One of these things that motivated the founders of PREPARE to develop the organization was the fact that, historically, there has been no organization or entity in Maryland with the goal of providing guidance to people on how to engage with the parole system. This meant that most people were going to their parole hearings with no understanding of the system, no sense of what a good case for parole would look like, and no idea of how to best present their case.

 

While we are able to provide direct services to hundreds of people, there are 15,000 people in prison in Maryland. For that reason, PREPARE has developed an array of written materials on parole. They are available free for download from our website, but more importantly, hard copies have been made available in prison libraries throughout Maryland. Our materials include a guide on how to become a good candidate for parole, a guide on putting together a parole packet, a workbook for people with short sentences and a pamphlet for people with life sentences. 

 

So far we have placed in the prison libraries 16,000 leaflets, over 11,000 guides on parole preparation, and 3,500 workbooks. Spanish versions of these things have also been put in the libraries.