Operation Open Book- Remove State Secret Status of Parole Files in Georgia!

To:  Families and Friends of Incercerated People in Georgia

Endorse Operation Open Book:
Fairness for Prisoners’ Families Parole Reform Campaign:


✻ Why Parole Reform?

The Parole Consideration Process pulls together and illustrates everything that is wrong with Georgia's criminal justice system. Parole Reform is a major campaign which will have a massive impact on the balance of power between the government decision-makers and the people--prisoners, their families, and everyone else whose lives are negatively impacted by Georgia's criminal Injustice system.


✻ Operation Open Book: The Fairness Direct Action Campaign for Parole Reform

Operation Open Book was member-selected by those attending the Organizing for Action Workshop Series. The purpose of Operation Open Book: To end the "state secret" status of each prisoner's parole file, so that no one can see what is in the parole file except the Parole Board and the people working for it. To reform the way parole decisions are made, and reform other policies, we must be able to see how those decisions are made, and how policies are applied. This is impossible now under the laws making the parole process secret.


✻ The Purpose: Knowledge, Power and Justice for Imprisoned People and Their Families

Having a loved one in prison can be one of the hardest experiences a person can have. Many people get through the hardship by dreaming about the possibility that their loved ones might come home early on parole. For hundreds of families, understanding how the parole consideration process works is an urgent matter. Next to the parole decision itself, the most important thing for many prisoners and their families is to understand how the parole consideration process works.


✻ The Parole Board's Decisions: Cloaked In Secrecy

Many people in prison and their families want and need details about the way their own parole decisions are made. However, this critically important information is out of their reach. This is because each parole file and everything in it is classified by Georgia law as a "state secret." (Official Code of Georgia 42 9 53).

The parole file is kept so secret that even when the Parole Board is deciding whether to let someone live or to send him or her to be killed in Georgia's death chamber, the person's lawyer isn't allowed to check the parole file, to be sure the Board isn't basing its decision on errors in the file.

✻ How can the public believe in the justice of such a hidden system?

The Parole Board assures people in prison, their families, and the general public that all its decisions are fair. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles website says that the Parole Board can be "entrusted to make an objective decision rising above political and personal consideration." The website also says that the Parole Board has Guidelines to help it make "more consistent and soundly based decisions which are understandable for the inmate and accountable to the public."

Family after family has called the Parole Board desperate for any information at all, only to be told, "It's being processed," or "It's under investigation," or given other assurances that everything is under control. Yet recently, the Atlanta Journal Constitution exposed a terrible instance of the Parole Board's failure of the public trust-59 parole files were discovered sitting in the Clemency Division Director's office, "just gathering dust." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/1/04, "Paroles Stalled As Official Ignored Files.") How many other such incidents have there been which were never exposed?


✻ The Time For Injustice Is Over

Endorse Operation Open Book and demand the removal of the state secret status of parole files in Georgia!

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Operation Open Book- Remove State Secret Status of Parole Files in Georgia! Petition to Families and Friends of Incercerated People in Georgia was created by and written by Sara Totonchi (stotonchi@schr.org).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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