By Malik Washington, Destination Freedom Media Group
When ‘suitability’ becomes a life sentence by another name, communities demand a parole system that honors rehabilitation, not bureaucracy.
They say justice is blind, but anyone who has stood under the fluorescent hum of a parole board hearing knows better. In California, too many people who went to prison as teenagers are still gambling their futures on a parole process that looks objective on paper and feels like a roll of the dice in practice. The numbers—and the stories—refuse to be quiet.
A rigorous study by legal scholar Kristen Bell examined 465 California parole hearings for people convicted as teens after the state’s 2014 reform. The result? A 62% denial rate and deep racial disparities, with Black applicants facing steep headwinds—especially without private counsel. And here’s the truth the fear-mongers never tell you: as of 2017, none of those released had returned to prison. ZERO. Rehabilitation isn’t a slogan; it’s a measurable outcome.
William Palmer knows that outcome because he embodies it. Convicted as a youth offender and released after three decades of unconstitutional, excessive punishment, Palmer walked out determined to make sure the door stayed open for those behind him. Today, as President of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board and founder of Life After Next, he is one of the state’s most insistent voices that “youth offender” must mean something real—procedurally, culturally, and morally. “I forgave myself, decided to love myself,” Palmer told me. “But it wasn’t that—it was forgiving my adversaries that liberated my soul, giving me mindfulness and eventually agency over my body.” That hard-won freedom sharpened his critique: California promised a “meaningful opportunity” for youth parole, yet empowered the Board of Parole Hearings to define “suitability” so broadly it became a shadow resentencing—life without parole by administrative pen. “The bill was written to give youth offenders a meaningful opportunity, yet it had no teeth,” Palmer says.
Listen to the measure of impact in his voice: “To be approached by men and women saying if not for my case they’d still be in prison… the 1,200 youth offenders immediately released after me and the over 5,000 since—some I defended myself against while in prison. Yet they had equal opportunity, like me.” Those are not abstractions; they’re neighbors, parents, college students, union members—proof that redemption scales when the state gets out of its own way.
Palmer is pushing the conversation where it has to go next. He argues youth must be removed from DAPO, the Department of Adult Parole Operations, and placed under a Community Board for Youth Justice designed around adolescent development, restorative practices, and reentry success. Parole for young people should not be adult parole with a new label; it should be a different system—trauma-informed, community-anchored, and measured by outcomes that matter: housing, education, employment, wellness, and—yes—no new harm.
“My community asked me about statistics,” Palmer says. “How successful are youth offenders on parole? We remember the scare tactics of CDCR lobbyists and those election-season commercials that said we were too dangerous, should die in prison, instead of being given the parole built into our sentences. Where are they now?” The silence to that question speaks volumes. When released youth are not returning to prison, the public deserves to hear it as loudly as the fear ever was.
Here’s what meaningful youth parole should look like—what it must look like: Teeth in the Law: Amend and implement reforms (building on measures like SB 260) so “meaningful opportunity” is enforceable, not aspirational. – Independent Youth Parole Structure: Move youth from DAPO to a Community Board for Youth Justice staffed by experts in adolescent development, reentry, and restorative justice. – Guaranteed Representation & Support: Ensure counsel—public or private—so a family’s bank account doesn’t decide a child’s adulthood. – Transparent Metrics: Publish quarterly outcomes—grant rates, revocations, racial equity audits, re-arrest and re-imprisonment data, and post-release success indicators. – Community Voice & Oversight: Seat impacted families, survivors, and community practitioners at the table. – Incentives for Success: Reward programs with lower revocations and higher success outcomes.
Justice that cannot distinguish between a 16-year-old’s brain and a 36-year-old’s biography is not justice—it’s laziness with paperwork. And a parole process that pretends neutrality while reproducing racial and economic disparities is not neutral; it’s a mirror of the bias we refuse to name.
Palmer’s north star is simple and radical at once: “Justice is giving the poor the same opportunity as the rich, yet the system wasn’t designed to disseminate that type of justice. So, we have to reimagine, replace and reclaim restorative justice from our love ethics.” That’s not rhetoric—it’s a plan. Reimagine the process. Replace what harms. Reclaim what heals.
We already know what happens when we do: People come home, they stay home, they contribute, they lead. William Palmer is proof. So are the thousands who followed him out the gate and into classrooms, workplaces, city halls, and living rooms where children finally get parents back.
California promised a meaningful opportunity. The community is done waiting for the meaning.
As always, we end this article with our chosen music video. Please listen and watch: What’s Free – Meek Mill feat. Rick Ross & Jay Z Music Video
Malik & William Palmer at the Civic Center in San Francisco
Malik Washington is a freelance journalist and Officer and Director at Destination: Freedom and CEO and Director of Destination Freedom Media Group. Malik is also a regular contributor to the Davis Vanguard. For over 13 years, Malik has been a published journalist and news reporter focusing on criminal justice issues, conditions of confinement in jails and prisons, as well as hot-button political issues. You can reach him via email: mwashington@destination-freedom.org or call him at (719) 715-9592.
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