days would be before the 85% of a sentence is served, they would only be eligible for mandatory parole once 
they had achieved 85% of their sentence. Recently, States have begun to soften these 85% rules, as another 
valve to reduce crowding issues. The Hughes et al. (2001) article also provides their proportions, indicating 
a direct inverse relationship to discretionary parole during the 1990s 
2. As discretionary parole went down, 
mandatory parole went up. This is logical though, as once they had passed a date for discretionary parole, 
the next date would be an inmate’s mandatory parole date. As you can see from the image below, these 
proportions of releases switched in the 1990s. 
Parole Releases 
Parole Releases 
Perhaps most troubling is the Expiatory Release. We see a slow increase of expiatory release in the chart, 
and this has continued to climb in the 2000s. Expiatory release means that a person has served their entire 
sentence length (and sometimes more). Based on the need to release individuals to accommodate incoming 
prisoners, this usually means that an inmate has misbehaved enough to nullify their “good days.” This is 
unfortunate, because of the three types of release, it could be argued that these are the inmates that need the 
most post-prison supervision. And yet, these are the inmates that are typically receiving the smallest amounts 
of parole. 
2. Hughes, T., Wilson, D., & Beck, A. (2001). Trends in State parole, 1990-2000. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special 
Report, NCJ 184735 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/tsp00.pdf . 
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