Parole Violators Swell Prison Population, Study Finds

Parolees are a major and growing factor in California’s mushrooming prison population, and a study released Thursday by the state Department of Justice urges the state to find out if needlessly harsh parole terms are causing the problem.

The study by Sheldon L. Messinger, a UC Berkeley law professor, found that 43.3% of the felons sent to state prisons last year were parole violators--more than four times the rate 10 years earlier.

Messinger, who prepared the report with colleagues from Berkeley, UCLA and the University of Michigan, said the number of imprisoned parolees is “mind-boggling,” especially since no one is investigating the reason behind it nor looking for potentially less-drastic and less-expensive alternatives.

“Surely the reasons for this (growth) deserve examination, if only because the huge number of . . . parolee prisoners . . . is contributing significantly to pressures to expand prison capacity,” the report suggested. “No effort to predict the future prison population and no effort to control it will succeed without close attention to this source.”

Sheer Growth

Part of the reason for the increase may be the sheer growth in the number of criminals sent to prison in the early 1980s, which has increased the potential number of parolees now subject to being returned to confinement.

But the problem goes beyond that, because while the number of parolees has tripled since 1980, the number of parolees returned to prison for violating parole is now 14 times the number at the beginning of the decade.

Several factors were cited in the report as worthy of study as potential reasons for the number of parolees returned to prison. One is public opinion, which has favored harsher treatment of criminals; another is budget cutbacks, which may have reduced the number of alternatives to prison.

The most significant factor, however, may be the recently expanded use of random drug tests by parole officers. This was confirmed by Jeff Thompson of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. in Sacramento. He said one survey showed 92% of the parole violators returned to prison from Los Angeles were reincarcerated after testing positive for drug use three times.

“You know how they are supporting that habit,” he said. “They basically victimize the neighborhood. . . . So even if you don’t catch them in the act (of committing a crime), you have enough for a technical violation of parole.”

Messinger acknowledged that drug abuse plays a role in parolee recidivism but questioned whether prison is the wisest response.

“Here is this board sending all these people back to prison, many for drug violations,” he said. “Is that the best policy for someone on drugs? What do they do when they get out?”

The maximum sentence for parole violation, he noted, is one year. That time might be better spent in drug-rehabilitation programs or be spent more cheaply under house arrest with close supervision, he said.