l. For example: there are plenty of inmates that have gone through the parole system before and wound up back in prison, that alert other inmates as to the expectations of the parole board. They help prospective parolees to rehearse how they are going to answer crucial questions, which will determine release. A parolee once said to me, “man, as long as you know what they wanna hear from you, and you do the li’l things that look good like takin’ up a few li’l classes here and there, you be a’ight when you go to the board.” This type of rehearsed behavior on the part of some violent convicted felons seriously defeats the purpose of adequate screening for parole when the moral character and remorse of the prisoner are not honest. On the other hand, people argue that parole officials are not psychics and have no way of knowing which inmates are honest and which are not. Although this is true, there are experts such as psychologists that can properly screen these inmates through special battery tests designed to evaluate character in all its areas such as honesty, capacity, and intelligence. Other screening procedures used to determine which inmates will be less of a threat to society include comparison of past criminal records, and severity of the offense causing the incarceration. Again, inmates who know their possibilities for parole are scarce, often deliberately take up programs that are appealing to the parole board to help encourage decisions in their favor. In reality, the inmate is simply thinking about freedom and cares very little about reintegrating himself into society as a functional law abiding citizen. Other inmates have committed non-violent crimes such as forgery while embezzling funds, and are released on the assumption that they are not a threat to society if released. What happens with these offenders is that they have learned new crimes in prison, such as extortion, theft tech...
