PAROLE SYSTEM DECLARED A FAILURE

Condemning the state's parole system as a $1 billion failure, the Little
Hoover Commission says greater emphasis is needed on preparing inmates for
release and giving local police departments increased authority to
supervise parolees.

In a report released Thursday, the commission charges that few of the
125,000 felons released from prison each year are prepared for life on the
outside. And it noted 70 percent of the parolees return to prison within 18
months.

"Virtually every other state has done a better job at returning parolees to
society," said James Mayer, the commission's executive director. The Little
Hoover Commission is a bipartisan, independent state agency charged with
recommending ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of state
programs.

Mayer said the percentage of California parole violators returned to prison
nearly tripled between 1980 and 2000. He blames this cycle on the wasteland
of daily life in prisons, where, he said, most inmates spend their time
honing their crime skills.

Few receive education, job training or drug treatment necessary to stand a
chance of success on the outside.

"It's an insane system," said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who joined the
commission at a press conference Thursday.

The report -- the second such analysis the commission has done of
California's correctional system in the past decade -- was delivered to
Gov. Gray Davis, Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature.

Brown said parole reform is critical to helping stem crime in Oakland,
where 106 homicides have been committed this year. Last year, 113 people
were killed in the city, and officials say felons are involved in most
violent crimes -- either as victims or perpetrators.

He is scheduled to meet with state parole officials today to discuss his
recommendation that local authorities be allowed to jail parolees who
commit minor offenses, such as drug possession, for up to 10 days so they
can receive drug treatment and spiritual counseling. From there, he'd like
to impose night curfews for the city's most worrisome parolees.

"If I don't get what I want, I will go to Arnold personally," said Brown,
who served two terms as governor in the 1970s.

The Department of Corrections, meanwhile, is jumping ahead of the state
Legislature by implementing its own form of the commission's recommendations.

Beginning in January, new parole agents will be hired to do risk
assessments on every inmate coming up for release in California's 32
prisons. Parole agents will then use that information to determine
appropriate ways to deal with parolees who commit low-level offenses, such
as failing a drug test.

The so-called New Parole Model is designed to keep non-violent felons from
returning to jail by linking them up with services to get to the root of
their problems.

"This will actually have a net benefit effect on public safety and a
positive effect on our budget," said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the
Department of Corrections.

The program will cost an estimated $40 million to implement, but Heimerich
said the reduction in the prison population -- as much as 15,000 by 2005 --
should result in a net savings of $79 million by the end of the next fiscal
year.