Nearly a quarter of all California felons released from prison no longer will have any type of parole supervision. Sheriff Donny Youngblood said he expects crime will increase and the county jails will become even more overcrowded.
“Right now 70 percent of [inmates] re-offend. That's what our history tells us. But, when they don't have a parole officer to answer to i suspect that number will increase,” Youngblood said.
The changes come from two bills that recently became state law. They are aimed at reducing the state prison population and keeping more inmates in the county jails.
Shannon Brown is a parolee who originally went to prison for domestic violence. He said he was sent back to prison for nine months when he violated his parole by getting caught with the woman he was supposed to stay away from.
“We were walking, holding hands in the company of each other. We just went to the store. We had groceries when we got caught with each other,” Brown said, adding that many other felons are returned to prison for what he feels are small violations, such as not passing a drug test.
The new law, called non-revocable parole, aims to keep certain felons from going back to prison on parole violations, by simply removing the parole itself; They are not monitored, have no drug testing, don't have to report to anyone, and can go anywhere they please with whomever they please. However, they can still be searched by law enforcement for any reason.
Felons convicted of violent, sexual or serious crimes, and gang members will still have supervised parole. But felons such as habitual thieves, drug dealers and scam artists, will be off the parole hook. Currently there are 4,361 felons on active parole in Kern County. Exactly 1,000 of them are eligible for non-revocable parole.
Another new law sends felons who would have gone to prison to the county jail for a year and a day. This is expected to cause the local jail populations to explode, and could double the load for county probation officers.
“Technically they are under a prison commitment but they are on the local level, so we will have to watch them and provide services to them,” David Kuge, Kern County Chief Probation Officer, said.
The probation department must also set up what's called a day-reporting center to provide drug counseling, job training and other services to try and keep more felons out of state prison.
The effect the reform has on community safety remains to be seen. The new laws went into effect in late January.
