SACRAMENTO – Thousands of nonviolent ex-convicts could soon be freed from supervision after six months of parole instead of the usual three years under a policy aimed at finding those least likely to commit new crimes, prison officials said yesterday.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is to announce the new policy Monday, a day before the state Board of Prison Terms considers the regulations at its meeting in Sacramento.
The politically risky policy would be tested in mid-November in a single parole district in conservative Orange County. If it works as expected, the policy could be adopted statewide by mid-2008, officials said.
A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said selectively freeing low-risk ex-convicts from parole is better than risking the release of more dangerous inmates. Because of overcrowding in state prisons, a federal three-judge panel is considering whether to cap the state's prison population, potentially forcing inmates to be released before they have completed their sentences.
“If we don't make significant reforms, the public safety dangers are grave,” said Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director.
About 70 percent of ex-convicts in California commit violations during their three-year parole. Last year, about 68,000 parolees were sent back to crowded prisons because they violated their probation.
Ex-convicts who are no longer under supervision can't be sent back to prison for violations.
Corrections Secretary James Tilton said the goal of the new policy is to select ex-cons who aren't likely to reoffend, and to encourage them to complete programs that make it less likely they will commit new crimes.
Weeding out the low-risk offenders would let parole agents concentrate on dangerous ex-convicts such as sex offenders and gang members, Tilton said.
Criminologists have for years recommended easing California's parole policy. In 2004, a Schwarzenegger-appointed advisory committee chaired by former Gov. George Deukmejian recommended releasing “very low risk” parolees after three months.
After six months, the proposed policy would allow what the department is calling “earned release.” Officials projected that fewer than half of parolees would be eligible.
Sex offenders, gang members or those with a history of violent or serious offenses going back to their juvenile record would not be eligible. Those in the two lowest supervision categories – about 87,000 of the state's 127,000 parolees – would be given a new questionnaire to gauge their criminal and drug-use history, job and housing status, relationships with family and the community, and other factors.
The questionnaire, modeled on one used in Washington state, is designed to predict whether parolees are likely to commit new crimes. Parole agents could still overrule an assessment and keep ex-convicts under supervision, with the final decision made by the Board of Prison Terms.
Similar risk assessment tools have been used successfully in 33 other states, said Joan Petersilia, a criminologist who heads the Center on Evidence-Based Corrections at the University of California Irvine.
