September 15 , 2006

Thank you for writing to me. This letter is written in an effort to continue to keep inmates updated on the current issues regarding parole and parole related matters, as well as to address some of the repetitive questions asked in the letters I receive from the inmate population. The statistics I cite in this letter regarding the Parole Approval Rates and the individual Parole Board Members approval rates are from TDCJ’s own internal documents. I do not compile these statistics myself, instead I have required the State of Texas, through a great deal of effort on my part, to relay this information so you may have some viable information to base your decisions on. I cannot reveal all of the information I have received from the State of Texas in this letter due to the postage expenses involved in mailing this information to over 2000 inmates. I have reflected this information on my web page (address above) and it is available there through your families or loved ones to download.

PAROLE BOARDS AND THEIR MEMBERS:

Tony Garcia the ex-Parole Board Member who served for over 3- years at the Gatesville Parole Board has returned to the Parole Board as a Palestine Parole Board Commissioner.

PAROLE APPROVAL RATES:
(Month to month voting percentage of the 6 Boards combined.)

In my last newsletter I indicated the Parole Board voting pattern was trending downward from 30% toward a 25% overall release rate. This appears to have occurred. The last six months have remained around the 25% release rate. It appears the Parole Board fells more comfortable with a 25% overall release rate. This is occurring even though the prison over crowding continue to escalate and more prisoners are being held in county jails for a longer periods before being sent to TDCJ and others are being kept in county jails instead of being sent to TDCJ units ( see more information in legislative news section of this news letter).

APPROVAL RATES BY BOARD MEMBERS:

HUNTSVILLE

GATESVILLE

ANGLETON

AMARILLO

PALESTINE

SAN ANTONIO

WHY SHOULD AN INMATE CONSIDER HIRING AN ATTORNEY FOR PAROLE ASSISTANCE:

Since my last letter, CBS 11 News in Dallas broke a story about an ex-convict pretending to be an attorney with a “parole consulting firm” called Parole and Probation Services. The non-attorney, Mr. Johnson, has been returned to TDCJ and the Attorney General’s office as well as the State Bar of Texas are continuing to investigate any attorney associated with Mr. Johnson. The Office of the Inspector General is investigating Parole and Probation Services Inc. Parole and Probation Consulting, Parole Legal Services and National Parole Services Inc.

In the 11-years I have been representing inmates before the Parole Board, I have discovered that when inmates and/or their families, contact my office, they are searching for someone to guarantee parole will be granted. I cannot do this! No one can! Still, there are individuals who are taking the inmate’s families’ hard-earned money and not producing a parole package or only filing a three-page parole package requesting the inmate be released. These individuals have no idea what they are doing or how difficult it is to gather the necessary evidence needed to change the Parole Board’s opinion of an inmate. Investigation of the inmate’s past life, his accomplishments, his troubles, etc. and trying to discover what the Parole Board Members perceive is the cause of the inmate’s criminal problem, takes a lot of time and hard work. When someone promises you they will guarantee your release you should run away as fast as you can. Look at the figures I have included with this letter. When only 25% of the inmates who come before the Parole Board receive parole and only around 50% receive discretionary mandatory release, you should realize the right information has to be gathered, presented in a thorough package and a very strong argument must be made to convince the Parole Board to release you.

I also receive letters from inmates who indicate they are being told by some attorneys that the inmate needs to remain in prison because the have “not served enough time” and the attorney will not accept their case. When I receive these types of letters from inmates I wonder just what the attorney is waiting for? The job is to uncover the evidence that will show the Parole Board the client does not need to spend any more time in prison, instead of waiting until the inmate has served a substantial portion of the sentence and then filling some pieces of paper which may or may not change the Parole Board Members minds. True, you have to pay for the investigation and the time needed to read all of the evidence, compile a thorough package and present strong argument that captures the Parole Board’s attention and changes their mind to deciding to grant release, but is this not better than waiting around in prison for years while you “serve enough time”?

LEGISLATIVE NEWS:

Houston Chronicle on Sunday August 20,2006 reported Texas needs three more prisons to keep up the a growing inmate population, the top prison official have told lawmakers. A steady growth in the prison population will require more than 11,000 new beds. The agency presented the 5.6 billion dollar two-year budget including 520 million dollar prison expansion to the legislature.

RECENT LEGAL OPINIONS:

The Supreme Court of the United States in Samson v. California Decided June 19, 2006 held The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a police officer from conducting a suspicionless search of a parolee.

The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 7, 2006 in Loving v. Johnson quickly disposed of the argument prisoners should be paid minimum wage for working in prison under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).” People are not imprisoned for the purpose of enabling them to earn a living. The prison pays for their keep. If it puts them to work, it is to offset some of the costs of keeping them.”

Time payment plan: 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 request an appearance before the Parole Board to argue for an inmate’s release to parole. 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. If you wait until the last minute, the entire fee is going to be due immediately.

Please do not send any of your documentation to me prior to retaining me.

Sincerely,

James Randall Smith

Attorney at Law