Lori Kelley Attorney at Law Schedule a Consultation

Parole proceedings require more than an appearance on the day of the hearing. Effective representation begins with understanding the client, the complete record, the legal standard, the Board's prior concerns, and the evidence of current transformation.

I represent clients throughout California in parole suitability hearings and related Board proceedings. Each representation is individualized according to the client's history, needs, communication abilities, risk factors, hearing type, and stage of the process.

My work may include detailed record review, confidential preparation meetings, Comprehensive Risk Assessment analysis, guidance on the client's own risk-management and release planning, written legal advocacy, disability and effective-communication issues, representation at the hearing, and selected post-hearing matters.

Suitability Hearings Hearing Types Other Board Proceedings Complex Case Preparation What's Included Fees
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Parole Suitability Hearings

One standard, applied to every hearing

Every parole suitability hearing asks the same core question: whether the person can be safely released today. Youth offender, elderly, third-striker, and other hearings add considerations to that standard. They don't replace it.

What the Board looks at

  • The commitment offense and criminal history
  • Social history, including childhood, family, and trauma
  • Institutional conduct, programming, and disciplinary record
  • The Comprehensive Risk Assessment
  • Insight and responsibility for the harm caused
  • Risk factors and the ability to manage them
  • Release and relapse-prevention plans

Representation may include

  • Reviewing the central file, legal records, and risk assessment
  • Helping the client understand the experiences, beliefs, emotions, and decisions behind the harm, without scripted answers
  • Addressing disciplinary conduct, gaps in programming, or inaccurate records
  • Advising the client as they write their own risk-management and release plans
  • Submitting the client's own documents to the Board
  • Advocating for the client before and during the hearing

The goal is to help the Board understand not only what the client has accomplished, but how the client has changed and why that change can be sustained in the community.

Hearing Types

What each hearing adds

The preparation above applies to every hearing. Here is what changes from one type to the next.

Initial Hearings

The client's first appearance before the Board. Preparation builds the foundation of the client's story of change.

Subsequent Hearings

Preparation starts with the prior transcript and decision: what concerns the last panel raised, whether the record supported them, and what has changed since. A prior denial does not decide the next hearing.

Youth Offender Parole

For many people whose controlling offense occurred before age 26. The Board must give great weight to the diminished culpability of youth, the hallmark features of youth, and later growth and maturity. Youth gives developmental context; it does not excuse harm.

Elderly Parole

For people who meet the age and time-served requirements. The Board gives special consideration to age, time served, and the reduced risk that can come with aging. Age alone does not decide the case.

Third-Striker Parole

Preparation looks past the most recent offense to the pattern: what drove the repeated conduct, why earlier consequences did not interrupt it, and what has changed at a deeper level.

Nonviolent Parole

Under Proposition 57, after the full term of the primary offense. People serving determinate sentences generally receive a review of the written record instead of a live hearing, so the written submission carries the case.

Determinate Sentences

Some people serving determinate sentences receive a hearing before their release date, most often under the youth offender or elderly provisions. The same suitability standard applies.

Each hearing type has its own eligibility rules and exclusions, so eligibility should be confirmed from the client's sentencing documents and CDCR records rather than assumed.

Other Board Proceedings

When the question is narrower

Rescission, reconsideration, and en banc review do not re-decide general suitability. Each asks a narrower question and follows its own process.

Rescission Hearings

A rescission proceeding may occur after the Board grants parole but before the client is released.

The Board must have a legally sufficient basis and follow the required process before rescinding a parole grant. A rescission hearing is not simply a second opportunity to reconsider the client's general suitability.

Representation may include

  • Reviewing the alleged new information or misconduct
  • Determining whether the information is reliable and material
  • Examining whether the information was actually new or previously unavailable
  • Challenging factual inaccuracies or unsupported allegations
  • Addressing notice, disclosure, accommodation, and due-process concerns
  • Presenting evidence and witnesses when appropriate
  • Demonstrating whether the alleged conduct establishes a legally sufficient basis for rescission

These cases often require a narrow focus on the specific information that caused the Board to question the grant.

Parole Reconsideration Hearings

A reconsideration hearing applies when a person who was released on parole is returned to custody following an adjudicated parole violation or new criminal conduct and the matter falls within the Board's jurisdiction.

