(a) It shall be the duty of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, upon its own initiative, to make an investigation of any and all prisoners confined in the jails and prisons of the state, through use of a validated risk and needs assessment as defined in Section 12-25-32, with a view of determining the feasibility of releasing the prisoners on parole and effecting their reclamation. Reinvestigations shall be made from time to time as the board may determine or as the Department of Corrections may request. The investigations shall include such reports and other information as the board may require from the Department of Corrections or any of its officers, agents or employees.

(b) It shall be the duty of the Department of Corrections to cooperate with the Board of Pardons and Paroles for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this article.

(c) Temporary leave from prison, including Christmas furloughs, may be granted only by the Commissioner of Corrections to a prisoner for good and sufficient reason and may be granted within or without the state; provided, that Christmas furloughs shall not be granted to any prisoner convicted of drug peddling, child molesting or rape, or to any maximum security prisoner. A permanent, written record of all such temporary leaves, together with the reasons therefor, shall be kept by such commissioner. He shall furnish the Pardon and Parole Board with a record of each such leave granted and the reasons therefor, and the same shall be placed by the board in the prisoner's file.

(d) No prisoner shall be released on parole except by a majority vote of the board. The board shall not parole any prisoner for employment by any official of the State of Alabama, nor shall any parolee be employed by an official of the State of Alabama and be allowed to remain on parole; provided, however, that this provision shall not apply in the case of a parolee whose employer, at the time of the parolee's original employment, was not a state official.

(e) For violent offenses as defined in Section 12-25-32, the board shall not grant a parole to any prisoner who has not served at least one third or 10 years of his sentence, whichever is the lesser, except by a unanimous affirmative vote of the board.