Parole board unanimously reelects chairman and honors volunteers, staff

Terry Barnard was unanimously reelected on Tuesday as chair by the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

It will be Barnard’s fifth year in the role. He’s two years into his second seven-year term on the powerful board, which decides whether inmates will be granted parole and whether death row inmates will be granted clemency.

Asked about his goals for the next year, Barnard said he hoped to keep trying to create a more “open atmosphere” where victims will have more input on parole decisions.

In the past year, he said he’s been pleased with how the board is bringing in new tools to help the board make decisions it makes about inmates’ lives. For instance, in the past year, the board began using a so-called sex offender risk assessment tool, which is informed by research and gives the board a chance to attempt to predict a sex offender’s chances of committing another offense.

“It is an eye-opening opportunity,” Barnard, a longtime banker and former state representative from Glennville in South Georgia, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The board reelected Brian Owens as vice chair.

Because the meeting was the last of the state’s fiscal year, it was also a time to pass out awards and honor staff. The board also honored crime victims who have been volunteering with the Georgia Office of Victim Services to help new victims cope.