Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 15, 1990                   TAG: 9004150051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOARD'S DECISIONS NOT MADE IN ONE MEETING

The board does not get together "like on television, where the parole board sits around a table" and inmates come before it for hearings, board member Lewis Hurst said.

Instead, members circulate inmates' case files among themselves, review the files and vote independently.

Seven parole examiners prepare the files for a vote. The examiners visit the prisons, collect data on the inmates, bring back progress reports written by prison counselors and make recommendations to the board.

It takes four or five days to get through a voting cycle after the first board member receives a case from a parole examiner. An inmate needs three affirmative votes from the five board members to receive parole. One with a life sentence needs four votes.

Parole board members take a number of factors into account before granting a prisoner parole, Hurst said.

"Being a model prisoner is only a small portion of what we consider. You're expected to behave yourself in prison."

An inmate's release plan is important. Parole board members like to know that an inmate has supportive family and friends and job opportunities waiting.

Board members also consider an inmate's needs. If an alcohol or drug problem caused the inmate to become involved in crime, the board usually imposes a condition of parole: that the inmate get into a treatment program.

Board members also consider criminal records and the nature of the inmate's crime. "Premeditated, heinous offenses throw up red flags," he said. "In rape cases, in particular, when you have a burglary in the nighttime in the commission of rape, red flags fly up through the air. I, through experience, feel that person is a true rapist," he said.

"The bottom line for us is what is the risk? We make a decision based on the least amount of risk . . . There are some kooks in our prison system who deserve to be in there for life and there are some people who are very deserving and worthy of a chance to prove themselves."

In recent years, the parole board also has begun considering input from victims and their families.

Hurst spends several days a month meeting with victims, attorneys, interested citizens or friends and family of inmates to hear their input.