Arizona Board of Executive Clemency

The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency (Board) is responsible for granting parole to eligible inmates, revoking the parole/community supervision of violators, and recommending clemency actions to the Governor. In calendar year 2013, the Board made 317 parole decisions, 1,840 revocation decisions, and 55 clemency-sentence commutation, pardon, and reprieve decisions. This audit identified four areas where the Board can improve its operations. First, although the Board has strengthened its policies to help ensure that board members are free from conflicts of interest, additional steps, such as providing board members with formal conflict-of-interest training, are needed. Second, the Board should continue its efforts to develop a formalized, structured decision-making process to help ensure that its parole and revocation decisions are accurate, objective, consistent, and transparent; and should ensure that board members receive adequate training on the use of its model once developed. Third, the Board should continue its current efforts to better meet revocation hearing timeliness goals and victim notification requirements. The Board should also collaborate with the Arizona Department of Corrections to identify ways to further improve the timeliness of its revocation hearings. Finally, the Board should develop and implement a transition plan to separate its board chair and executive director positions.