Campaign to Re-establish the System of Parole for All Federal and State Prisoners, Including Statutory Good Time and Educational/Work Incentive Credits

WHEREAS, historically the system of parole has been a mechanism for prisoners to avail themselves of the opportunity, through work, educational programs, and incentive-based programs, to re-enter society; and

WHEREAS, Earned Good Time and Work Incentive Credits/Industrial Good Time Credits, would be an effective and useful method towards instituting good behavior, positive work ethics, allowing prisoners the ability to acquire necessary and realistic goals and skills, and allowing them to be eligible for parole; and

WHEREAS, the United States is 5% of the world population, yet incarcerates and holds 25% of the world's prisoners, with the vast majority of those being of African and Hispanic-descent, as well as other poor and underrepresented Americans; and

WHEREAS, the United States currently spends in excess of sixty-eight billion dollars ($68,000,000,000) a year on America's Prison Industrial Complex and Corrections in general; and

WHEREAS, Harry G. Lappin, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, testified on March 10, 2009, before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations' Committee Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science and Related Agencies that the Bureau of Prisons is "operating at 36% over its maximum capacity," and agreed that reducing overcrowding would allow the Bureau of Prisons funding to be used more effective in other important areas; and

WHEREAS, states such as Alabama, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia have recently proposed legislation to repeal their current non-parolable sentencing schemes/laws to reduce their annual budgets for housing prisoners.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP call for reinstatement of the federal and state parole system/statutes, as well as the retroactive application of such statutes to all prisoners, along with comprehensive statutory provisions for Good Time, Educational, and Work Incentive Credits.