A report released Wednesday by the state auditor said the Massachusetts Parole Board has not been following its own rules for fee collection or re-evaluating former prisoners.
Parolees have to pay a fee to cover the cost of their own supervision. The report says almost a quarter of those fees went uncollected in the 2015 fiscal year. Massachusetts Auditor Suzanne Bump said the parole board has adequate procedures but does not always follow them consistently.
“There were cases of people who were working full-time who paid no fees, and others who were not in such fortunate circumstances, and fees were still being assessed,” Bump said.
The Parole Board is also supposed to reassess former prisoners to see if their level of supervision should change. The auditor’s office said out of a sample of 35 people, 19 hadn’t been evaluated in the required time frame.
In a reply to the report, the parole board said it’s working on improvements in both areas.
The auditor’s office did give the Parole Board high marks for performing tests within the prescribed periods of time: Polygraphs every six months for those on the state’s sex offender registry, and follow-up drug tests within 45 days for parolees who have tested positive while out of prison.