Injustice Watch (https://www.injusticewatch.org/series/the-long-wait/)
A series about the parole process for a small group of Illinois inmates incarcerated on crimes from the 1970s
The Illinois House of Representatives is considering a bill that would give young offenders the opportunity for parole. Despite earlier hopes of advocates, the bill would give the decision to the Prisoner Review Board, an agency whose decisions, an Injustice Watch review found, are often inconsistent and arbitrary.
A state board uses an arbitrary and opaque process to decide whether prisoners convicted of committing violent crimes decades ago should be released, an Injustice Watch review has found. The process is wracked by subjectivity, and that problem is not confined to Illinois.
In 1993, Larry Kurina was paroled by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board after serving roughly 17 years for murder. After pleading guilty to a low-level felony in 2005, he has been back in custody since.
After all but giving up hope of release by the agency tasked with considering their parole, two inmates are searching for other ways out of prison.