Prisoners paroled early despite lifetime sentences

Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used court records and Department of Corrections data to show that prisoners who were sentenced to prison terms of double their lifetimes or more have been quietly released after doing only a fraction of their time in Missouri and Illinois. "In all, at least 189 murderers and 40 people convicted of sexual assault, rape or sodomy in Missouri are among roughly 400 of the state's inmates originally sentenced to at least 25 years in prison and paroled in the past 10 years, according to the Department of Corrections." They are prisoners who were convicted before legislators and prosecutors tightened the rules and began chipping away at the discretion of the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole.