The story of James Dunn: a clarion call for reform of parole

This is a tale that should shock the conscience.

Parole today is mostly a mirage, not a a hope based on reality

This post, written by Pam Bailey, Rob Barton’s collaborator, focuses on one of the reform priorities for the District of Columbia’s criminal justice system.

James Dunn is a unicorn. Despite the highly dysfunctional environment of federal prisons, he spent 29 years in this belly of the beast without even one disciplinary infraction. He completed every education and development program in which he was able to enroll, and above and beyond all that, he taught classes to fellow residents and mentored those younger than him.

And yet…James was denied parole three times. Why? To the extent they offered any explanation at all, the members of the U.S. Parole Commission simply revisited his original crime, a murder and drug charge more than 20 years old. The obvious rehabilitation James had experienced over the years seemed not to count at all.

James was fortunate. Thanks to the D.C. Council’s passage of the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA), he was given a genuine “second look” and released last year. What is he doing today? He works as a “violence…