From WBEZ Chicago, this is American Life. I'm Ira Goss. So this is going to be one of those shows.

I'm just going to say a few things here and then get out of the way. It's based on a single,

kind of a remarkable recording. Everything that happens all over the country, but you never really get to hear it.

It's a parole hearing in Illinois. 13 people in a small room having to decide should a man be released from prison.

This fact surprised me.

Parole hearings, the system where somebody with a long sentence comes before somebody

and gets a chance to get out, that's been abolished in about a third of all the states.

Most other states have limited it in various ways.

The reasons for that, people in prison and their advocates said it was really subjective,

racially biased, unfair.

There was no way to repeal the decisions.

He said too few people were being set free.

Conservatives, meanwhile, found it too lenient.

They said too many people were being set free.

So very few people get out of prison, thanks to a parole board hearing,

determining if it's time for their incarceration to end.

Though right now, there is a lot of talk about expanding the use of parole boards,

making more people eligible.

We first broadcast today's show a year ago,

and at the time, there was a

bill in the New York State Assembly, two competing bills in Illinois, and these kinds of bills

are in other states, too. Reporter Ben Austin got interested in the question at the heart of all those.

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