State Sen. Ted Gaines and Assemblywoman Alyson Huber have authored treacherously misleading legislation titled the Parole Reform Act of 2011, which shamelessly attempts to grab headlines by spotlighting the Garrido kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard.

Garrido was neither sentenced in California nor subject to California's existing parole laws, such as the 2006 Sexual Predator Referendum, or Proposition 83, with lifetime civil commitments.

California "lifer" inmates with indeterminate sentences average 26.2 years in prison before parole is granted, and the most horrific crimes remain life without the possibility of parole. Judges, juries and district attorneys decide the type of sentence.

Members of the Board of Parole Hearings are selected based upon an unspoken litmus test that they will deny parole. In the end, less than 1 percent of lifers are released on parole.

The California Supreme Court has clarified parole suitability standards. The first consideration is punishment and whether the inmate has served enough time. Victim representatives, the police and the district attorney influence that decision.

The board determines if the inmate has insight into the crime and accepts responsibility, then looks at the prison record, discipline and participation in rehabilitation programs, as well as parole plans. Expert psychologists determine whether the individual remains any threat to public safety.

Parole is denied if any of these thresholds are not met.

Gaines' claim that the state Supreme Court's "Lawrence (decision) basically forbids the parole board from using a convict's original crime when determining parole" is factually untrue.

Gaines and Huber conveniently ignore the fact that while the approximate 10,000 inmates per month violate parole at the rate of 70 percent, most without supervision, of the approximate 1,000 lifers paroled over the last 20 years, only six were subsequently convicted for violent crimes.

Asserting that keeping lifers in prison is less costly than granting them parole is a specious argument because paroled lifers have been phenomenally successful, while each of the remaining elderly 27,000-plus still in prison cost taxpayers between $80,000 and $1.2 million per year due to ill health.

As lifers age, this taxpayer liability could reach $3 billion a year if this legislation is enacted.

Like "Reefer Madness," Gaines and Huber use false threats of rampaging criminals for their own selfish political gain, which demeans the already lackluster reputation of the Legislature.

California needs to attract businesses and create jobs rather than needlessly incarcerate the most expensive elderly inmates who no longer pose a credible threat to public safety.

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Matt Gray, a lobbyist for Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety, is responding to the Aug. 25 Viewpoints article "Reform bill will untie hands of parole board," written by state Sen. Ted Gaines and El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, which states the parole 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."

• Read more articles by Matt Gray