Thank you for writing to me. This letter is being sent to you and your fellow inmates in my continued effort to keep you updated on the current issues regarding parole and parole related issues. The following reflects some changes that will be affecting the inmate population:

Congratulations to Texas! It now has more people in prison than any other state in the United States. Only the country of China has more people in prison than Texas. What, a wonderful honor!

A new report from the analyst at the Legislature Budget Board warns that Texas prisons are filling to capacity again and may soon be overflowing due to our courts continuing to sentence offenders directly to prison. The Budget Board advises lawmakers on budget trends which will be coming before the Legislature. It is their analysis the present 150,000 bed prison system will probably exceed its operating capacity sometime in the year 2005. Based upon the present trends the Legislative Budget Board indicates there will be approximately 500 more inmates by the summer of 2005 and should the present trend continue there will be approximately 5000 too many inmates in the prison system by 2008. In response to this report, Governor Rick Perry's spokesman, Robert Black stated that Governor Perry is considering leasing county jail space at the onset and building more prisons for the long-term. The Legislative Budget Board report attributes the rising prison population to both the growth in direct sentencing to prison from the court system and the rates at which parolees are being revoked.

State Senator John Whitmire, the Chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, warned that the State may be edging toward a new prison building boom. The overcrowding is occurring even though the State has added a new 1000 bed unit in Bryan which should be opening in August 2004. Senator Whitmire attributed part of the overcrowding to the low parole release rates and the high revocation rates of parolees and probationers.

It is my opinion there is a strong probability, even though the State of Texas has a budget problem, the Legislature will elect to build more prisons to hold more inmates. This will occur because of strong political pressure placed upon the Legislature by the contractors and suppliers to the contractors who will be building prisons and the small counties lobbying to have prisons placed in their communities. The combination of these two political entities will almost assure there will be new prisons built to house even more inmates of the State of Texas.

Having represented inmates through the last building boom, it is also my prediction once the prison capacity is increased the parole release rate will fall from the present release rate of approximately 28% back to a low of approximately 20%. The courts, TDCJ, the Parole Board, and the parole division will be unable to resist the need to fill up the vacant beds in the new prisons. At the start of 2003, Tony Fabelo, the head of the State Criminal Justice Policy Counsel warned the Legislature the prison population was going to increase because of a decline in prison release rates and an increase in the parole revocation rates. He also warned about the transfer from county facilities and those inmates convicted and sent to prison by the court system would grow approximately 10%. The Legislature no longer has the use of this very valuable information because Governor Perry, in his infinite wisdom, vetoed funding for the Criminal Justice Policy Counsel. Now it is almost impossible to get statistical information on parole release rates, revocation of parole rates, probation revocation rates or Parole Board member votes. This information is now contained in the various bureaucratic offices and almost impossible to find.

I strongly recommend to those inmates who have a chance of receiving parole within the next two years to actively work at getting their information to the Parole Board as soon as possible so the Parole Board can review it. Inmates will have the best chance of receiving a favorable parole vote in the next two years, because of the overcrowding situation developing. When the building process commences, it is almost certain the parole release rate will begin to fall back to the 17% release rate as it did during the last prison building era .

SB-45 Votes and the New Parole Board:

Since the change in the Parole Board from the 18-member Board to the present 7-member Board, no longer will it require at least 12 votes to receive release to parole for SB-45 inmates. Since the law requiring a 3/4 vote of the Board Members is still in effect, an SB-45 inmate will only need 5 of the 7 Board Members to receive a favorable vote.

Changes in Parole Boards since my last news letter:

AMARILLO BOARD
Board Commissioner, James C. Poland, over 30-years in criminal justice experience; prior experience as an Institutional Parole Officer, Parole Analyst, Program Administrator, and Director.

GATESVILLE BOARD
Parole Commissioner, Dan Guerra, former Amarillo Board Member has resigned from the Parole Board as of July 30, 2004. The Gatesville Parole Board will become a one person Board until the Governor or the head of the Parole Board replaces Mr. Guerra with a new Commissioner. Beginning August 2004 Gerald Garrett will be assisting Board Member, Juanita Gonzales two days a week in voting parole release cases. Because of the shortage of members at the Parole Board, there will be rotating members coming through this office to assist Ms. Gonzales in voting cases.

HUNTSVILLE BOARD
Board Member, Elvis Hightower, is a former prison warden with 11 years experience as a warden. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Sam Houston State University. He was appointed in 2004 and his term expires in 2007.

Board Commissioner, Paul Kiel Jr.; former Board Member of the Palestine Parole Board; over 20-years experience with the TDCJ-Parole Division.