An initial reconsideration hearing under Penal Code section 2275 is distinct from an ordinary parole suitability hearing. The threshold question is whether the adjudicated violation or new offense demonstrates that the person must remain incarcerated to protect public safety.

Representation may include

  • Identifying the conduct that was actually adjudicated
  • Distinguishing proven facts from allegations
  • Examining the circumstances surrounding the violation or new offense
  • Challenging the use of an incorrect legal standard
  • Addressing whether the conduct demonstrates current dangerousness
  • Evaluating the client's understanding of the setback
  • Advising the client on revising their release and risk-management plan
  • Presenting evidence of the client's broader transformation without minimizing the violation

If release is denied at the initial reconsideration hearing, the client generally receives annual subsequent hearings. Those later proceedings apply the ordinary parole-suitability framework and require preparation based on the client's current record.

En Banc Advocacy

En banc review occurs when the full Board considers a case at a public meeting. A matter may reach the en banc calendar after a split hearing panel, referral by the Governor, internal review, a proposed rescission action, or another authorized process.

En banc advocacy is different from a full parole suitability hearing. The presentation must focus closely on the reason the matter is before the full Board.

Representation may include

  • Reviewing the hearing transcript, decision, Governor's letter, or referral documents
  • Identifying the precise legal and factual issues before the Board
  • Preparing focused written advocacy
  • Responding to alleged errors, omissions, or unresolved concerns
  • Presenting relevant evidence of the client's current circumstances
  • Making a concise oral presentation at the public meeting
  • Requesting the appropriate action based on the posture of the case

The purpose is not to resubmit the entire parole case. Effective en banc advocacy identifies the narrow issue before the Board and explains why the requested action is supported by the law and the record.

Complex Case Preparation

Risk assessments, substance use, and trauma-informed advocacy

The cases that require the most careful, individualized preparation — approached without judgment, and without minimizing what happened.

Comprehensive Risk Assessment Review

A Comprehensive Risk Assessment can significantly influence a parole hearing, but the evaluator's low, moderate, or high rating does not decide the case.

Review may include

  • Identifying factual inaccuracies
  • Comparing the assessment with the central file and other records
  • Evaluating the risk and protective factors relied upon
  • Examining diagnoses, assumptions, and conflicting information
  • Preparing timely factual objections when appropriate
  • Helping the client understand the evaluator's concerns
  • Advising the client on plans that address any remaining dynamic risks
  • Presenting the assessment in the context of the complete record

How risk assessments work, in the FAQs →

Substance-Use and Dual-Diagnosis Cases

When substance use contributed to criminal conduct, violence, psychosis, impaired judgment, or institutional behavior, the Board will expect more than a promise to remain sober.

Preparation may examine

  • What substances did for the client emotionally, psychologically, and socially
  • The relationship between substance use and the commitment offense
  • Triggers, cravings, warning signs, and high-risk situations
  • The interaction between substance use and mental-health symptoms
  • Prior relapse patterns and failed attempts to stop
  • The client's current recovery tools and support system
  • Specific responses if cravings, stress, isolation, or symptoms return
  • Treatment and relapse-prevention plans after release

The objective is a realistic plan, written by the client, that they understand and can use before a lapse becomes a crisis.

Sexual-Offense Cases

Sexual-offense cases often involve complicated records, specialized risk assessments, treatment histories, registration requirements, supervision conditions, and sensitive personal information.

Preparation must be careful, nonjudgmental, and direct. Depending on the case, it may address:

  • The client's offense pathway and patterns of sexual behavior
  • Distorted beliefs, entitlement, secrecy, grooming, fantasy, or emotional avoidance
  • Relationship and intimacy difficulties
  • Treatment participation and application
  • Individual warning signs and high-risk situations
  • Healthy sexuality, boundaries, and consent
  • Offense-specific risk-management planning
  • Housing, supervision, treatment, and registration requirements

Compassionate representation does not minimize the harm. It creates the conditions for honest examination, meaningful accountability, and a realistic prevention plan.

Trauma, Mental Health, and Effective Communication

Trauma, mental illness, cognitive limitations, developmental disabilities, literacy, language, hearing loss, medication, or other conditions may affect how a client understands and participates in the parole process.

