The Board of Parole Hearings (BPH)

Deputy Commissioners

Deputy Commissioners are civil service appointments, unlike Commissioners, who are appointed by the Governor. Most Deputy Commissioners have years of experience working in corrections, law enforcement and the legal field. Deputy Commissioners primarily preside over quasi-judicial hearings that determine whether a parolee has violated their parole conditions, and if so, whether they will be returned to prison for up to one year for that violation.

Deputy Commissioners also:

• conduct documentation hearings and review multi-year denials of a parole for inmates serving life sentences
• review and decide administrative appeals of Board decisions
• conduct certification, placement, annual review, and re-hospitalization hearings for mentally disordered offenders
• serve on hearing panels that are chaired by Commissioners that determine parole suitability for life-sentenced inmates