Nonviolent sex offenders ruled eligible to receive early parole
Thousands of California prisoners who were convicted of nonviolent sex crimes, such as pimping and possessing child pornography, must be considered for early parole under a voterapproved initiative, a state appeals court has ruled, rejecting a contrary decision by state prison officials.
Thursday’s ruling by the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento was the latest and most farreaching of a series of appellate decisions broadly interpreting Proposition 57, passed by a 64.5% vote in November 2016. It allows the state parole board to consider releasing inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes after they have served their term for the crime itself, without the added terms — sometimes decades long — for such things as prior convictions, gang participation and use of a gun.
California’s prison population includes about 20,000 sex offenders, of whom about half were convicted of nonviolent crimes and would therefore be covered by the ruling, said attorney Janice Bellucci, executive director of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, the nonprofit that filed the suit. That would make them eligible for parole, but would still allow the parole board to decide whether their release would endanger the public.
“We believe Prop. 57 says very clearly that everyone con
victed of a nonviolent offense should get early consideration for parole,” Bellucci said. “It’s going to keep the board very busy.”
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, whose regulations denying early parole consideration were struck down by the board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Bellucci said a lawyer for the state has told her the department would seek review in the state Supreme Court, which has already agreed to review a related issue: whether prisoners serving time for other nonviolent felonies are barred from early parole consideration because of a past conviction for a sex crime. The department has argued that any conviction
“We believe ... everyone convicted of a nonviolent offense should get early consideration for parole.”
Janice Bellucci, Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws executive director
requiring registration as a sex offender makes an inmate permanently ineligible for early parole.
While Prop. 57 expressly allows inmates serving terms for nonviolent crimes to apply for early parole, the state prison department argued that it was authorized to exempt sex offenders because one stated goal of the ballot measure was to “protect and enhance public safety.”
Noting that crimes such as incest and pimping of a minor are classified as nonviolent, the department said it has determined that such offenses “demonstrate a sufficient degree of violence and represent an unreasonable risk to public safety” and that offenders should be barred from early parole.
But the appeals court said the department’s position contradicts the “plain language” of the ballot measure, which makes all inmates serving sentences for nonviolent crimes eligible for parole consideration.
It is up to the Board of Parole Hearings to decide “whether a prisoner remains a current threat to public safety,” Justice Elena Duarte said in the 30 ruling, which upheld a 2018 decision by a Sacramento County judge. She also noted that public safety was not the only stated goal of Prop. 57, which was also intended to save money by “reducing wasteful spending on prisons.”
Duarte said this case and others rejecting the prison department’s limits on Prop. 57 illustrate “the department’s repeated attempts to exclude categories of inmates undisputably classified as ‘nonviolent’ from early parole consideration ... under the guise of ‘public safety.’ ”