BLUNDERING TOWARD PAROLE REFORM

Panic, Rather Than Logic, Is Motivating State To Move In The Right Direction

Fearing a court takeover of state prisons, the Schwarzenegger
administration is adopting the right policies for the wrong reasons.
It's also exposing the wastefulness of the state's massive prison
expansion program.

As reported by Mercury News writer Edwin Garcia, prison administrators
are easing overcrowding by sending fewer parole violators back behind
bars. The Department of Corrections has acknowledged that 10,000 more
parolees are on the street this month, for a total of 127,000,
compared with a year ago. It's not clear how many have actually
committed violations. However, the department insisted that those left
at large have committed only technical violations, like failing a drug
test or refusing to show up for a meeting with a parole officer. They
say the parolees pose no danger to the community.

That may be true. For years, prison experts and oversight
organizations like the Little Hoover Commission have castigated the
state for failing to distinguish between minor and major parole
violations and for clogging prisons with people who can be dealt with
more effectively in community-based programs.

The problem is that the state is heading in the right direction
impulsively, to placate judges threatening to impose a cap on inmate
population, and not deliberately.

It doesn't yet have sufficient parole officers to deal with additional
violators left at large. It doesn't have an inmate risk evaluation
system to determine levels of risk. Advertisement And it doesn't have
sufficient training and therapy programs yet in place.

California is years and several hundred millions dollars away from
being able to handle massive numbers of new parolees. Meanwhile,
there's the risk that a poorly supervised parolee will commit a
violent crime, scaring Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators into
abandoning parole reform and reverting reflexively to
incarceration.

Parole reform is critical to cutting the prison population and
reducing rates of recidivism. Last month, a report by a panel of
experts commissioned by the Legislature concluded that effective
rehabilitative programs inside prisons, combined with smart parole
strategies, could reduce the need for between 42,000 and 48,000 prison
beds - about a quarter of the current 173,000 inmates. Even after
substantial spending increases for job training, housing and drug and
alcohol programs, the state would save as much as $684 million per
year.

And yet earlier this year, Schwarzenegger and the Legislature largely
ignored probation and sentencing reforms. Instead, in passing AB 900,
they agreed to spend $8 billion to build 53,000 more cells.

Some construction is needed for medical and nursing home facilities
and transitional housing in locally based jails. But comprehensive
probation reform offers the smarter and cheaper approach. The state
must pursue it, with or without pressures from the courts.