Current Events:
Blakley v Washington; 2004 U.S. Lexis 4573 (June 24, 2004). In short, in a five to four majority decision authored by Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court held that a sentencing court may not increase a defendant's sentence by finding a fact unless the jury found that fact to be true by proof beyond a reasonable doubt or the defendant admitted to that fact under oath when entering his plea of guilty. The Court ruled the sentencing guidelines system used by the State of Washington, which is very similar to the guidelines system used by the United States of America, was unconstitutional. In its ruling, the court indicated where there are exacerbating facts in a criminal matter, these facts must be determined by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. No longer can a judge increase the range of punishment pursuant to a guidelines system without there first being some sort of pleading indicating what these exacerbating facts are and these facts must be proved by the evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt." I have had many letters written to me by inmates indicating this will affect enhancements in Texas. A sentence increase based on a finding by the judge rather than a jury violates the Sixth Amendment. Based upon my reading of this case, it will not have any effect on Texas cases in which there has been an increase in punishment because of prior criminal acts. Texas has always required the enhancement counts be pled in the indictment and the jury or judgement findings, based on the evidence, where there were prior criminal acts that occurred and where there has been a final conviction on these acts.

Ex Parte, Mabry;74,864 (Tex.Cr.App.2004) delivered June 9, 2004; In 1990, Mabry was convicted of burglary of a habitation and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, probated for 10 years. In 1991, Mabry's probation was revoked, and he was sentenced to 10 years confinement in TDCJ. He was convicted on a plea of guilty for the offense of theft of property of $750 or less and was sentenced to a 15-year term in prison on July 23, 1991. He was released on parole or mandatory supervision on July 8, 1996 with an expiration date of May 25, 2006 (just under 10 years). A parole-violator warrant was issued on October 20, 1998, but was subsequently withdrawn on February 5, 1999. He was returned to custody at TDCJ on March 25, 1999 and re-released on January 26, 2000. This detention was for a new conviction, however, and Applicant's parole was not revoked. On April 19, 2000, another parole-violator warrant was issued, but the warrant was later withdrawn on June 22, 2000. He was again returned to TDCJ on August 3, 2000 and re-released on January 18, 2001, but his mandatory supervision for this cause was not revoked. On August 6, 2001, a summons relating to this cause was issued. On September 4, 2001, a parole violator warrant was issued for this cause and his mandatory supervision was revoked on the same date. He applied for street-time credit, but was denied on June 18, 2002 due to not meeting mid-point. Prison officials concluded that Mabry's offense was not eligible for mandatory supervision. Mabry filed a writ application arguing that he is entitled to credit for his street-time and that his offense should be designated as eligible for mandatory supervision. The court ruled, because there was no indication that he was armed with explosives or a deadly weapon and no party was injured, the law at the time of his offense date entitled him to mandatory supervision, and because of the number of days he had previously served during various returns to prison totaled more than one-half of his sentence, he was entitled to credit for time spent on parole.

Ex Parte, Nelson; Habeas Corpus relief denied despite possible merit to defendant claim because defendant failed to raise claims on direct appeal. Another hit by the court to the Writ of Habeas Corpus in Texas.

Ballard v State; Enhancement of failure to register as a sex offender offense with prior sex offense used to establish primary offense, improper. The State cannot divide defendant's single conviction into several "occurrences" in order to use the same conviction both to prove an element of the offense of failing to register and to enhance the punishment for that offense.

Parole Approval Rates:
Presently, I am unable to give you a complete breakdown of the parole release rates as I have done in the past. The Criminal Justice Policy Council which was the agency that compiled the statistical analysis of the Parole Board Members votes, has been dissolved. This information is now being compiled by the Legislative Budget Board. The following are the release rates for June 2004, the percentage is the year to date percentage:

Retaining An Attorney:
One of the first things that an inmate or his/her family should know is that all documentation contained within an inmate's file is negative. Part of what I do, is present a person to the Board, instead of just another TDCJ inmate number that represents one more convicted felon who is eligible for parole that the Parole Board is going to spend about 2 - 3 minutes deciding on whether to release to parole or not. I must get the Board's attention, hold their attention and present a human being to them, who although convicted of a crime or crimes is a good candidate for release to parole and why.

