A few days ago, I met with two perspective families of potential parole clients. They had different kinds of problems. I had seen both problems before. The first had a loved one who was ten years into a twenty-year sentence for armed robbery. The second had a loved one who was puzzled that he had been in prison for more than four years already for a ten-year prison sentence for possession with intent. In the first case, a competing attorney I had never heard of had offered an outstanding deal to represent them for parole on the armed robbery conviction. In the second instance, the legal advice came pre-plea. The law had negotiated a trafficking charge into a lesser offense for possession with intent to distribute. The lawyer advised the client to take it because he would be out after serving a third of his prison time. The family wanted a lawyer to work on parole but also to figure out what the hold-up was. In these two clients, I encountered the three things people don’t know about parole in Georgia.

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