These conditions should not automatically be mistaken for evasion, lack of remorse, unwillingness to participate, or lack of insight.

Representation may include

  • Identifying communication and disability needs
  • Reviewing relevant mental-health, medical, educational, or developmental records
  • Requesting reasonable accommodations
  • Advocating for an appropriate hearing format
  • Helping the client understand complex questions and procedures
  • Distinguishing symptoms or limitations from intentional conduct
  • Ensuring that the client has a meaningful opportunity to express their wishes
  • Protecting the client's autonomy when the client's objectives are unclear

A trauma-informed approach provides context without using trauma or mental illness to excuse harm. The focus remains on understanding, accountability, treatment, risk management, and current functioning.

Scope of Representation

What the work actually involves.

Every representation is shaped by the proceeding, the hearing date, the size of the record, and what the client needs. The specific tasks are set out in a written agreement. This is what the work looks like in practice.

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Understanding the record

I read the central file, prior transcripts and decisions, and the Comprehensive Risk Assessment closely. I look for factual errors and unresolved concerns, and for the story the record tells about who the client was and who they have become.

Building genuine insight

In confidential, one-on-one preparation meetings, I help clients trace the experiences, beliefs, emotions, and thinking patterns that led to harm, and how they respond today to stress, conflict, rejection, and old triggers. The work is trauma-informed and relational, moves at the client's pace, and aims for an understanding that belongs to them, not answers to memorize.

Planning for life after release

I discuss and advise on relapse-prevention plans for each relevant risk-factor area. Writing those plans, along with personal statements and release plans, is an important part of the rehabilitative process, so each client writes their own. Many of my clients identify difficulty asking for help as one of the factors behind the harm they caused, so reaching out to programs, housing, and supporters is a necessary area of growth on the path to suitability. I may share a basic template, but working out what a plan needs, how to structure it, and how to express it in their own words is itself part of rehabilitation and internalization. When questions come up, I encourage clients to seek help within their own community: peers, staff, and programs inside the institution, as well as family, friends, and outside organizations. Each of those connections is a bridge they are learning to build now, one that becomes invaluable, and often essential, after reentry.

Advocating before the Board

I prepare my own legal submissions to the Board, explain to supporters what makes a useful letter, raise disability and effective-communication needs, represent the client at the hearing or en banc meeting, and review the decision afterward.

My approach draws on trauma-informed and relational principles, because the qualities a parole panel looks for (insight, accountability, and emotional regulation) grow out of honest, supported self-examination. The work itself is legal representation and is not a substitute for therapy. No attorney can guarantee a parole grant or release date. My purpose is to make sure the client is carefully prepared, the record is accurate, the client's rights are protected, and the Board sees the whole person.

Fees

What representation costs

Every case begins with a free initial review. Fees are then set out in a written agreement based on the proceeding, the size of the record, and the scope of work.

Standard Parole Representation

Starting at $6,000

Ten hours of confidential pre-hearing consultation by video, document review, guidance on the client's parole plans and hearing documents, and Lori's in-person appearance at the hearing for institutions within 75 miles of the Sacramento office. Additional travel fees apply beyond 75 miles.

Videoconference-Only Representation

$500 discount

When preparation and the hearing appearance are both by videoconference, a $500 discount applies to the standard representation fee. The same ten hours of preparation and guidance are included, with no travel fees. The final fee is set out in your written agreement.

Insight Development Package

$4,000

Ten hours of one-on-one consultation, usually five 2-hour sessions completed within 6 months, plus review of available relevant documents and two written Roadmaps to Suitability: an initial Roadmap after the second session, and an updated risk-factor Roadmap after the final session. If you retain Lori for hearing representation within 12 months of completing the package, $1,000 is credited toward the hearing fee.

Beyond the Hearing

Representation focused on release — and lasting freedom.

The immediate goal of parole representation may be a fair hearing and a grant of parole. The larger goal is to help the client understand and manage the risks that could threaten their freedom after release.

Preparation therefore focuses not only on what the client will say to the Board, but also on how the client will make healthy decisions, seek support, respond to warning signs, and remain safely and successfully in the community.

Ready to discuss a parole case?

Contact Lori Kelley Law to request a consultation about a California parole hearing or related proceeding.

Schedule a Consultation (916) 469-5220
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