Corrections Officials Vow to Fix Flaws in Parole System

California’s parole system is broken, bouncing nearly 70,000 ex-convicts a year back to prison, often for minor offenses, the Schwarzenegger administration’s two top corrections officials said Tuesday.

Though they pledged reforms, officials are adopting most of the same tactics instituted last year under former Gov. Gray Davis. Those policies have trimmed the number of parole violators returned to prison by 26% this year.

Youth and Adult Correctional Secretary Roderick Hickman and Department of Corrections Director Jeanne Woodford have promised to end the prison system’s massive and repeated cost overruns.

But each insisted Tuesday they had no idea what their revised parole program would cost or how much it might save by diverting ex-cons who otherwise might have been returned to prison.

“I don’t think there is a cost you can associate with victimization,” Hickman said.

Their announcement comes two days before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases his revised budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

His January budget plan included an unspecified cut of $400 million in corrections spending.

But Hickman said any costs or savings from the parole policy changes would be incidental to what he called “a strategic shift” in how the system deals with parole violators.

“What we’re doing now isn’t working,” Hickman said.

That echoes a sharply critical November report by the watchdog Little Hoover Commission, which found the state spends $1.5 billion annually on parolees. Just 21% of inmates complete their parole, half the success rate nationally and worse than any other state except Utah.

Many of the 70,000 are returned to prison for technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing an appointment with their parole officer.

Instead, the new policy envisions a range of intermediate sanctions.

Someone who tests positive for drug use, for instance, could be sent to a 30-day inpatient drug treatment program followed by 60 days of outpatient care, Woodford said.

Others could be channeled to job training, given help with temporary housing or required to perform community service, though options are still being developed.

Borrowing ideas from other states, officials also want to increase the use of house arrest through electronic monitoring, and plan a pilot program to track 500 sex offenders using global positioning satellite surveillance.

Electronic monitors attached to a wrist or ankle set off an alert if they are moved too far from home. GPS monitors would allow offenders to move freely, but track their whereabouts.