Parole Board Hearings

Re “Backward Parole Policies,” editorial, Dec. 10: Although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he intended to let the Board of Prison Terms do its job, a telephone call to the board revealed that of the eight cases our new governor had reviewed since he took office, he upheld only two release dates (those for Rosario Munoz and Fred Ray Nesbit). The governor has reversed the board’s recommendation for release in five cases, and sent one case back for an en banc hearing.

This is a better record than what you accurately call former Gov. Gray Davis’ “knee-jerk vetoes of nearly all parole board decisions,” but hardly letting the board “do its job.”

Judith Tannenbaum

El Cerrito, Calif.