Daniel Weintraub: Gov. Schwarzenegger tries parole reform -- again

The Schwarzenegger administration, which has been cautious to a fault when it comes to prison reform, is tiptoeing back toward the idea of loosening restrictions on parolees who are good bets to stay out of trouble.

The program is starting with a trial run in Orange County, where ex-cons who are considered the lowest risks and then meet a series of benchmarks will be cut loose from state super- vision after six months instead of three years.

The idea is to give those parolees an incentive to get their lives back on stable ground shortly after they leave prison, which is when most felons return to a life of crime. Then, by letting them off parole early, the state figures it will be able to concentrate more resources on more-dangerous felons who need the most attention.

Although no one in the Schwarzenegger administration will concede publicly that the plan is intended to save the state money, that's also a possibility. If fewer parolees return to prison for either minor violations of the conditions of their parole or for committing a new crime, it could have major effect on the number of inmates behind bars.

The changes are a long time coming. They were recommended years ago by Professor Joan Petersilia of the University of California, Irvine, a criminologist now on leave to serve as an adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and by a nationwide panel of prison experts earlier this year. Former Gov. George Deukmejian, a law-and-order conservative whose administration began a building boom and sentencing surge that helped increase California's prison population from 22,000 to 170,000, endorsed an even more aggressive recommendation to end parole for some convicts after only three months.

The reason is clear: Parolees who are sent back to prison are a major cause of the overcrowding that has prompted a federal three-judge panel to consider capping the number of inmates the state can keep behind bars. And there is little evidence that the brief time parolees spend in prison when they are sent back -- an average of four months -- does anything to make the public safer. In fact, by providing a link between the streets and the prisons, that kind of revolving door might even make us less safe.

Schwarzenegger tried one approach to loosening parole in 2004 but abandoned it a few months later amid criticism from parole agents, correctional officers and victims rights groups, which are all connected through the state's powerful prison guards' union. That plan called for alternatives to prison for parolees who committed minor violations, but since those alternatives, including house arrest with electronic monitoring, were not available, the ex-cons were essentially running free, even if they had failed a drug test or skipped reporting to their parole officer.

Petersilia argues that the new plan will actually make the public safer, for two reasons. First, it will give parolees incentives to stay straight rather than re-offend. And second, it gives parole officers more time to spend on hard-core cases.

"We're saying, 'If you can demonstrate that you can do these things, we are willing to reward you,' " she said. "It's about rewarding people for doing the exact things we want them to do."

The early release from parole supervision will be offered only to the lowest-risk offenders. Registered sex offenders, parolees whose crimes were either serious or violent, parolees who have already committed a violation of the terms of their release, and parolees who are about to be deported will not be eligible. Those who remain will be screened with a scientific assessment that predicts their chances of re-offending, and some will be disqualified by that test.

Finally, the ones who are left will have to show that they have a stable residence, employment or other means of financial support, a history of successful completion of education, vocational or community service programs and compliance with victim restitution orders.

Even then, their release will not be automatic but can be vetoed by parole officers, supervisors or district administrators if the parolee is considered a continued threat to public safety.

None of that, however, is enough to satisfy some critics. Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels, who has been a strong supporter of the governor, called the plan "one of the dumbest policy decisions" to come out of Sacramento in a long time.

Writing on the conservative Republican Web site FlashReport.org, Jagels said that even some of the lowest-risk parolees will eventually commit new crimes. He recommended that the governor modify the plan so that parolees who are released from active supervision are still kept on a legal leash for three years so that police could search them or their cars without a warrant.

But that would defeat the goal of the proposal, which is to give the small fraction of ex-cons who have the ability to turn their lives around a reason to do so. Some parolees will always commit new crimes. They do so in huge numbers even under our current, more restrictive system. It makes sense to focus on those most likely to re-offend while slowing the turnstile that is filling the prisons and bleeding the taxpayers dry.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Daniel Weintraub can be reached at (916) 321-1914 or at dweintraub@sacbee.com.