Florida’s parole system is a farce. It systematically denies inmates constitutional protections and allows many of the inmates waiting for parole to die in prison. Some years, less than 1% of the inmates eligible for parole are even given serious consideration to be released.
This is morally wrong. Indeed, it might even be described as “cruel and unusual punishment,” as proscribed by the Constitution.
While most people will never have a parole hearing — I had three — we all have an idea of how the system should be conducted. These beliefs come from the portrayals of parole hearings in movies like The Shawshank Redemption. We all remember Morgan Freeman (as the character “Red”) standing in front of the parole board, pleading for his freedom. That never happens in Florida. In fact, inmates in Florida are not allowed to attend their parole hearings, much less speak for themselves. Ironically, the rules of parole in Florida specifically state no inmate ever deserves parole, and there are no criteria to achieve parole. In Florida, parole is a grace given by the Florida Commission on Offender Review. In Florida, parole is a subjective process.
Chapter 23-21 of the Florida Administrative Code grants the FCOR ultimate authority to grant or deny parole. The parole process in Florida lacks any fundamental fairness. There is a matrix that is meant to evaluate inmates and elements of their crimes to determine a presumptive parole release date. Some inmates reach these dates only to have their date suspended, meaning they remain in prison beyond the release date the FCOR’s evaluation said they should be released.
This brings me to my friend Stephen Cobourn.
We met in January 1989 at Hendry Correctional Institution. I was 17 years old with a brand new life sentence for first-degree murder. Steve was serving the eighth year of a life sentence for second-degree murder. We had even more in common, both of us are from Broward County and committed our crimes as teenagers. One difference: I had a minimum of 25 years before I was parole-eligible, and Steve was eligible already. In 1989, his parole date was 2001. He committed his crime in 1981, so he scored out to 20 years on the parole matrix. Steve and I were at Hendry until 1992. We met up again briefly in 1993. Then, we ended up in the Broward County jail together in 2017 because we were both eligible for re-sentencing as juvenile offenders.
I was surprised Steve was still incarcerated because his parole date had been 2001. I asked if he got into trouble and if his parole date was extended based on that. He told me his parole date remained 2001 and was suspended. Steve remains in prison with little hope of being released. Steve barely got into any trouble while serving his sentence. FCOR’s refusal to grant him parole is based solely on elements of his crime. Steve was convicted of second-degree murder — not the worst crime in the murder category. Based on the parole matrix, he scored 20 years. He has been an exemplary inmate during his sentence. Yet the FCOR will not let him out.
There are more inmates just like Steve.
My opinion of Florida’s parole process is obviously influenced by my personal experience. During my initial parole interview in 2011, the examining officer recommended a 2023 parole date and the FCOR instead gave me a 2046 parole date. I was re-sentenced and released in 2019, almost three years ago. If not for that, I would have remained in prison for 27 more years — just as if my date was not suspended like Steve’s. That is a stark contrast to the sentence a judge gave me.
In Florida, the number of inmates receiving parole-eligible sentences was severely reduced in 1983, when parole was abolished for all but capital crimes. All of the inmates who are parole eligible have been locked up for at least 27 years. The FCOR long ago outlived its effectiveness. The process is a farce. The employees are simply shuffling papers with little or no real work being done. It is a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. The FCOR should be defunded and the money allocated for a more useful purpose. Inmates still incarcerated waiting on parole should be re-sentenced to a term of years with a real release date. That’s something that might work. That’s something that might even be moral.
Robert Lefleur is a former prisoner of the Florida Department of Corrections and a prison consultant.
