At the start of the movie Ocean’s Eleven, Daniel Ocean, is up for parole. He’s been in prison for a few years (five I think) for, as he puts it, “stealing things”. The unseen parole board member says “Although this is your first conviction, you’ve been implicated in numerous thefts.” And Danny responds “But not charged.” I know this is a movie and hence may or may not have any basis in reality, so it got me wondering:
Question #1: Can a parole board really consider that somebody has been implicated but not charged in numerous other crimes? Can they even consider charges for which the prisoner is not convicted?
Question #2: What, if any, are the legal limits of what a parole board can consider?
Question #3: What sort of things do real parole boards consider? I know they consider the nature of the crime, behavior in prison and participation in rehabilitation programs. Anything else?
I’ve attended a couple of parole board hearings. One major thing that comes up is what kind of support system the person has in the community—i.e., friends and family who will help the parolee find a job, locate housing, and generally adjust to life in the real world.
I can’t answer questions 1 and 2 because I really don’t know, but the idea of bringing up being “implicated,” but not charged, seems weird to me. Parole boards are mainly concerned with the likelihood of recidivism. My impression of the process is that they can consider whatever the hell they want, but I don’t know why they’d get into stuff that didn’t even result in charges.
I imagine if the fellow was convicted of grifting by selling Iraqi dinar to trusting people, and the board was told by the police that although never prosecuted before he had earned his living selling fake Confederate bonds for the previous 40 years, and whilst in prison he had written a thesis on bitcoin, they might form an idea of his actual plans on release.