The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, is a federal statute which provides any person the right of access to almost every record in possession of a federal agency unless that record is protected from disclosure by one or more of the FOIA's nine exemptions. The nine exemptions are attached. The FOIA was enacted to allow those governed to learn about the day to day activities of federal agencies.
The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a is another federal statute that provides individuals with a right of access to records. Under the Privacy Act, individuals have a right to obtain certain records pertaining to themselves unless the records are protected from disclosure by the Privacy Act's ten exemptions. The Parole Commission is a law enforcement agency whose principal function is the enforcement of criminal laws. The Commission is exempt from the disclosure provisions of the Act pursuant to the general exemptions of the Privacy Act. 5 U.S.C. 552a(j)(2) and 28 C.F.R. § 16.85. All disclosure requests submitted by requesters for copies of their own records under the Privacy Act (first party requests) are processed under the FOIA.
The United States Parole Commission is an independent agency of the United States Department of Justice. The Commission has jurisdiction over all federal prisoners and supervisory jurisdiction over federal prisoners who are released on parole or as if on parole (mandatory release). These offenders include in general, a prisoner serving a sentence of more than one year and one day who committed his or her offense prior to November 1, 1987. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 abolished parole eligibility for federal offenders who commit offenses on or after November 1, 1987. There are certain functions that the Commission continues to perform even if the defendant committed his or her offense on or after November 1, 1987. These include foreign transfer treaty cases, state witness protection cases, District of Columbia Board of Parole cases in federal institutions, military prisoners in federal institutions, and state offenders serving their sentences in federal institutions.
The Parole Commission in recent years has closed all of its regional offices and currently operations are conducted in one office in Chevy Chase Maryland. Field supervision of released prisoners is provided by United States Probation Officers, who are employed by the United States District Courts. United States Probation Officers function as parole officers for parolees and mandatory releasees, monitoring and reporting their activities to the Commission.
The Chairman of the Parole Commission directs the agency and is responsible for the administrative management of the Commission. The Commission is also under the direction of two Commissioners. Policies and procedures are determined by the Commission as quarterly or special meetings of the Commissioners. Rules and regulations are published in the Federal Register of the United States as part of the Code of Federal Regulations. These regulations are set forth at 28 C.F.R. § 2.1-2.67.
An inmate eligible for parole may apply for a hearing within 120 days of commitment. The inmate is given a parole hearing in a federal institution before a hearing examiner. A recommendation is made by the hearing examiner and then the final release determination is made by the Commissioner. The inmate then has an opportunity to appeal the decision to the National Appeals Board. Following the hearing, the Parole Commission begins to maintain a file on the inmate which is identified by inmate name and Bureau of Prisons Register Number. The Bureau of Prisons Register Number is an eight digit number.
The inmate will receive an interim parole hearing following his initial hearing every 18 to 24 months. Documents regarding these hearings are kept in the file in chronological order by date. The interim hearings are conducted to review progress in the institution and to consider any institutional misconduct reports.
Upon release from prison either on parole or mandatory release, a release certificate is prepared for the inmate. The inmate is released to a specific district of supervision and is placed under the supervision of a U.S. Probation Officer for the time remaining on his sentence. The parolee or mandatory releasee must adhere to a set of general conditions of release that are designed to protect the public welfare and ensure adequate supervision. If the releasee is suspected of violating a condition of release, he will receive a parole revocation hearing to determine if supervision should be revoked and whether the violator should be returned to prison.
The Commission's system of records includes inmate files and supervision files. Inmates files are maintained at the Parole Commission's office at 5550 Friendship Boulevard, Chevy Chase, MD 20815. Supervision files regarding parolees and mandatory releases are maintained at probation offices. All requests for records should be made to the Commission's Office in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
The categories of information which may be contained in the inmate and supervision files as published by the Commission in the Federal Register at 53 Fed. Reg. 7813 (1988) are as follows:
1) Computation of sentence and supportive documentation.
2) Correspondence concerning pending charges, and wanted status, including warrants.
3) Requests from other Federal and non-federal law enforcement agencies for notification prior to release.
4) Records of the allowance forfeiture, withholding and restoration of good time.
5) Information concerning present offense, prior criminal background sentence, and parole from the U.S. Attorneys, the Federal Courts, and Federal prosecuting agencies.
6) Identification data.
7) Order of designation or institution or original commitment.
8) Records and reports of work and housing assignment.
9) Program selection assignments and performance adjustments/progress reports.
10) Conduct records.
11) Social background.
12) Educational data.
13) Physical and mental health data.
14) Parole Commission applications, appeal documentation, orders, examiner's summaries, tapes of hearings, guideline evaluation documents, parole or mandatory release certificates, statements or third parties for or against parole.
15) Correspondence regarding release planning, adjustment and violations.
16) Transfer orders.
17) Mail and visit records.
18) Personal property records.
19) Safety reports and rules.
20) Release processing forms and certificates.
21) Interviews requests forms from inmates.
22) General correspondence.
23) Copies of inmate court petitions and other court documents.
24) Report of probation officers. Commission correspondence with former inmates and others, and Commission order and memoranda dealing with supervision and conditions of parole and mandatory release.
25) If an alleged parole violation exists, correspondence requesting a revocation warrant, warrant application, warrant, instructions as to service, detainers and related documents.
