Decision-Making in a Parole Bureaucracy

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Abstract
This paper examines parole agent decision processes in a pa role bureaucracy. Legislation making all parolees eligible for dis charge when they successfully completed two years of parole re quired agents to submit case evaluations and recommendations to the California Adult Authority for final decision. Parole agent reports were analyzed across approximately fifty information items and related to the probabilities of recommendation for dis charge. Agents were found to vary widely in the types of infor mation they choose to report and in the impact of that informa tion on their decisions. Whether or not a particular client is discharged from parole seems to depend on circumstances of time and place rather than any overall rational assessment of his parole career.

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