Drug Parolees Barred at 3 Anaheim Parks

Hoping to keep repeat offenders out of problem areas in the city, Anaheim police and state parole officials have declared three public parks off-limits to all parolees with drug-related convictions.

The policy, similar to those enforced by two other California cities, prohibits the parolees from being in Pearson, La Palma or Twila Reid parks or around any businesses nearby. The restriction, which applies to about 100 of the city’s 1,300 active parolees, has been added to a list of conditions for release from prison--rules that, if broken, can send them back to jail for up to one year.

“We know that drugs are the gateway to the more serious crimes,” said Victor Penuelas, a state parole supervisor in Anaheim. “Keeping them out of these areas, which seem to attract a criminal element, will also help them avoid falling back into that cycle.”

Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union called the new rule unnecessary but acknowledged that some constitutional protections do not apply to parolees who agree to follow certain restrictions when released from prison. Such rules include complying with random drug tests and home searches and keeping regular meetings with a parole officer.

The designation of so-called “Parolee Free Zones,” however, is the latest addition to an ever-growing list of restrictions being placed on the public, said Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the ACLU of Southern California.

Curfews--both daytime and nighttime--are being imposed on juveniles throughout the country as a tool to reduce crime, and state Supreme Courts have upheld the use of injunctions by police to target suspected gang members in neighborhoods overwhelmed by violence.

All 31 cities in Orange County have nighttime juvenile curfews, and the Los Angeles Police Department recently credited the city’s 1995 anti-truancy law with a sharp drop in daytime burglaries, shoplifting and car break-ins. Parolee-free areas have been designated in San Bernardino County and several blocks in Santa Ana as well, in an area loosely bordered by McFadden and Edinger avenues.

In the past two days, six parolees with drug convictions have been arrested at the parks. Since midsummer, authorities have notified all of the affected parolees about the new policy, which went into effect this month.

The rule differs from a 1993 city ordinance that banned any person convicted of drug-related crimes from entering any of Anaheim’s 40 parks for three years. The ACLU successfully challenged that law by saying it violated individual rights of free assembly, expression and association. At the advice of City Atty. Jack White, council members repealed the ordinance.

“Basically that law applied to anyone convicted of a drug crime,” White said Tuesday. “It was very broad, whereas parolee-free parks apply only to people on parole.”

Police said drug activity around the targeted parks has decreased in the last few weeks, particularly at La Palma Park--described as “a magnet” for crime, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

But the reunification of families may be harmed as a result of the new rule, Schroeder said.

“What about parolees who have young children and want to take them to . . . the park?” she said. “As long as they don’t commit another offense, there is no reason that person should be prohibited from lawful activity anywhere.”