTexas Board of Pardons and Paroles
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Texas. Board of Pardons and Paroles. Texas Parole Guidelines Annual Report: 2011, report, 2011; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth624409/m1/4/?q=%222010-09-01%2F2011-08-31%22: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.