Parole in Louisiana: Planning, Investigation and Hearing Guide

This Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole guide explains that the Committee on Parole is the sole authority to grant parole in Louisiana and that the Department of Public Safety and Corrections calculates every parole eligibility date. The Committee may meet with a person as early as nine months before their eligibility date for a public hearing. The guide urges people to begin planning from the start of incarceration by addressing problems through treatment and rehabilitation, pursuing educational and vocational training, and deciding where they will live on release, whether at a previous home, with family or friends, or in a halfway house or residential facility. Before the hearing, staff gather arrest and court records, presentence investigations, psychological evaluations, treatment reports, prison work and conduct records, and community feedback including input from judges, law enforcement and victims. Hearings are open to the public, the person appears and oral testimony is taken, and the decision is announced verbally with a written disposition provided immediately afterward.