Life in prison "with" the possibility of parole

[Yurt]

Life in prison "with" the possibility of parole:

I am interested as to what people discern this to mean.

In CA, to get such a sentence, you have to: commit first or second degree murder (15, 25 to life), attempt to commit murder, or be a person who has at least 2 serious violent felonies on your record and then you commit a third felony.

What I am asking is, what exactly does life in prison with the possibility of parole mean when the decision is decided by a board, which is not insulated from judicial review to determine whether the decision to deny or grant is not arbitrary.

More specifically when does rehabilitation occur? Can it happen? If so, who judges? If not, who judges?

[diuretic]

In my jurisdiction there is an automatic life sentence for a murder conviction. The judge may set a non-parole period. That effectively means that parole can't be considered until that period set by the judge expires. Then the prisoner can petititon the Parole Board. The Parole Board may make a recommendation to the Governor (note - our states have a Governor who is not a politician, he or she is appointed by the Queen of Australia who is also the Queen of the UK) and the Governor will then take advice from the government of the day.

On rehabilitation. The Parole Board has to be convinced that there is solid evidence of rehabilitation. They will refuse an application if there is no good evidence of rehabilitation. Strangely enough it's more likely for a murderer to be rehabilitated than your common or garden crook. But that might be another topic because I can see some disagreements there.