Jaycee Lee Dugard's tragic case started and ended in our jurisdictions. As fathers, elected officials and Californians, we have felt it our duty to make sure that we act to prevent such horrible crimes from happening again. That is why we have been working together to develop and introduce Senate Bill 391 – the Parole Reform Act of 2011. The act will make a critical change to our parole system that will help keep dangerous, life-term prisoners behind bars.

After convicting the Garridos, District Attorney Vern Pierson released a report that relates the astounding series of failures and oversights that kept Dugard a prisoner at the hands of career criminal and serial sex offender Phillip Garrido. The report does not detail a comedy of errors or a perfect storm, but a senseless tragedy, and blame has been assigned to the many individuals and institutions that could have – and should have – done better by Dugard.

Although we can't undo the mistakes of the past, we can make systemic improvements so that all Californians are safer and that victims know government is working to protect them. By undoing a damaging, pro-criminal California Supreme Court decision, the Parole Reform Act of 2011 will do just that.

In 2008, the California Supreme Court's Lawrence decision tied the hands of the parole board and put prisoners in the driver's seat. Lawrence basically forbids the parole board from using a convict's original crime when determining parole. Instead, it is required to look at the prisoners' behavior while incarcerated – such as how much counseling they attended and whether they were on time to their work assignments – when deciding whether to put felons back out on the street. Shockingly, despite these prisoners' convictions for the most heinous crimes, Lawrence provides that "release on parole is the rule, rather than the exception."

What has Lawrence wrought? For example, between 2005 and 2007, 521 lifers were granted parole. Between 2008 and 2010 – the three years since the Lawrence decision – that number almost tripled, with 1,329 lifers getting parole dates. That is a monumental surge and a trend that puts us and our children in peril.

Institutional behavior is important to take into account, but going to anger management classes and saying the right thing to a prison psychiatrist shouldn't trump a brutal rape or a senseless murder when it comes to parole decisions. Under the illogical Lawrence landscape, prisoners' crimes are washed away before parole hearings. For a cunning criminal and master manipulator, such as Phillip Garrido, this blank-slate standard is a guarantee of future victims. The Lawrence-era parole system makes the same mistake that allowed Phillip Garrido to be released after only 11 years on a 50-year sentence and a separate life sentence.

This Parole Reform Act will put the parole board back on the same footing as it was before 2008 and add a crucial layer of review for the sake of public safety. It does not say that prisoners will not be paroled, only that the board can use the circumstances of the original crime as a determinant for parole, and can also consider prior convictions and other reliably documented offenses to make decisions.

Contrary to the fevered complaints of prisoner rights groups, prisoners who were paroled under the pre-Lawrence system would still be given the opportunity to be paroled. But their freedom would not be a procedural gift.

Further, this act will not require our already financially strapped state to spend even more tax dollars on housing these "lifers." We would argue that it will actually cost the state less to keep these dangerous criminals in prison than to investigate, prosecute, re-investigate and re-prosecute repeat offenders because they were wrongly released from prison. And of course there is no price tag on the cost of victimization.

Life prisoners' prior crimes often include a long series of offenses and evidence far more severe than what a simple one-line entry on a rap sheet may show. The parole board should be able to view the whole prisoner, not just performance in a highly structured, highly disciplined environment that is far different from the free world where crimes were committed.

The Parole Reform Act of 2011 will let the parole board take off its blinders and make sure that punishments continue to fit the crimes. This act is for those Californians who will never become victims because society's most dangerous criminals are kept where they should be – behind bars.

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State Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, represents the Senate 1st District. Vern Pierson is the district attorney for El Dorado County.