Social Roles and Information Utilization in Parole Decision-Making.

Preparole evaluations conducted by prison caseworkers were compared with board action and parole outcome on 421 cases heard by the California Adult Authority during 1968-1969. These two groups of decision-makers emphasized different considerations in performing their tasks, with board members focusing primarily on the seriousness of the most recent offense and caseworkers weighting recidivism-related variables. Furthermore, board decisions were unrelated to subsequent parole performance, and a weak relationship was seen between self-reported and actual utilization of offender case information by board members.