More than 300 relatives and friends of state prisoners crammed outside the state Board of Pardons and Paroles office Tuesday, their last opportunity for face time with the board until next year.
The five-member board decided in April to limit the so-called visitor days to twice a year -- on the second Tuesday of July and January. Inmates' family and friends had been allowed to meet with the board once a month.
Georgia operates the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, with 60,000 inmates. Many on Tuesday wanted to plead the cases of sons, fathers and other loved ones locked behind bars. The attitudes in the crowded room on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive were of frustration and desperation.
"With so many inmates, how can you do this two times a year?" Jordon Mendez of Atlanta said. The 20-year-old man has been waiting to hear the status of his brother's parole.
Betty Phillips, 74, has been waiting 15 years to plead her son's case for a parole hearing. She was set to appear before the parole board Tuesday.
Her son, Michael Timothy Mack, has been incarcerated for 40 years. He was found guilty of a 1971 murder and he was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences.
Phillips, who has not seen her son in 12 years, had been waiting to meet with the board for more than two hours, hoping to persuade it to set a parole date.
Visitor days are designed to answer families' questions about inmates' parole status. The board was spending too much time answering general questions during the visitor days and not enough time reviewing inmates' cases, said board spokesman Steve Hayes.
The board decided to reduce the days to twice a year because most of the information families ask is accesable through the board's website or via phone. Both systems can give tentative parole dates, parole decision and most other answers.
."We want to meet the needs of the family and we will continue to do so," Hayes said.
One woman was not concerned about Tuesday's crowd or the visitor day changes. Destiny Burnes just wanted her husband back.
"I am looking for answers [to give] my son," Burnes said.
Her husband, Richard Gooden, 36, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on possession charges and has been incarcerated in Waycross for almost two years.
Burnes, 35 of Smyrna, had been waiting all morning to ask about her husband's parole eligibility date. She would love to tell her son that his father will be home for his birthday in two weeks.
"He started pre-K without [his dad]," she said. "I didn't want him to start kindergarten without him."
For more information on inmate paroles call 404-656-5651 or www.pap.state.ga.us
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