844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

From WBEZ Chicago, this is American Life, I'm Ira Goss. So this is going to be one of those shows where I'm just going to save a few things here and then get out of the way. It's based on a single, kind of 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.

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. They 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. There's a bill in New York State Assembly, two competing bills in Illinois, and there are other states too. Reporter Ben Austin got interested in the question at the heart of all those. What is actually happening in those parole board hearings.

How do they make these monumental decisions? What sways them? What doesn't? These boards are trying to adjudicate

these very squishy, nearly impossible questions. Like, when is a person rehabilitated? How can you tell? When should a long prison sentence end?

This next question is almost too grand to say it loud, but it is in there too. What is justice? All this plays out in this weird backwater,

the judicial system. doesn't get a lot of scrutiny. Can you remember the last time you saw a news story? Any news story about a parole board hearing?

And for all the TV dramas about, I have to say, almost every aspect of the criminal justice system in all of its parts, there is none set in a parole board. Ben lives in Illinois and spent more than a year

going to every parole board hearing there. They happened once a month, each one looking at five or 10 cases. And he put together what you're about to hear.

The man they're considering for release in this case is 72 years old, been locked up for almost 50 years, most of his life. The pro board has some information about the case,

but definitely not everything you would want. That's part of what makes this so interesting, listening to this, hearing how they deal with that. This is actually one of the hearings

that Ben sat through on his very first day going to these hearings. Basically, he and his producer, Bill Healy, showed up through two recorders on the table

in the middle of the room and captured this conversation that you're about to hear. And it just stuck with him, this case. Not just the difficulty of the decision that they had to make,

or all the stuff that they wished they knew, but didn't know. But the ruling they came to, it stuck with him. Okay, enough said. Here's Ben Austin.

I'm surprised by how plain the hearing room is, how small. There's barely enough space to fit a wood conference table and squeezed around it, 13 board members

are sitting elbow to elbow. These are people who spend a lot of time together. They're from different parts of the state and in between the cases they debate things like,

who has worse traffic, worse snow. You guys don't get it like we get it in Puria. I know, we're still about 50 miles south. Yeah, you don't get it.

They tease each other about being long-winded. Keep it short for now. Oh, look at you tell me to keep it short. Oh, okay.

They hunch over laptops and coffee cups and fat accordion files filled with case documents that go back way into the previous century. There's a former public school principal and a high school guidance counselor, former prosecutors and three retired cops.

By law, the pro board includes both Democrats and Republicans. They're appointed by the governor, approved by the state senate. And it's a full-time job in Illinois. They're currently paid about $100,000 a year.

Okay, the next case is Mr. Henry D. and Mr. Martinez. The hearing starts. The chairman acknowledges Virginia Martinez, one of the board members. She's seated near the head of the table.

And she begins to talk about the person they're considering for release. This is a case of Henry D. Number C-01657. Mr. D. is currently 72 years of age, having been born on August 24th, 1946. I interviewed him at Stateville Correctional Center.

If you look around the small conference room, one person you won't see is Henry D., the guy up for parole. He's still in a prison more than a hundred miles away. The way these hearings work. One board member travels to the prison and interviews the parole applicant. The pairings are chosen at random. It was

Martinez's turn. Now she'll walk her colleagues through the details of the case and what she learned in the interview and she'll give her recommendation for or against these release. The other board members don't have to follow it. Often they don't. They'll debate and after that they'll

vote. The whole thing takes less than an hour. And for some cases, way less. It may be serving 100 to 200 years for two counts of murder to run consecutively. And 20 to 40 years for two counts of robbery. This projected discharge date is June 27, 2162.

Martina says the release date is 2162. D was given up to 200 years. It's what people in prison call Buck Rogers time, like out of science fiction. Henry D, that's his last name, DEE, first came before the parole board in 1981. People who are rejected get another hearing every one to five years, and D has had two dozen hearings since. To make

parole, you need a majority of the board's votes. D has never even come close. In fact, In all his years of coming up for consideration, only one board member has ever voted for release. That's it. Just one.