Information that the Commission has determined to be public sector information includes the following: 1) name; 2) register number; 3) past and current places of incarceration; 4) age (i.e., date of birth); 5) race; 6) sentence date which consists of offense, date and place of conviction, and sentence length; 7) date(s) of parole hearing(s); and 8) decision(s) rendered by the Commission after agency proceedings which are contained on Notices of Action and include dates of parole.
1. The Commission's regulation regarding the processing of FOIA requests is found at 28 C.F.R. § 2.56. Any request for copies of documents maintained by the U.S. Parole Commission on a federal inmate must be made in writing. There is no specific form which must be used. We cannot accept requests by telephone. The request should contain the inmate's Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Register Number.
2. A request that comes directly from the inmate (first party request) must contain the inmate's signature along with one of the following: 1) a notarization; 2) a BOP case manager's stamp; 3) or a declaration of identity under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746. If the request comes from an attorney or other representative, the inmate must authorize the release of the information by the same means.
A third party request should identify the prisoner by name and Bureau of Prisons Register Number if known. Other identifying information should also include date of birth, dates of incarceration, and federal institution where incarcerated.
3. Requests are normally processed in order of receipt. The Commission will send the requester a letter acknowledging receipt of the request within 10 working days, if the request cannot be satisfied within the statutory time frame. Requests asking for one or two very specific items (e.g., pre-sentence report) will be processed ahead of multi-document and non-specific requests.
4. The Commission compiles an official file on an inmate only after he has received a parole hearing. Before the parole hearing, the Commission relies on the BOP central file. The inmate's parole file is divided into four sections as follows:
1) Sentence data;
2) Bureau of Prisons documents and pre-sentence reports;
3) Correspondence received from the inmate, other non-government individuals, and Congressional inquiries;
4) All documents generated during the parole hearing and decision-making process. This includes the hearing summary, any administrative appeal documents, and all actions taken by the Commission in the inmate's case.
Requests should be as specific as possible as to the documents requested.
5. A cassette tape recording is maintained of each parole hearing. Upon request, these cassette tapes will be copied and provided. No transcripts or other verbatim records are made, but each hearing is summarized by the examiner in the hearing summary.
6. When processing a first party FOIA request for the complete file, the pre-sentence report, sentence data and all the documents in section 4 are disclosed if not exempted by law. The documents in sections 2 and 3 are generally not processed for disclosure unless the requester specifically requests this information, because the inmates generally have copies of this information already.
7. A inmate who has received a previous FOIA response will only receive those documents placed in the file since the Commission's last response to his FOIA request. If the inmate would like disclosure of his entire file again, the Commission will only process the previously released documents if the inmate's copies have been lost.
8. After processing the FOIA request, if a fee is involved, a letter will be sent to the requester asking for reimbursement. Fees are not charged for any copying under 180 pages, i.e., if the fee is under $14.00 (effective October 1, 1997).
9. If any documents are withheld under the FOIA, the applicable FO
IA exemptions will be noted and the requester will have the opportunity to appeal the decision to the Chairman of the Commission pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 2.56(h). Following a decision on the administrative appeal, the requestor may seek judicial review in the United States District Court for the judicial district in which the requester resides or in the District of Columbia.
The Parole Commission strives to respond to FOIA requests as quickly as possible. However, due to limited resources and the statutory abolishment of the Commission, our agency is rarely able to meet the statutory time frame in regard to first party FOIA requests. Third party FOIA requests are usually responded to within the statutory time period. Therefore, many of the FOIA suits filed against our agency are due to the backlog and failure of the agency to respond to the request with the statutory time period. The Commission is seeking to improve efficiency by implementing a two-track system and responding to less cumbersome requests ahead of more complex and time consuming requests.
Although the Parole Commission has received litigation in failing to respond timely, there has been little litigation in the area of withheld documents. The Commission's policy to release as much information as possible in accordance with Attorney General Reno's initiative to apply a "foreseeable harm" standard and to make discretionary disclosures of exempt information whenever possible.
In addition to the system of records information described above, the Parole Commission also has information available describing the functions of the Commission and statistical data collected on parole hearings. The following publications are available:
-U.S. Parole Commission Rule and Procedures Manual. This Manual has a cost of $12.00, which should be in the form of a check or money order made payable to the U.S. Treasury.
-An Overview of the United States Parole Commission.
-Annual Reports of the United States Parole Commission.
(1) applies to material which is properly classified pursuit to an executive order in the interest of national defense or foreign policy;
(2) applies to internal matters of the agency;
(3) applies to material exempt form disclosure by other federal statutes;
(4) applies to information such as trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained form a person on a privileged or confidential basis;
(5) applies to intra or inter-agency material which would be privileged in civil discovery;
(6) applies to information which if released would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy of other individuals;
(7) applies to information compiled for law enforcement purposes, the release of which (A) could be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a person of a fair trial, (C) could be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source and if the information is compiled by a law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, information supplied by a confidential source, (E) would disclose law enforcement techniques and procedures or guidelines for law enforcement investigations and which could be expected to risk circumvention of law, (F) could be expected to endanger the life or safety of any individual;
(8) applies to material pertaining to regulation or supervision of financial institutions;
(9) applies to geological and geophysical information.
For the complete text of the above nine exemptions, see 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1) - (9).