PLAN SHIFTS PAROLE FOCUS ASSEMBLYMAN WANTS RELEASE OF NONVIOLENT TO FREE FUNDS.

Byline: Steve Geissinger Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - With eight in 10 paroled inmates committing new crimes and returning to prison, lawmakers are advancing legislation that tackles the growing public-safety problem.

Officials in most big cities across California say their areas have been affected.

In response, the chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Assemblyman Mark Leno, is pushing a measure that would provide early parole releases for well-behaved offenders. That would save $60 million a year, which would have to be spent helping other, more troubled felons better re-enter society and successfully stay out of prison.

``More than two out of three California parolees end up back in prison on parole violations,'' said Leno, D-San Francisco. ``California has one of the worst recidivism rates in the country.''

Although Republican lawmakers oppose the idea, Leno's bill cleared its first and perhaps toughest test last week with the approval of Leno's committee.

Leno said he is working with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in an attempt to win its support.

The bill comes at a critical time, since the Schwarzenegger administration, beginning today, is giving up on a cost-saving experiment of using ineffective, traditional methods of sending violent parole violators to halfway houses, drug-treatment programs and home detention.

Leno's bill, AB 505, would alter the penal code to allow nonviolent offenders who have behaved for a year to be released from parole.

The lawmaker said he and the Schwarzenegger administration are discussing amendments that would require some of the savings to be used by the state to partner with community-based organizations to provide re-entry services to former inmates.

The bill is supported by a group called the Coalition for Effective Public Safety, representing criminal justice reform advocates as well as community, faith, labor, professional and civil-rights organizations.

Current parole supervision programs seem more concerned with punishment than reducing recidivism, said coalition spokesman Jim Lindburg.

But Crime Victims United of California said in a statement that ``taking (away) the state's discretion whether or not to retain an individual on parole ... would be detrimental to the safety of Californians, victims and their families.''

A recent nationwide study by the Urban Institute found that as the focus of parole has shifted from support in the re-entry process to supervision and surveillance, ``parole supervision has had little effect on re-arrest rates of released prisoners.''

In addition, the institute said it found that ``mandatory parolees, who account for the largest share of released prisoners, fare no better on supervision than similar prisoners released without supervision.''

In a separate report, the state's Little Hoover Commission, a government watchdog agency, found only 21 percent of California parolees complete parole without being returned to prison, compared with the national average of 42 percent.

California, therefore, has a recidivism rate, or failure rate, of nearly 80 percent, the report concluded.

Aside from $200 provided upon release, California parolees receive virtually no re-entry services, either directly or through community organizations, according to legislative analysts.

State law says that former inmates imprisoned for nonviolent offenses will be released from parole within 30 days after 12 months of continuous parole time, unless the state recommends they be retained on parole for ``good cause,'' which is undefined.

Parole can extend up to three years.

``In practice, most former prisoners are retained on parole for the entire three years,'' according to the state Legislative Analyst's Office.

Even though it still must move through several committees and face tests before the full Assembly and Senate, supporters are optimistic.

Steve Geissinger, [phone]

sgeissinger(at)angnewspapers.com