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FEATURE: Get Out of Jail Free!You Know What We Think of It, Now Read What Others Are Saying About the Administration's Controversial Plans to Balance the State Budgetby Ryan Sherman, CCPOA Director of Public Relations  Early releases for inmates and no supervision for parolees? These recent government proposals are stirring up a lot of questions and understandable concern all over the state, from victims groups to current and former legislators.To clarify things, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's term "summary parole" means that inmates released from prison will not be supervised at all while on parole. The only reason it is being called summary parole is that the parolees are still technically on parole and therefore are subject to search/seizure without warrant by law enforcement. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is proposing to reduce the average daily parolee supervised population by 18,500 for the budget year 2008-09. In order to get to that average, they will have to place nearly double the actual number of parolees discussed (18,500) to around 40,000. A lot of the same linguistic gymnastics occurs with "early release." CDCR says it wants to reduce the average daily inmate population by 22,000 for the 2008-09 budget year, which begins July 1. In order to do this, they would have to release 22,000 inmates on that day and rely on the hope that those early-released inmates do not re-offend. Current political consultant and former state finance director Craig Brown has estimated that the actual number of early release inmates under this plan would be between 45,000 and 60,000 in order to reach the 22,000 reduction in the average daily inmate population plan. This is important because CDCR is relying on these numbers to be reached in order for the proposed correctional officer layoffs to be possible. The CO layoffs are what will allow CDCR to save money-and that is what the real issue is all about: budget savings. Remember, under the combined early release/summary parole plan none of these parolees will be returned to custody for violating terms of their parole unless they are arrested, charged with a new crime, and convicted of a new offense with a sentence that is longer than three and one-half years. That is because the early release plan applies to the non-violent, non-serious , non-sex offenders with 20 months or less remaining on their sentence. So, if these guys who are released commit a new crime, if the new sentence is less than 40 months they will do 20 months, and therefore will get to bypass prison altogether. No wonder it has provoked great debate and major concern. Read on to see what others close to these issues are saying. Continue Reading: Get Out of Jail Free! by Ryan Sherman, CCPOA Director of Public Relations Reject Summary Parole to Protect Families - Page 2 by Assemblyman Van Tran, R-Costa Mesa The Criminal Next Door - Page 3 by Bill Leonard, Board of Equilization Member and Former State Legislator Parole Plan Sends the Wrong Message to Offenders and Victims - Page 4 by Harriet Salarno, Founder, Crime Victims United of California Governor's Parole Plan Threatens Public Safety - Page 5 by Assemblyman Doug Lamalfa, R-Redding  Print This PageBack to Volume 25, Issue 2 Back to PEACEKeeper Main Page |
