California Lawmakers Consider Making Parole Harder for Some Prisoners

In a rare showing of bipartisanship, Republicans in the Assembly’s public safety committee are backing a tough-on-crime bill authored by a Democrat.

On Tuesday the committee advanced a measure by Elk Grove Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen that would raise the parole eligibility requirements for some elderly prisoners. Currently, incarcerated people ages 50 and up who have served at least 20 years of their sentence can be considered for the Elderly Parole Program. But for people convicted of sexual crimes against children, Nguyen’s bill would raise that standard to 65 years of age, with at least 25 years served.

Criminal justice groups, including the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and UnCommon Law, oppose the bill, citing the low recidivism rates of elderly prisoners and the high financial cost of keeping people incarcerated.

Nguyen’s defense of the bill included tearful testimony from a woman who was sexually victimized by a man named David Funston when she was a child. Funston was later convicted for kidnapping and child molestation in 1999, and was serving three life sentences when the California parole board last year deemed Funston suitable for parole at age 64. Despite public outcry, including from GOP legislators, and a request from Gov. Gavin Newsom to review the case, the board reaffirmed its decision in February.

• Nguyen: “When you harm children as young as four years old, multiple times … then no, I don’t believe those individuals deserve an opportunity to come out here without guardrails.”

This is Nguyen’s second attempt at proposing this bill. In their backing of the measure, Republican Assemblymembers Juan Alanis and Tom Lackey expressed their desire to sign on as the bill’s co-authors.

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