Why should an inmate hire an attorney to represent him before the Parole Board? Although I do not have any facts about the tasks performed by other attorneys when representing an inmate, I can explain to you some of the tasks I perform which may be part of why my fees are sometimes higher than others. I conduct a thorough investigation of the inmate's life and gather any and all documented facts, among other things. Initially, a questionnaire exceeding 100 questions is sent out to each client, the trial attorney is contacted if possible, court documents are gathered, medical records and psychological reports are gathered, TDCJ records such as minute sheets, time sheets, disciplinary records, etc. are gathered, trial transcripts are purchased, appellate briefs and any and all other such documentation is gathered, read and analyzed. Upon completion of the investigative stage, a personalized package for each client is then prepared and submitted to the Board along with a request to appear before the Board to argue in my client's behalf. Also, when I am hired well in advance, I am able to work with the inmate to assist him/her in preparing himself/herself to be as favorably reviewed as possible. As you can see, there is an extraordinary amount of work involved to meet the standards and requirements I have set for myself in thoroughly representing an inmate and it is a very time consuming and work intensive job. Time is always of the essence and the more time I have to perform the tasks at hand by being hired well in advance of the inmate's eligibility date, the better for my client. Every inmate is eventually going to be reviewed by the Board. If I am hired well in advance of an inmate's eligibility date, I will have the needed time frame within which to help prepare an inmate to be a good candidate for release to parole, to gather the needed information and prepare the written documentation to be submitted to the Board, and to argue in behalf of my client before the Board if granted an appearance.

If you decide to hire me and do so well in advance of your eligibility date, I can design a time payment plan for your family or loved ones, but I must be paid in full before I submit the parole package or notice to appear before the Parole Board to argue for the inmates release to parole. If you wait until the last minute, the entire fee is going to be due immediately. The time payment plan has been very helpful to many of my clients who have limited financial resources and thereby allowed them to hire me without causing them financial distress because they have hired me many months or even years in advance. (I was able to help such a family convince the Parole Board to release an inmate to a FI-1 parole with two aggravated robbery convictions on first parole case this year because they hired me well in advance and I was able to work with the inmate for many years prior to his review.)

Therefore, should you wish to hire me to assist you with parole or any parole related issues, time is of the essence. There is no time to waste. A competent parole attorney must have a minimum of 3-months prior to the 6-month review stage of an inmate's file by the Board to investigate, gather documentation and produce a worthwhile parole assistance package. The investigative stage conducted by this office is a very time consuming and expensive matter and requires a considerable amount of dedication and work to complete. Do not wait until your file is almost in review status or in review status to hire an attorney. By documenting every aspect of my client's life, his/her accomplishments, his/her rehabilitation, as well as many other factors, along with the credibility I have built with the Board Members, are some of the reasons I have been able to maintain an 80% release rate for my clients over the many years I have represented inmates before the Board.

Parole Assistance:
Many inmates and their families contact me regarding parole assistance. Unfortunately, a great deal of the time, I am unable to offer my assistance due to the fact they have waited too late to contact me and there is just simply nothing I can do. Parole assistance is a time-consuming task and much of our work is done far in advance of the parole eligibility date. The packages prepared by this office are not some type of a form which simply requires us to "fill in the blanks." Each package is individualized and therefore there is a lot of work that must be done well in advance of an inmate's parole eligibility date. My packages will meet my very high standards as well as the Board's expectations from me. I will not lower or compromise these standards or expectations for any reason. Should you decide to obtain my services to prepare a parole assistance package, do so well in advance of your parole eligibility date. Some Parole Boards are presently voting on some files 4 months prior to the first review date. Once a set-off is received, there is no appeal from the Parole Board's decision and a special review is very difficult to obtain.

Parole Revocation:
Should you receive the privilege of parole, dutifully abide by the stipulations and regulations placed upon you. However, if you find yourself in the revocation process, please do not hesitate to contact me immediately. A parole revocation hearing occurs within 30-days of being incarcerated unless there is a preliminary hearing.

Time is of the essence to prepare you and your file for your potential release to parole or defend you at a parole revocation hearing. Although there is no guarantee of the results from my representation and assistance to you regarding your legal issues, I assure you I will do so in a professional and diligent manner.

Representation of Inmates:
I would like to state there are some individuals who are preying upon inmates and their families offering parole assistance who are not licensed attorneys. For your protection as well as your family members or loved one(s) please be informed, if you are considering hiring anyone other than a licensed attorney to assist you, take heed that the law requires under Govt. Code 508.083 (a) A person who represents inmates for compensation must: (1) be a licensed attorney licensed in this state; and (2) register with the division.

Please do not send any of your documentation to me prior to retaining me. On numerous occasions, inmates who have not retained my services have sent documentation to me requesting that I review it. I am sorry to say that I cannot perform that type of free service. I am contractually obligated to spend my time working on the files of paying clients. Also, I cannot and will not be responsible for such documentation nor can I afford to pay postage cost to return it, therefore it must be destroyed. So please, unless I am your retained attorney, do not send any of your documentation to this office.

Again, thank you for writing to me. I hope I have answered some of your questions and also updated you on some of the current parole related issues. Whatever your decision may be, I wish you the very best of luck. Remember, now is the time to prepare for your possible release to parole.