Elderly Parole Program Could Shorten Kidnapper's Prison Sentence By 400 Years
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) - Seven years after Jaycee Dugard was rescued from the hands of a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido is now eligible for release some 400 years early.
"He went and abducted an 11-year-old and held her in captivity for many years, we shouldn't even be talking about the potential for release for him," says Vern Pierson, El Dorado County's District Attorney.
Jaycee was 11 when Garrido kidnapped her from Southlake Tahoe in 1991. She spent the next 18 years in prison and was sexually assaulted at his Antioch home. Garrido was sentenced to 431 years behind bars.
"We have to learn from our mistakes when someone proves to be that dangerous we should not be releasing them ever," says Pierson.
But in February 2014 federal courts ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement a new parole program where state prisoners who are 60 or older and have served at least 25 years are eligible for parole hearings.
It was instituted by a federal three-judge panel after a 2013 class-action lawsuit successfully argued that conditions in California's overcrowded prisons amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
According to the CDCR, Inmates sentenced to life without the possibility of parole or condemned are not eligible.
But eligibility for a hearing doesn't guarantee parole. The board has to determine if the inmate is suitable and not a danger to society. In fact according to stats from 2014 to 2016, The CDCR says out of the 1351 hearings only 359 were granted parole, 890 were denied, 102 rejected the hearing.
Garrido is 65 years old now, but if he wants his California parole hearing he'll have to wait until August 26, 2034. He'll be 83.
Once a decision is made, the Governor at that time still has the ability to reverse the decision, uphold it, modify it, or send it back to the board.
