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In a unanimous vote by the Senate, Senator Mark DeSaulnier’s (D-Concord) legislation to require a risk assessment for all out-of-state parolees coming into California was passed Tuesday.
Referring to the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard in South Lake Tahoe, who was found to be in captivity of parolee Phillip Garrido for 18 years in Antioch, DeSaulnier said SB 1201 would help make sure similar incidents wouldn’t occur.
“This bill will assure that a risk assessment is done immediately when an out-of-state parolee enters California,” he said in a release. “If the parolee is a high-risk sex offender, that risk assessment will result in increased monitoring of the parolee.”
Additionally, the legislation requires that all parolees who are transferred from any other state or the federal government be assessed using the current risk assessment tool that is used for all California sex offenders. It is said to ensure that parole agents are aware of the risk of re-offending by all of their parolees, not just those released from California prisons.
“If SB 1201 were law 10 years ago parole agents would have known then that Garrido was high risk,” DeSaulnier said. “This would have resulted in more extensive parole visits and the potential identification and removal of Jaycee Dugard’s children from the Garrido home. This could have led to the discovery of Jaycee Dugard herself.”
The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association support SB 1201.
By Emily West