WHEN PAROLE BECOMES MEANINGLESS

by Bob Walsh

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, the concept of Parole from incarceration was meaningful.  Not everybody got parole.  There were meaningful requirements.  Parole agents visiting the home, the work place and other places the parolee might hang out.  Homes and vehicles were searched.  Serious violations led to a return to custody.

Then parole became automatic.  Everybody but lifers got parole, often with as little as 50% of their time served.  Parole supervision consisted of the parolee dropping in to the office once or twice a month and peeing in a bottle.  Some parolees wore electronic monitors, which were never actually monitored until after something turned to shit and sometimes not even then.

Then parole became essentially meaningless, a pretend system to semi-justify emptying out the prisons, theoretically in order to INCREASE public safety, though nobody really believed that bullshit, including the parolees.

Enter Troy McAllister, 45, a former guest of the people of the formerly great state of California.  He went thru the revolving door five times in seven months leading up to New Year's Eve when he plowed two people down and killed them in the People's Republic of San Francisco.  The D A there, Chesa Boudin, refused to prosecute on any of the charges.

The parole agents themselves are covered, at least legally and procedurally.  They have been ordered in writing to NOT roll up parolees unless there is an IMMINENT THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY or when state law requires they be returned to custody.  They have been specifically ordered to NOT search for violations of parole conditions.    

On August 20 local cops found McAllister kicked back in a stolen car in San Francisco.  He had several watches, a lab coat with a woman's name on it and ten baggies of speed.  He was NOT RTCd.

On October 15 he was again arrested in a stolen car in possession of meth.  He was sent to a residential drug treatment program, which threw him out 13 days later.

He was arrested again December 20 again in a stolen car, again in possession of drugs.  This time the cops didn't even bother to contact his agent.

Then on December 31, while driving a stolen car,  he killed two people.  He had a firearm on him.  This time he is actually being detained.  I wonder if Elizabeth Platt, 60, and Hanako Abe, 27, now both dead, would have appreciated the fact that parole wants to keep parolees OUT of custody.  I somehow doubt it.