Researchers say despite prison overcrowding concerns, fewer Alabama inmates are being paroled and prisoners are spending more time behind bars before being released on parole.
Council of State Governments research manager Andy Barbee tells the Montgomery Advertiser that the average length of an inmate's prison term before parole release has increased from 30 months in 2009 to 43 months in 2014. Barbee says the number of eligible inmates being released has also fallen from about 42 percent in 2009 to 36 percent in 2013.
Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole member Robert Longshore says the board hasn't changed the way it decides parole releases in the past five years. Barbee says many inmates have already been on probation, in drug court or community corrections before their prison terms.
