‘Nature of the Crime’ looks into parole process, meaning of redemption

Written by Amy Ta, produced by Jack Ross

“Nature of the Crime” is co-directed by Jesse Sweet. Credit: Youtube.

When should someone who’s committed a horrific crime be allowed to leave prison? That wrenching question is something parole boards have to deal with. Usually the answer is: Not now. That’s even if the person has spent decades behind bars, been a model inmate, and shown genuine remorse.

The HBO documentary Nature of the Crime follows three men who repeatedly go before parole boards. It also gives perspectives of their lawyers and the parole board members. 

Co-writer/director Jesse Sweet says his interest in the subject began after coming across an article about the New York-based Parole Preparation Project. 

“There's so much attention played to the front door of the prison system: bail reform, prosecutorial misconduct, how people end up in prison. But so much less attention to the back door. And it's really this black box where these parole commissioners have a huge amount of power, very little oversight. And they have an enormous amount of control over both individual lives and the prison population at large,” he says. “And it just was something that I feel like not many people knew about. But it's like we really can't understand how our prison system works, or even why it works, unless we really look at: When does someone deserve to be released?”

He adds, “Diving into this world, one of the things that we wanted to explore was how people change. How people who commit violent crimes when they're teenagers, and then decades later are very different people. How are they judged? How should they be judged?”

Carlos Rebollo, who was arrested in 1998 at age 15, appears in the film. He explains that at the time, he heard about a woman who had guns in her house, so he broke in to get those weapons. She was there, and the situation got violent immediately. He ended up being convicted of arson and attempted murder, and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. 

At age 39, he went before the parole board. “I knew that they could not properly gauge who I was or my rehabilitation at all. So I just went up there hoping that I could present the best case I could for my rehabilitation and release. … I accomplished a ton of stuff, and that's what I presented to the board, and they released me. But I was confident that no matter what they decided, they could not properly assess my character, given the metrics that they were using and the standards.” 

Carlos Rebollo now runs a successful hair braiding business. Photo by Bobbi Brown, courtesy of HBO.

Another man featured in the documentary is Todd Scott. At age 19, he distracted NYPD Officer Edward Byrne, so gang members could shoot and kill him in a contract hit ordered by a drug dealer in 1988. His sentence was 25 years to life. 

Scott ended up changing immensely, Sweet says. He hasn’t committed a violent act in the last 35 years, converted to Islam, and became a mentor to young men entering prison, so they can learn how to avoid violence there. 

Still, the parole board has repeatedly denied Scott. 

Sweet acknowledges that Officer Byrne’s family is still suffering, but each time someone in the Byrne case is up for parole, NYC’s Police Benevolent Association emails other branches of the organization nationwide. “They have a lot of muscle, and they use it to try to send a message that if the parole board releases one of these guys, they're going to be on the front page in the newspapers, and there's gonna be political uproar.” 


Todd Scott appears with his attorney Rhiya Trivedi. Courtesy of HBO.

Rebollo says that during his time behind bars, his mentor symbolized Todd Scott: “He is in there for shooting a police officer and was sentenced to 45 years. And he's been incarcerated now for about 29 years. And so I came into prison without any prior work experience. I knew … very little about values, principles, moral compass. He taught me … so much that I take with me to this day. And he's gotten denied by parole already three times. … And I got incarcerated at the age of 15. So 24 years. I've been out now only two years and own my own business. And I'm able to excel because of all the principles that this man imparted unto me. So for them to deny him and actually release me … is just a shame and an indication that they do not … have the proper metrics to release.”

The third man featured in Nature of the Crime is Chad Campbell, who came from an abusive family, and at age 14 killed his classmate who was babysitting a toddler. He killed the child as well. 

“The only way [Campbell] knows how to describe it is that he went into this fit of rage,” Sweet says. “And he did this horrible act, which he admits is a horrible act, and he doesn't try to excuse it. … That being said … the Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that if someone is a minor, it's cruel and unusual punishment to give them a life sentence because their brains haven't developed to the point where they have the faculties to make decisions and … have the proper impulse control.”

He continues, “From that point of view, if we really believe in the rule of law, it puts us in the hard decision of saying, even in that case, if he is a different person, which I think he again fundamentally is … should he still be judged by the action of that 14-year-old, or should he be judged by who he is today?” 

Even Campbell himself struggles with that question. In the film, he says, “Do I forgive my 14-year-old self? No, it's not that I don't want to. But in doing so, in my mind, and I still have this problem today, I don't forgive myself today at 46. If I forgive him, it makes it all right. And what I did is not all right.”

Sweet says redemption is more of a process than an endpoint for Campbell, who has been helping young people behind bars and is part of the Christian missionary group. Even correctional officers are writing on his behalf. “I think he thinks that if the system is set up to release people once they've fulfilled their punishment, he's willing. He's trying to take every punishment he can and change in every way he can.”


Attorney Rochelle Swartz appears with Chad Campbell. Courtesy of HBO. 

These three men were sentenced when America had a punitive stance toward criminal justice — in the early 1980s to early 2000s. Attitudes have changed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police.

Sweet points out that since the 1970s, Pew had been asking survey respondents if they thought too many people were in prison in the U.S., and in 2015, for the first time, respondents said yes. 

However, he says, “There is still this pendulum that whenever there's a political season, tough-on-crime tends to be a pretty good political strategy. I think there's still this gamesmanship that goes on at the top, and the people going for the parole board get caught up in it.”

As for Rebollo’s life now, he says he has a great clientele for his hair braiding business. He also has a close relationship with his son, who was born when Rebollo was 14. “He was 9 months old when I was incarcerated and sentenced. His mother did a great job of keeping us together throughout my entire incarceration.” 

He adds, “And I'm involved in many things that are continuing to create change in the criminal justice area.” 

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