Software Error Incorrectly Allowed 1,500 Inmates to be Placed on Unsupervised Parole
Corrections officials installed a computer program to assess an inmate’s likelihood of reoffending and in March 2010 reported that refinements to it had determined more than 600 inmates had been placed on non-revocable parole who should not have been.
Eventually, about 400 of those were reclassified and required to be on supervised parole, meaning they had to report to parole agents regularly and could not violate conditions of their release without the threat of being returned to prison.
The corrections department estimates that nearly half of parolees who are supervised end up being returned to prison for various violations.
“It is therefore probable that some of the discharged parolees inappropriately placed on non-revocable parole would have violated their parole conditions and returned to prison, had they been on supervised parole,” the report concludes.
The report comes on the heels of Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring California’s prison population of more than 143,000 to be reduced by 33,000 inmates in the next two years.
Using the 15% error rate they found in their sample, investigators estimated that more than 450 violent inmates had been released during the first seven months of the program, the time period they reviewed. Prison officials have disputed the findings, saying they had corrected some of the computer problems discovered by the inspector general. The error rate is now 8%, the inspector general report says.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to address overcrowding would shift tens of thousands of low-level offenders from prison to county custody. Counties would also supervise most low-risk parolees, like those in the non-revocable program.
