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Since the time of the Third Republic, parole law, passed in 1885, has symbolized a consensus: the transition between imprisonment and freedom is a necessity. Its longevity, however, should not deny the power relations and competition that characterized its enforcement. This article offers an analysis of how the law was transformed into an administrative procedure involving many actors. It relies upon a thorough study of the parole files from Fontevrault prison during the inter-war period. These archives enable us to look into the routinized practice of the prison officers, who re-appropriated instructions and rules in order to submit inmates to parole. This research tries to show that parole enforcement is dependent on a decision-making process that is constricted and opaque. In this way, the agency of the prisoners is very limited, if not completely destroyed.