Filing your own “Parole Packet”

Some people cannot afford the professional services of an attorney specializing in parole representation.

Does that mean you should sit back and do nothing?

Absolutely NOT!

If you want positive information included in your parole file, the only way to insure that it is there is for you to either be represented by an attorney specializing in parole matters or by using friends and family to insure that the information is placed into the parole file.

ALL persons can make available to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles the positive information which exists about an inmate; but 99.99% of the population just doesn’t know how to go about doing so.

Whether or not you should undertake this upon yourself is a very important call which you must make for yourself. If the facts of your case are very straight forward, and you feel that there would be no need in having an attorney prepare a parole brief and present oral arguments on your behalf, you see no need to have an attorney review your case for further action, such as the filing of a writ of habeas corpus, and there is very little likelihood of a protest being filed by a trial official (Judge, District Attorney, or Sheriff) or a victim or family member of a victim, or if you just are not able to raise the funds for professional assistance, but wish to provide the Board with some facts about the case, then I can show you how to do this on your own.

I liken this to a situation in which you must decide whether a trip to the doctor is necessary. You wouldn’t go running to the doctor every time you had a headache, but you probably would take some action such as taking an aspirin. You would not try to remove your own appendix, but if your stomach has a mild ache to it you might want to try an antacid before running to the emergency room.

If you are about to be reviewed for parole, and an objective view of your situation is that it is one in which the facts are straightforward and there are a few wrinkles in the case which you want the Board Members and Commissioners to consider when they review your case, then let me show you how to put together an effective and dynamic parole package which will draw their attention and get your point across.

If your assessment about the facts is wrong and after closely following my directions about putting together a parole packet you are denied parole, then it may be necessary to have an attorney review the case to determine if there are some special issues that will require handling in a professional manner. (Returning to the medical example, your stomachache doesn’t go away and the pain gets worse, you would stop with home remedies and see a doctor.)

Some persons of modest means think that they have no way to get across a very important set of facts to the Board and their lack of funds prevents them from doing anything. This is just not true. I will show you how to put together a parole packet for a straightforward case and at the conclusion of the instructions, I will provide you with a sample “parole packet” so you can see just exactly what one should look like, and you will know what types of information should be included and what should be omitted. In the home prepared parole packets which I have seen in the past, most have had good information, but included too much unimportant information and was not well organized.

And with the Internet, you can be reading my book on How to Prepare Your Own Parole Packet in a matter of minutes. My computer can download the entire book and send it over the internet as an “e-book” to your computer, which you can then read or print out first to then read. The amazing nature of the internet is such that you can have your e-book almost immediately and begin work on your loved one’s packet today! No waiting on delivery by mail, no checks to send or get lost in the mail, no having to go to the post office to pick it up. It can be on your computer in a matter of minutes.

I am one of those persons who is “computer challenged,” so you do not have to know very much at all about computers to have this sent to you immediately and your being able to open and read it right away!

Do you really want to trust a loved one’s future to the people who put them in prison in the first place? Do you really want a decision to be made without your having had the opportunity to say anything at all about the case? Do you want to have the District Attorney to have the only say as to what happened at trial? (Except for the brief interview from the IPO, and the notes he decides to include in his rendition of your story, there is not any significant input from the inmate.)

Board Members and Commissioners welcome orderly presentations of pertinent information which assists them in understanding just exactly what happened, so that they can render the best decision. Board Members and Commissioners are more likely to be looking for a reason to send someone home than one to keep him in prison. But it is safe to assume that usually the D. A. is not going to say a lot of nice things about you as he is the one who sent you to prison.

The decision makers want their decisions to reflect one made with information presented from both sides, not one sided arguments from the prosecution.

Do you want to stand back and be a “victim”? Or do you want to take an active role in deciding your own future? Or the future of your son, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, husband, wife, or friend?

There are many cases in TDC which do not involve complicated legal, factual, or equitable issues. Board Members and Commissioners would welcome information properly presented to them to assist them in their decision making process. But when you submit information to the Board, it must be organized, concise, relevant, easy to read, and contain verifying references. My e-book can show you step-by-step how to do just this.

Over the past 23 years of practicing before the Parole Board and the 2 years preceding that in the Governor’s office, of the many thousands of files which I have seen, I have seen many parole files which I felt would benefit from the addition of some information, but that perhaps did not necessitate the expertise of an attorney specializing in post conviction matters. In such cases, if the family just had some guidance about what should be included and then how to actually present the information, then they could go a long way toward giving the Parole Board that extra bit of information which would then win the case for them.

NOTE: I am NOT talking about cases where there are complicated fact situations, convoluted legal issues, a large portion of assaultive cases, or those cases which have very long sentences. In these situations, an attorney is more likely to be needed.

I have had the opportunity to see a large number of parole packages which good natured people have put together on behalf of loved ones. These were well intentioned attempts and I applaud the people who tried to put together these packages of information, but they did not have the experience or the necessary instructions or blueprints on how best to do it, and the attempt usually ended up being overly long, disorganized, and unlikely to have the desired impact on the Board Members and Commissioners.

For those with the appropriate cases, I would like to provide you with the necessary instruction, based upon 25 years of experience, on how to put together an organized, concise, relevant, and attractive package which will catch the eye of the Parole Board Members and Commissioners thereby allowing you to get your points across.

My e-book, How to Prepare Your Own Parole Packet, gives you a step by step guide in preparing a “parole package”, which presents the information you should present in an orderly fashion, which will draw the attention of the decision makers. I will give you instruction on how to make your presentation look professional. I will give you the names and addresses which you will find helpful. I will guide you to sources of information which are consistently accurate and informative. I will tell you what type of paper and binding to use. I will show you which facts to include, which will be variable and those issues which you must avoid. I will explain how to design your parole package to convey as much pertinent information in a concise manner.

AS AN ADDED BONUS, I will include a parole packet created as an example for you to not only guide you, but also to provide you with a Completed Sample to compare your final package to.

I must say again that submitting your own parole package is not for everyone or every case. I have written this 100+ page book, using my 25 years or experience, to assist those persons who make their own decision to submit information to the Parole Board and want to do so in the best manner possible.

Thanks to the internet, this book can be delivered to you in a matter of seconds, depending upon the speed of your server, from my computer to yours. The era of “E-BOOKS” has arrived and literally within seconds this book can be downloaded from my computer to yours and you can begin reading it immediately. You can then either begin reading it directly off your computer’s monitor, or you can print it out (have lots of paper) and read it in a conventional manner. If you do print it out to read it, printing it in color will show more clearly where I think yellow highlights should be used. However, on a black and white printer, these highlighted areas come out as slightly darkened areas which you will have no trouble seeing.

By using the e-book method of sales, there is no waiting for delivery by mail in either direction, or any chance of things being lost in the mail. Once you make the purchase via Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal through our secure server, your issue of How to Prepare Your Own Parole Packet will automatically be sent to you via the internet to the hard drive on your computer.

As an attorney in private practice, I hope that you will take advantage of my 25 years of experience and consider my e-book if you have decided to go forward and represent yourself and supply the Board with information yourself. Unfortunately, I cannot set out a set of guidelines to make your decision of self representation for you. If you decide to do so yourself, I believe this book will assist you in your endeavors and presentations of information to the Board Members and Commissioners.