Dr. Kokkalera, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, received her Ph.D. from Northeastern University in criminology and justice policy in 2020. She became interested in researching parole practices as a teaching assistant for her dissertation chair, who had access to parole board hearings. After watching just one hearing, Kokkalera began to question due process rights, fairness, and equity when it comes to reentry. She noticed a lack of attention to this topic due to this population already being convicted and often dealing with long sentences. As many states shift from the mass incarceration model to focus more on parole, Dr. Kokkalera wants to analyze how each state handles its parole practices.
This funded research began when Dr. Kokkalera applied for the new faculty program grant from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Sam Houston State University. This program’s goal is to support faculty for a project that would help them expand their research. For this project, Dr. Kokkalera will look at the different parole practices for individuals who have received life sentences and present the variations to the Association of Paroling Authorities International (APAI). After attending APAI’s last conference, she noticed that state parole boards are siloed and seldom communicate outside of their annual meeting. Kokkalera’s research will promote communication between the parole boards, which will lead to more states applying relevant practices when it comes to these hearings.
Dr. Kokkalera looks to affect parole board practices from state to state saying, “There might be best practices that are relevant to state parole boards, but there might also be really bad practices that states don’t realize just yet. My goal is to make parole more meaningful for the board, the candidate and the community.”
Funded for $4,500, Dr. Kokkalera will conduct her research and present her findings to APAI. These funds will support a graduate student who will be assisting with data collection and analysis. With states relying more on parole in the future, Dr. Kokkalera’s research will impact how states handle the parole process.
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