Thousands of people move in and out of Missouri’s parole system every year. In 2008, Terrell Robinson walked free after serving 21 years of a 50-year sentence for a robbery he committed in St. Louis at 17.
His release seemed like the start of a new life. But one year later, Robinson violated the terms of his parole. He was sent back to prison.
“The parole board is a draconian system, it's cruel and severe,” Robinson said in a phone call Thursday from the Northeast Correctional Center. "We're at their mercy, whether we believe it or not.”
Robinson has spent the past 16 years trying to regain the freedom that the parole system only briefly returned to him. He was never charged with a new crime. He admitted to his parole officer that he had used marijuana and wanted to seek treatment.
But he said the parole board never made it clear what rule he violated or how he could prove his rehabilitation.
“The parole board is about punishment,” he said. “It's not about trying to put me in a situation where I can repair some of the damage that I may have done and giving me the opportunity, the necessary tools I need, to get out and stay out.”
Robinson’s case is extreme, but his experience with the parole board isn’t unusual, said attorney Amy Malinowski, who represented Robinson in a 2022 lawsuit seeking his release.
Data from the Missouri Department of Corrections show that around half of all new admissions to the state’s prisons each year come from people who have violated their probation or parole. In 2024, those cases sent more than 5,000 Missourians back to prison.
“Historically, the parole board has enjoyed an incredible amount of privacy,” noted Malinowski. “Hearings are closed. Records are closed. We don't know how they make decisions or why they make decisions that they make.”
Malinowski is the co-director of the Missouri office of the MacArthur Justice Center. The group has filed multiple lawsuits against the state’s probation and parole system, which governs the lives of more than 50,000 people.
Whether initially sentenced at trial to probation or later released on parole, people in this system are allowed to serve their sentences outside prison. Once there, however, Malinowski said they face numerous fees and restrictions as conditions of their release — each representing a potential avenue for that person to be sent back to prison.
“Parole should not be revoked on a mere technicality,” Malinowski said. “People should be supported to stay in their communities. That is what serves public safety, not over-incarceration.”
In 2018, the MacArthur Justice Center filed a class-action lawsuit against Missouri’s Department of Corrections over the practices of the parole board. That case’s lead plaintiff, Norman Brown, had committed a robbery in Chesterfield at age 15. He was sentenced to life in prison, without parole, even though an adult accomplice committed the only violence in the robbery.
Despite a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that juvenile offenders sentenced to life deserved a chance for release, Missouri’s parole board continued to reject their cases for parole. In 2019, a federal judge ordered Missouri to change the way its parole board treated people sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. The long-awaited reforms included a right to be represented by counsel.
Despite that court victory, Brown spent around four more years in prison before his release on parole.
He is still afraid that the same system that freed him could send him back to prison.
“I do believe that reform is mandatory. It's a must,” Brown told St. Louis on the Air. “I'm very conscious of my day-to-day life because I am on parole…. I know people can be violated for just the littlest things, and so I'm extra careful. I'm not on edge, but on my toes when it comes to the things I do, the places I am, and the people I’m around.”
On this episode of St. Louis on the Air, Brown and Malinowski discussed their experience challenging Missouri’s parole system and why it still sends thousands of people back to prison every year.
Malinowski also shared her perspective on the special working group appointed by Gov. Mike Kehoe to improve the state’s parole system. In July, three members of the working group spoke to St. Louis on the Air about their backgrounds and hopes for reform. The members say that the working group is continuing to hold meetings in August and September, but it’s not clear when their recommendations will be ready for the governor.
To hear the full conversation about criticism of Missouri’s parole system with Norman Brown and the MacArthur Justice Center’s Amy Malinowski, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
