A friend sent me a picture of a homeless man on a bench with dialogue below it. The homeless man said last week he had a job, food, clean clothes and medical care.

The question, “What happened?” was posed to him. He responded, “I was paroled.” In the Utah system it doesn’t quite work like that, but I’d argue its closer than you might think.

When a prisoner is granted parole in Utah, they must have an approved address. Otherwise they’re forced to go to a halfway house to “stabilize.” A scenario like the one above can and does happen when prisoners terminate or expire their sentences.

RELATED: Behind Bars: It’s not uncommon for similar crimes to get different sentences

These decisions are all made by the Board of Pardons and Parole, which reviews an offender’s history and holds a hearing with the offender. The board then makes a decision or gives the offender a rehearing. These hearings can be life-changing — or they might just be a formality.

Getting a release date instead of a rehearing is favorable for most prisoners because you aren’t left guessing when you’re going home.

However, that defeats the original positive aspect behind indeterminate sentencing, which is the idea prisoners can affect their parole dates if they work hard enough and achieve real change.

On the other side, the “in limbo” aspect has been argued as cruel and unusual punishment for the prisoner. It’s especially cruel for prisoners who are “doing life on the installment plan” where they get a rehearing every 10 years or so.

RELATED: Behind Bars: The universe righted itself during time in Davis County drug court

Those prisoners haven’t technically been sentenced to life in prison and won’t show up on the ever increasing statistic of life sentences doled out, but the end result is the same.

The other benefit to “having a date” is a change in classification closer to release. With that comes eligibility for things like vocational training or gate-pass jobs. Those with a rehearing aren’t eligible.

I’ve often heard prisoners say the board will let out prisoners it thinks have a high likelihood of coming back and give more time to those they believe will never be in the system again.

RELATED: Behind Bars: In prison, the biggest difference between Utah’s inmates is food

I agree I’ve scratched my head a few times regarding sentence lengths on either end of the spectrum; however, the fact that the board has been known to give sentence reductions for prisoners who provide addresses in another state and proof of a plane or bus ticket out of Utah is evidence to the contrary.

Right now there isn’t really a process to judge if a prisoner is ready for release. The whole system is in flux. The board is changing, and what they look at is changing.

When I first came to prison, I was given a sheet of paper that scored me in categories such as drug/alcohol, leisure/recreation, attitude, education, work and more. It was supposed to tell me to work on and how to spend my time as far as programs and classes go.

My highest priority was drug/alcohol, which meant I’d have to complete a drug program. That made sense, but there were other scores that were obviously arbitrarily assigned to me. 

It didn’t really matter for me because, like many others, I saw the board and received my date (five years) within the first few months of my incarceration.

Hopefully they come up with a system to better gauge prisoners’ progress and likelihood of success more accurately. In this age of data gathering and analytics, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

This may be an unpopular opinion to have (as a prisoner), but I really wish the board was able to see how prisoners conducted themselves on a day-to-day basis.

I just saw a prisoner get released who says it’s inevitable he’ll end up in a liquor store, so there’s no reason to fight it. And then there’s a prisoner who continues to get rehearings, but I’d bet my own freedom that he’ll stay out of trouble.

Currently, disciplinary action as well as programs completed are recorded and sent to the board, and each prisoner gets a few anxious minutes to make their case.

Although those records and proceedings have the potential to be quite telling, it’s just not enough, particularly in most initial hearings where the offender has spent little time in prison.

Deciding who goes free and who dies in prison has got to be hard, but I feel like board members often have to do it with their eyes closed and one arm tied behind their backs.

Brian Wood, formerly of Layton, is an inmate at the Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. He pleaded guilty to nine felony charges for offenses from 2011 to 2014, including counts of burglary, drug possession and prescription fraud. He could spend up to 35 years in prison, depending on parole hearings.