As the state struggles to launch a modest parole reform that would reduce California’s dangerously overcrowded prisons, self-styled “victim rights” groups have raised politically potent objections.
Legislators must not allow these groups, financed in large part by the economically self-interested prison guards union, to derail a sensible release plan designed to save money and improve public safety.
Those targeted for release under the new non-revocable parole plan are the least-dangerous inmates with the greatest chance for success on the outside. Under the plan, hammered out by the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – hardly a soft-on-crime politician – approximately 6,500 low-risk inmates a year would be allowed to earn early release credits beginning this week by completing rehabilitation and education programs. Those eligible cannot have been convicted of a serious or violent felony or a sexually violent crime. They cannot have committed a serious disciplinary offense while in prison or be a validated prison gang member or associate.
While they would be subject to random police stops and searches, inmates released on non-revocable parole would not have to be supervised or report regularly to parole officers like all other ex-cons in California. Nor could they be returned to prison for parole violations. Those features of the plan would reduce the crushing parolee caseloads that have strained the state’s parole system to a breaking point.
Today, parole agents routinely supervise 70 parolees on average. Non-revocable parole cuts the average caseload to 48, leaving agents more time to concentrate on those ex-cons who pose the greatest risk to the public. That will improve public safety.
If they commit a crime, the 6,500 non-revocable parolees face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment just like anyone else. But they cannot be returned to prison for three and four months for minor parole violations.
Prior to instituting this new release program, California was one of only two states in the nation that placed every released inmate on parole. High numbers of parolees churned out high numbers of parole violations. Currently in California, almost 16,000 inmates, 11.5 percent of the entire prison population, are parole violators usually serving between three and six months in prison. The constant churning of minor parole violators in and out of state prison costs California taxpayers a bundle, while doing nothing to make communities safer.
By reducing the number of inmates returned to prison for parole violations, non-revocable parole will free expensive prison and county jail space for more serious offenders. It will save the state an estimated $100 million.
The state’s plan comes as federal courts have ordered California to reduce its dangerously overcrowded prison population by 40,000. Non-revocable parole will not lower populations by that much, but it is a good first step.
To get a real handle on prison population and cost, California needs to implement sentencing reforms that reserve expensive prison beds for those criminals who represent a serious threat to public safety and find alternative sanctions for offenders who do not. Non-revocable parole begins that necessary transformation.