AG U96-05.

• Case Date: August 15, 1996
• Court: Rhode Island

Rhode Island Attorney General Opinions 1996. AG U96-05. UNOFFICIAL OPINION U96-05August 15, 1996Audrey B. CarnevaleExecutive Secretary Rhode Island Parole Board Department of Corrections One Center Place Providence, Rhode Island 02903 Dear Ms. Carnevale: I write in response to your request for an unofficial advisory opinion "specifying the burden or proof necessary for a revocation of parole". You also question whether an inmate has a right to "review information which is used by the Parole Board to make a parole determination." The questions you pose relate to the due process rights attendant to the revocation of parole. These rights were addressed fairly comprehensively in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). In Morrissey, the United States Supreme Court set forth guidelines concerning the revocation of parole. The court delineated two different stages in the parole revocation process. Your letter does not specify which stage you question and I therefore address both. First, the court determined that when the parolee is arrested and detained, "due process would seem to require that some minimal inquiry be conducted at or reasonably near the place of the alleged parole violation ...." 92 S.Ct at 2602, 408 U.S. at 485. At that preliminary hearing, the standard applicable to the determination is whether there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that the arrested parolee has violated a parole condition. 92 S.Ct at 2602. The parolee must be given notice of the hearing and advised that the purpose is to determine whether there is probable cause to believe that he or she has committed a parole violation. Id. at 2603. 1 On request of the parolee, any person who has given adverse information on which parole revocation is to be based, is to be made available for questioning in the presence of the parolee. However, if the hearing officer determines that an informant would be subjected to a risk of harm if his identity were disclosed, the witness need not be subjected to confrontation and cross-examination. Id. Subsequent to the preliminary hearing is the full revocation hearing held by the Parole Board. At the revocation hearing stage, "[the] hearing must be the basis for more than determining probable cause; it must lead to a final evaluation of any contested relevant facts and consideration of whether the facts as determined warrant revocation." The parolee must have the opportunity to be heard at a hearing and "... to show, if he can, that he did not violate the conditions [of parole], or, if he did, that circumstances in mitigation suggest that the violation...