Corrections Dept. Cuts Proposed : Law enforcement: Reductions would include more than 200 parole officer jobs. Critics say the cutbacks would put the public at risk.

The state Department of Corrections is planning to cut more than 200 parole officer jobs, close nearly two dozen parole offices and slash the drug testing program for parolees by almost $1 million to meet reductions in the current budget--moves that have raised concerns about public safety.

Corrections officials said they are seeking to minimize the threat to the public, but organizations representing parole agents warn that citizens will be put at risk if the reductions are made as planned.

“At this point we really don’t know what these cuts are going to do (to public safety),” said Tip Kendel, deputy director of public information for the Department of Corrections.

But Jeff Thompson, lobbyist for the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., which represents parole agents in labor negotiations, said the effect of the planned cuts will be predictable: “Fewer agents taking care of the bad guys who are on parole,” he said. “They can’t do as good a job tracking them. Very simple.”

Thompson’s organization is negotiating details of the budget cuts with corrections officials, and it wants administrative jobs and rehabilitation programs reduced rather than the number of agents on the street.

Even while such negotiations continue, parole agents told The Times that they have been notified by the Department of Corrections to expect layoffs if voluntary transfers to positions such as prison guard jobs and demotions do not meet the targeted budget cuts.

The state budget, signed into law Sept. 2, reduces the $312 million proposed to run parole services by $32 million. Corrections officials plan to cut 214 parole officer jobs, 108 clerical positions and 28 inmate custody jobs, as well as close 22 parole offices and take $900,000 from the $2.8 million used for drug testing of parolees.

Susan Cohen, executive director of the California Probation, Parole and Correctional Assn., said the proposed cuts in the drug testing program would result in less than 10% of parolees being screened for narcotics use each month.

“Everybody using and dirty is going to . . . know that,” she said.

Solange Brooks, public information officer for the Department of Corrections, said that drug testing had proved “inefficient,” but that some random testing would continue and that parole agents are to be given additional training to recognize physical signs of drug use.

All California prison inmates are put on parole for one to four years at the conclusion of their sentences. An agent is expected to keep tabs on parolees through regular contact ranging from phone calls to personal visits, depending on the terms of parole.

More than 40% of California’s ex-convicts are returned to prison for violations of parole.

The current 1,625 parole officers and administrators in California are responsible for supervising nearly 85,000 parolees. The number of parolees grew by 5% last year and line agents often are responsible for caseloads of more than 70 parolees, according to the correctional officers association.

Money to run parole services became part of the bitter budget controversy last summer when Gov. Pete Wilson first endorsed and then backed away from a plan by Democratic legislators to save $30 million to $70 million by releasing certain nonviolent inmates from parole supervision.

Wilson, known as a hard-liner on crime, blamed his staff for “poor suggestions” in repudiating the cost-cutting measure.

Even so, the budget signed by the governor requires $32 million in parole services cuts and has sent corrections officials scrambling to make them without risk to the public.