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Do California's Low Recidivism Rates Equal More Violent Crimes?
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February 27, 2005 - A recent article in the Sacramento Bee* explores this possibility. The 2004 numbers are in and while it might look like things are improving in California - the reduction in parolees returning to prison for violations has lessened… but the number of parolees who return to prison after being caught for committing new violent crimes has increased.
According to data released by the Department, as of December 31st there were 2,539 fewer inmates returned to the state prison system on parole violations than in 2003. However, there were 2,141 more parolees who had been incarcerated for new crimes - at an increase of 13.6% from the year before. The Department has stated that they did not have the data to show how many of those 2,141 parolees had violated their parole prior to committing the new crimes, but had been allowed to remain out of prison under Governor Schwarzenegger's new parole policies.
Parole agents who were interviewed stated that the flip-flop in statistics was no coincidence. In a statement to the press Rod Hickman stated that the new policy, which was revealed back in May of 2004 had "not been as successful as we'd like" and said that the jury was still out on whether the new approach was working as intended. The new policy was launched after the November 2003 report that blasted the California parole system, calling it a "billion-dollar failure" due to the state's 67% return to prison rate by paroled inmates, which is reportedly nearly twice the nation's average.
The new policy is comprised of a 5-part package that includes electric monitoring, community-based halfway houses and 30-day residential substance abuse treatment programs. Dwight Streeter, a parole agent from San Diego, was interviewed in the SacBee.com article. He said that "it used to be a matter of course that if a violent offender as much as changed residences without telling the office, he'd get bounced back to prison" but that now they aren't being brought back on technical violations, "ultimately [they] get caught doing something more serious."
Scott Johnson, Chapter President of CCPOA's Parole Division, which services over 3,000 parole agents statewide, told the Sacramento Been that as many as half the parolees going back to prison this year for new crimes had previously been set free despite committing violations. "We're lowering our rate, but I don't know if that is protecting the community," Johnson said.
Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez (related news), a parole agent currently on leave while holding elective office, called the new policy a "do-not-lock-up-at-all-costs model." He told reporters that they get calls from parole supervisors who tell them that "the administration is calling the shots, and if their rates are high, they get written up."
Joan Petersilia, a criminologist at UC Irvine and a consultant for the Department of Corrections agreed that there is a great deal of pressure on line agents "to not use a great deal of prison space" for what she called "true technicals." She said that this pressure fits with what the agents are seeing, which is more crimes being committed by parolees who had been continued on parole despite those technical violations. "Our intermediate sanctions are just not intensive enough, they need to be beefed up."
How long with this new policy stay in place without modifications to ensure that this statistical flip-flop doesn't worsen?
* Sources: www.sacbee.com & www.corr.ca.gov
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