| Description |
<p><span>Last December, the Dougherty Foundation gave TDS a generous grant to launch our program to build a pro bono network of attorneys who can advocate for people seeking parole. The program, launched earlier this year, connects pro bono attorneys with clients who are seeking parole, generating a massive cost-savings for Texas taxpayers and allowing incarcerated people a genuine second chance. This pro bono program is off the ground now and is supported by our pro-bono champions at the major Texas firms Susman Godfrey and Gibbs & Bruns. TDS now has a full-time parole attorney and is also conducting CLEs with pro bono attorneys to guide them in this program. </span><span>We are grateful for your essential support as we have developed this powerful pro bono initiative.</span></p>
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<p><span>As we have launched the program, we have recognized a pressing need to create resources for people seeking parole and their families so that they can advocate for themselves before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. With roughly half of the Texas prison population currently parole eligible and tens of thousands of people seeking parole each year, we are unable to serve every person through our pro bono program. But everyone deserves a chance to share their full story before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and explain why they are ready for and deserve a second chance: why they should be allowed to return home and resume their role as breadwinners, mothers, fathers, caretakers of aging parents, and community members who encourage others to avoid crime.</span></p>
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<p><span>Yet the reality is that there are essentially no resources in the public sphere that teach people how to advocate for themselves on parole or prepare them for what to expect from the process. People need information on how to build a parole packet, how to approach their interview with the institutional parole officer, and how to create a reentry plan. Family members need to understand how they can help their loved one achieve parole, from writing letters of support to identifying reentry resources in their community. For people seeking parole, the process is truly a black box; they do not know what information to present, when to expect a decision, or if they are granted parole, when or how they will be released.</span></p>
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<p><span>It is better for Texas communities, and for public safety, if people are released on parole when they are ready to go home. Excessive incarceration harms all Texans because it increases instability and crime in our communities. At least 95% of people who are incarcerated will be released one day. Long prison sentences increase people’s chances of reoffending by destabilizing their lives. It is safer to bring people home when they are ready to come home, with the reentry support they need to be successful, rather than incarcerate them for years or decades beyond their parole-eligibility date and then send them home with no resources at all.</span></p>
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<p><span>Incarceration especially hurts our State’s children: Four out of five men and women in Texas prisons are parents of at least one child under the age of eighteen. Half a million Texas children have experienced a parent behind bars; Black children are six times as likely as white children to have a parent behind bars.</span> <span>Parents’ incarceration causes severe and lasting damage for the children and families that they leave behind. </span></p>
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<p><span>Given the painful impacts of incarceration, our State should prioritize reuniting people in prison with their families. But it doesn’t. The Texas parole board grants only roughly 35% of the parole applications it receives each year, including those labeled as nonviolent. This is because incarcerated people have no advocates to tell their stories and lack plans to reintegrate into society; nor do they have any information on how to effectively advocate for themselves. This opacity disadvantages not just individuals seeking parole and their families, but also the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and, ultimately, public safety. Without meaningful information about whether someone has rehabilitated and their reentry plans, the Board cannot make informed decisions about who is truly prepared to go home. Such decisions require great discernment and, ultimately, genuine information about the person who is applying for parole. When people have a voice in their own parole process, the entire system functions better: for families impacted by incarceration and for the general public alike.</span></p>
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<p><span>While our pro bono program will serve 50 or more clients a year, we cannot help every single person who is parole eligible in Texas. That is why it is essential that people have access to the resources they need to tell their own stories. </span></p>
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<p><span>Texas Defender Service is already starting this work by launching a program to teach classes in prison on how to assemble parole packets. But we want to make sure these resources are widely available, and we also want to make sure that returned citizens (people who were previously incarcerated and are now living at home) have the opportunity to teach others. We seek your foundation's support to help us do this by building a portion of our website dedicated to providing parole resources. </span><span>Our website will contain essential information for people seeking parole and their families, including a step by step guide to the parole process, a model parole packet, a question and answer sheet, and sample parole letters. These guides will be available in Spanish and English. Our website will also contain a short video explaining the parole process, in both Spanish and English. </span></p> |
| Used for |
This grant will support our parole advocacy program to provide more incarcerated people with second chances and support their return to their families and communities. The program will support our pro bono parole network, which matches deserving candidates seeking parole with attorneys who can help them, and support our efforts to build a website that will provide people with resources to advocate for their incarcerated loved ones on parole, including training videos, sample parole packets, and how-to manuals. |
| Benefits |
Most imprisoned people who seek parole in Texas are denied, even though they serve no risk to their communities and are ready to go home and be reunited with their families and loved ones; this is concerning because 80% of incarcerated people have minor children at home, and their extended incarceration harms our communities. Our program, launched this year, matches people seeking parole with attorneys who can handle their cases, doubling their chances of returning home. Because tens of thousands of people seek parole each year and so often lack any voice in the parole board, in the coming year we will also expand our work to provide people seeking parole with resources so that they can effectively, meaningfully advocate for themselves before the parole board, including training materials, training materials, and sample parole packets. |
