State of Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles

OUR NEW PORTAL FOR PARDON APPLICATIONS IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE. CLICK BELOW FOR ePARDON APPLICATION PROCESS DETAILS. WE WILL CONTINUE ACCEPTING PAPER APPLICATIONS UNTIL JUNE 1, 2020. More info

Welcome Message from Chair Giles

The Board is committed to transparency and communication about the role and mandate of our agency.  Taxpayers and members of the community - indeed, as people with a stake in a safer society - have a right to access information pertaining to the discretionary parole and pardon processes.      

 

The Board of Pardons and Paroles is an integral part of the legal system and plays a critical role in Connecticut's criminal justice policy. The majority of our work is mandated by law.  Offenders are eligible to be paroled at either 50% or 85% of their sentence of incarceration depending on the crime(s) they are convicted of and the date those crimes were committed.  Offenders are eligible to apply for an Absolute Pardon three years after their most recent Misdemeanor conviction or five years after their most recent Felony conviction, whichever is later. 

 

The remainder of the Board's work is driven by a moral and ethical responsibility to do our part in making Connecticut - all 169 towns and cities - great places to live, work, play and raise children.  As Chair of the Board, it is important to me that we accomplish this by doing what we are supposed to do as an agency and do it well.  The Board is tasked with determining which parole eligible offenders, with appropriate and effective supports and interventions, are likely to return to their communities as productive and contributing members and remain so.     

 

The Board is also called upon to decide which offenders deserve to be legally forgiven for their past actions based on their demonstrated, successful reengagement with their communities.  It is not our job to punish offenders, but to ascertain their suitability for re-entering society. Making such determinations amounts to calculated risks and requires us to rely on science.      

 

The Board seeks to utilize research-based assessment tools which measure both an offender's risks for criminal behavior and identifies what needs must be met if they are expected to change that behavior.  Given that it costs Connecticut taxpayers an average of $33,000 a year to incarcerate an offender and the vast majority of inmates will, at some point, reach the end of the incarceration portion of their sentence, it behooves us to be proactive about who walks out the prison doors.