The paper was prepared by the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California in Berkeley. Data were collected through observations and interviews of parolees, parole officials, parolees' families, employment agency personnel, public welfare personnel, and service agency personnel, mostly from one region of California. Results indicated that the parole process represents a status passage characterized by voluntariness, desirability, expectations for success, reversibility, repeatability, solo and collective efforts, scheduling, and phasing. Parolees use many strategies for managing the problems of being a parolee. The parole agent is a primary fatemaker, determining whether a parolee will move toward discharge or back to prison. The agent both helps and polices the parolee. Elements of agent decisionmaking include evaluation of social dangerousness, risk taking, assessment of the parolees' living context, efforts involved in specific choices, technology available, and competence. Problems agents face include coordinating invisible and public activities, and becoming a third party in parolees' relationships. Areas needing further analysis include the effects of administrators, focus on helping lower-level staff, effects of participatory management, and disparate emphases of different organizational units.