Under the political regimes of recent Republican extremists, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole has become a corrupt and dishonest pack of Republican hacks. The Board reflects the institutionalized hypocrisy which is the foundation of all Republican politics. In Pennsylvania parole has nothing to do with the treatment of crime or the rehabilitation of offenders. It's all political the furtherance of an extremist and un-American ideology. The Parole Board is inept and inefficient. Seven years past my parole date, I'm still held for political reasons, What's worse is that the Board is dishonest and deceitful as a matter of course. A prime example of the Board's dishonesty is the so-called Citizens Advisory Committee! On the Board's website there's an announcement inviting "citizen involvement" and asking citizens to join a Citizens Advisory Committee. It's all purely phony! Sandra Feigley, our publisher, signed up. She attended a few meetings and made what she felt were constructive suggestions and observations. In other words, Mrs. Feigley, who is expert in all prison matters, made a valuable citizen's contribution. She observed that the few others who attended the meetings were "insiders," parole and prison professionals, political leeches and bureaucrats. She was the only real "civilian" citizen present. It seemed to Mrs. Feigley that the committee wasn't really supposed to give advice. Instead, it seemed to exist as "yes-men" to pretend that there was public approval for the Board and its actions. Everything went fine for Mrs. Feigley until the insiders discovered that she was the publisher of www.prisoners.com. Suddenly, she was persona non grata; unwelcome! The published invitation to join the committee places no limitations on who may be a member. There are no stipulations in the law, regulations or in the Pennsylvania Code about who may be a member. It didn't matter. Like everything involving the Parole Board, it's all politics. The committee exists only for supporters of the Republicans who are in power. The functionaries in charge of the committee suddenly invented an "application form" which Mrs. Feigley was required to complete before she could attend any more meetings. Apparently no other member of the committee was required to submit such a form. The form demanded a "criminal background check'' and endless details about our publisher's private life and private affairs. Although the form was clearly improper, unsanctioned and perhaps illegal, Mrs. Feigley completed and submitted it. There are no rules or guidelines about who evaluates the form or what they evaluate it for, but of course, it was only a political ploy, a device to remove a citizen from the "Citizens" Advisory Committee. As with all good bureaucratic ploys, the committee doesn't have to do anything. It can (and has) simply hold the "application" indefinitely; never approve it and never disapprove it. It's simply a gimmick intended to discriminate against an unwanted citizen, an outsider, an opponent. After several months Mrs. Feigley wrote to the committee and to the Chairman of the Board, William F. Ward. Mrs. Feigley demanded that some action be taken on her application. Needless to say, nothing was done. Rather than sue the Board and Chairman Ward (because, who really cares?), Mrs. Feigley has simply written and spoken against the Board's corruption and political bias. And campaigned against Republicans at all levels. Every citizen should give advice to the Parole Board by tossing them out of office!