He went up for parole four times, at least according to the paperwork in my possession. On May 28, 1952 (roughly six months after his trial and sentencing) New Prisoner No. 29888 was denied parole, with a re-hearing scheduled for May, 1954.


But just two months later, on July 31, 1952, he came up for parole again. It was granted, effective January 23, 1953. He must have been feeling good, imagining the familiar concrete and asphalt of Paterson beneath his feet.

But he never made it out. The next evidence of him from the legal system comes almost two years later, with another denial from the parole board on September 28, 1954. 

Something significant clearly happened between July 1952 and September 1954, because not only did my dad fail to get paroled in January of 1953, but he had a new Prisoner No. of 30786. (And parole was denied one again.)

Maybe he'd made some kind of deal, or demonstrated good behavior in July of 1952, and they told him he'd be out around the turn of the year. But in the intervening time, he could have gotten into bad enough trouble to be sentenced for a new crime. If it happens in prison, it doesn't necessarily end up going through the civil courts. 

I've contacted the state of NJ about clarifying this situation, but it could take a while. Another sixty years, maybe. The New Jersey State Prison in Trenton experienced rioting during April and May of 1952. The State of New Jersey even ran an investigation into the unrest and produced a nearly 200-page report on it.

Was my dad involved in this? I like to think of him, in true scofflaw fashion, being a part of the general mayhem and destruction. But he was only nineteen, and hardly a hardened criminal compared to the rest of the inmates. I also remember a short story of his about a hunger strike in which the protagonist doesn't partake in the strike and is sort of reviled by his fellow inmates. Maybe that was autobiographical. 

Did my dad snitch on the organizers and get a deal for parole? Did he then shank somebody who tried to get retribution later? This is what I want to know from the State of New Jersey, what I asked the Department of Corrections to research for me, but they said 

Please be advised that the New Jersey Department of Corrections approved retention schedule for inmate records is 10 years after service of sentence is complete. Therefore, records from the 1095's have been destroyed. Accordingly, your requests cannot be fulfilled and pursuant to OPRA [Open Public Records Act] are denied. 

So there. Whatever turned him into  Prisoner No. 30786, he didn't get paroled the last time he went up for it either, in July 1955. They told him Parole has been denied. You are to serve your adjusted maximum sentence. Which he did, apparently. Until he became a free man on June 7, 1956.