SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Today, Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones(R-San Diego) announced the introduction of new legislation to hold commissioners at the California Board of Parole Hearings accountable for releasing violent serial sex offenders early from prison by bringing transparency to parole process.
Jones introduced Senate Bill 906 to close a loophole in state law that allows parole board meetings and vote records to be hidden from the public and exempts them from state open meetings rules.
“Secret votes in closed meetings to release sex predators who target children are unconscionable. The public has a right to know what is being said in these parole hearings, and who is voting to let these monsters out,” said Jones. “As a parent and a grandparent, what’s happening is horrifying. And as legislators, it’s our duty to hold the parole board and the governor who appoints its commissioners accountable to protect public safety.”
In recent years, Democrat legislators have loosened parole rules for “elderly” and “youthful” offenders. Those changes allowed predators like David Allen Funston to become eligible for parole after serving a fraction of his sentence.
These – coupled with the parole board’s secretive nature and exemption from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act that governs most taxpayer-funded public boards and commissions – have created a system that lets thousands of violent criminals free each year with no public knowledge or input.
Senator Jones believes the bill, along with his SB 356, which raises the minimum age for elder parole to 60 and the minimum time served to 25 years, will bring much needed reform to a parole process that has become so loose it significantly endangers Californians.