California Board of Parole HearingsGovernment

The California Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) is an administrative quasi-judicial agency within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Composed of commissioners appointed by the Governor, its mandate is to conduct parole suitability hearings for adult inmates serving indeterminate life sentences with the possibility of parole, determine conditions of parole, and advise the Governor on applications for clemency, reprieves, and pardons. While California's modern parole hearing system traces its origins to the creation of the Adult Authority in 1944 and the subsequent Board of Prison Terms, the current Board of Parole Hearings was formally established on July 1, 2005, through a comprehensive reorganization of California's correctional and prison administrative system.