In California, there are approximately 23,000 prisoners serving life sentences who are technically eligible for parole. Of course, being eligible does not necessarily mean inmates are suitable for parole. Some need to remain permanent guests of the state for their own and everybody else’s good.
Yet, even when a prisoner does not show evidence of being a further danger, the notoriously conservative California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation parole board rarely approves an inmate for release and so California’s lifer population continues to balloon (and age).
“When California courts sentence somebody to life with parole, it turns out that’s not possible after all,” Joan Petersilia, Stanford law professor and one of the country’s experts on parole policy told the New York Times’ Solomon Moore.. “Board of parole hearings almost never grant releases, and that’s the reason that California’s lifer population has grown out of proportion to other states.”
In the rare instance that an inmate does make it through with a positive recommendation (only around 1 percent are recommended for parole out of the thousands seen each year), the board has usually done a fairly thorough job of considering the matter. And even after approval, there will be another 120 days of painstakingly rechecking and researching the inmates background, and disciplinary record. The board will also examine any information received from victims and victims’ families, plus any other public comment that might come forth, searching for the slightest reason that the person should not be let loose among the rest of us. If after all this, the parole board still thinks it’s time to hand the inmate their $200 gate money and send them on their way, one would think that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would go along with the recommendations of his appointed board.
But he doesn’t—particularly if the inmate in question has committed murder.
In his tenure, Arnold Schwarzenegger has allowed four convicted murderers to be paroled. (Gray Davis was worse. He let 0 be paroled.)
For example, Margo Johnson, 48, has served 24 years of a life sentence for a 1984 murder. The NY Times reports that Johnson has been recommended for release four times by the state parole board, but the governor “rejected the board’s recommendation each time.”
It was therefore heartening to find that talented independent radio journalist Nancy Mullane has Soros Foundation grant to produce a two-hour, four part radio documentary on this issue called “Life After Murder.” It will debut in April of this year.
In the meantime, one story out of Mullen’s project had its debut on This American Life this past week.
It’s about a man named Don Cronk who shot and killed a man in a home burglary gone hideously wrong. He was righteously convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison with the possibility of parole. More than a quarter of a century later, he was facing his seventh parole hearing. Mullane tells the story.
(Note: The show has a prologue and two acts. The Mullane/Cronk parole story is Act 1.)
It is a compelling and very human tale about the issue of murder and parole. So listen.
PS: Carol J Williams of the LA Times reports on the history of California governors and their parole boards as well as an ongoing legal challenge on the issue.
PPS: Act two of This American Life has exactly zero to do with corrections or parole or Arnold Schwarzenegger but is a long personal essay by short story writer Wells Tower, and it is—wonderful.
NOTE: On an unrelated note, in Tuesday’s LA Times, Senator Ted Kaufman called for a broad, blogger-included federal shield law for journalists. Thank you, Senator Kaufman.
Bernie Madoff (71), is another senior citizen who has been victimed by our draconian justice system.
Mr. Madoff was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 150 years in federal prison. The federal prison system has abolished parole since 1984, Bernie Madoff is a victim of our draconian federal prison industrial complex.
Madoff should have been paroled immediately, he is 71 years old and posses no threat to society.
Free Bernie Madoff !!!!!!!!!
WTF, I completely agree. And the minute he’s served his 150 years I think we’d be wrong not to consider it.
(sigh.)
I wonder if Mexico has a humane parole systems for their victimized prisoners?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100109/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico
“On Thursday, police in the northern city of Los Mochis, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, found the dismembered body of a man whose face had been skinned and stitched onto a soccer ball.”
Was the soccer ball named Frank?
No, it was named Wilson.
Seems very foolish to have the executive required to sign off on paroles. There’s no political incentive to ever let anybody out when your name is attached. Many pols relearned that lesson after Mike Huckabee’s recent fiasco. Of course, not letting people out just because that might hurt your career is pretty morally abhorrent, but that’s the kind of politician we’ve got these days. It’s one of the reasons I was never sorry to see Davis get the boot.
WTF, do you believe our criminal justice system should be more like Mexico’s?
It’d sure be cheaper to operate. In an obscure way our systems are similar. Where Mexico’s runs on bribes and graft, our’s runs on political capital and the influence of union lobbies. Oh! Then there’s our taxpayer’s ability to pay whatever bills the special interests submit.
http://orangecountyda.com/docs/OCDA_Letter_Schwarzennegger.pdf
Abolish parole and make them do every day of their sentence. Public safety first, prisoners should be treated like the bottom feeders they are.
Gava Joe Says:
January 12th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
It’d sure be cheaper to operate. In an obscure way our systems are similar. Where Mexico’s runs on bribes and graft, our’s runs on political capital and the influence of union lobbies.
…………..
If our system were more like Mexico’s, Gava, you wouldn’t be sitting there reading this. Some kids would be kicking your head into a goal.
Sure Fire Says:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
http://orangecountyda.com/docs/OCDA_Letter_Schwarzennegger.pdf
Abolish parole and make them do every day of their sentence. Public safety first,
……………..
Public safety does not come first. Read the constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. Public safety is second to civil rights. Public safety comes first in China. You know when the next plane’s leaving.
WTF Says:
January 12th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Bernie Madoff (71), is another senior citizen who has been victimed by our draconian justice system.
…………..
Just to put it in context, Bernie Madoff harmed more people than all of the current inmates in the California prison system combined. That being said, I still believe he deserves his basic civil rights.
Rob Thomas said:
“If our system were more like Mexico’s, Gava, you wouldn’t be sitting there reading this. Some kids would be kicking your head into a goal.”
In which case I’d be in an ideal position to pull the proverbial “hat trick”?
Just to put it in context, Bernie Madoff harmed more people than all of the current inmates in the California prison system combined.
*********************
And how do you know this how?
I’m surprised R.T. is not a Madoof fan, since Madoff ripped off very rich white men.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/12/madoff-guilty-plea-business-wall-street-celebrity-victims_slide_2.html?partner=abcnews
Parole isn’t a right granted in the constitution Robbie or you wouldn’t be able to revoke it.
Nice try con lover.
Sure Fire, you said public safety comes first. It doesn’t. Never did. Never will. And thank God. Because the day it does, we’re no longer America. Public safety is important, but the constitution and the rights of the individual come first. Public safety comes first in China, where you practically need permission to leave your house. A lot of cops want it that way here in certain areas, too. That’s fine, but they should just take the American flag badge off of their uniform and any flag decals off of their car if they’re going to do so.
Another place where public safety came first: Nazi Germany.
What are the priorities of the U.S. Constitution? Let’s look it up. Here is what that document actually says about its purpose in the very first words of its opening paragraph (which is entitled “Preamble”):
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”