Review finds parole agents swamped with sex offender caseloads

Nearly two-thirds of parole agents who monitor sex offenders juggle caseloads that exceed department standards, a state corrections review reported Wednesday in response to an Orange County murder case.

Agents are supposed to supervise between 20 and 40 parolees, depending on how many are high-risk offenders. But more often than not, the state Office of the Inspector General found, agents are overburdened.

At 14 of the state’s 37 units responsible for supervising paroled sex offenders, all agents had bigger caseloads than department policies allow. The inspector general surveyed the units’ caseloads in August.

The report also criticized the effectiveness of GPS monitoring and housing restrictions enacted through Jessica’s Law, a 2006 ballot measure. The inspector general tied the restrictions to a spike in homelessness and strained resources.

Corrections spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said the department strives to meet its policies, but caseloads may temporarily jump due to worker leave or other circumstances. The department says it averages about 30 parolees per agent.

“We are in the process of hiring additional agents to help in those instances where caseloads are above department policy,” Hoffman said. “We will also evaluate our current distribution of agents and will adjust, if appropriate.”

The inspector general found one Riverside agent had a caseload of 22 high-risk sex offenders and 37 other sex offenders. Agents aren’t supposed to have more than 20 high-risk offenders and more than 40 total under their supervision.

The state Sex Offender Management Board recommended four years ago that agents supervise no more than 20 paroled sex offenders. But the inspector general said corrections officials haven’t adopted the lower threshold.

The inspector general report was requested by state Sen. Darrell Steinberg after the April arrests of Steven Gordon and Franc Cano, two transient sex offenders registered to live in Anaheim. Steinberg was head of the Senate at the time and chairman of its rules committee.

Gordon, 45, and Cano, 28, were charged with raping and killing four women with ties to prostitution, all while under the supervision of state parole or federal probation officials. Steinberg said the case required the state to assess whether sex offenders are adequately monitored.

Though the men were prohibited from being together, records and interviews show they routinely violated the terms of their release without facing serious consequences. They both wore GPS tracking devices, but their supervisors never used this data to connect their whereabouts. Twice they cut off their tracking devices and absconded to other states.

Only after their arrests did authorities grasp their close relationship. One of Gordon’s colleagues at an Anaheim auto shop said the men routinely slept together in a truck and mingled near dumpsters.

Corrections officials have declined to comment on their supervision of Gordon and Cano, citing the duo’s ongoing prosecution. The men face kidnapping, rape and murder charges. They have pleaded not guilty and are due in court Nov. 14.

Steinberg didn’t request that the inspector general probe how Gordon and Cano were supervised by parole agents. Previously, the office did just that after the high-profile convictions of sex offenders Phillip Garrido and John Gardner. This time, Steinberg focused on broader questions about the impact of GPS monitoring and housing restrictions.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimates that it spent about $7.9 million to monitor more than 6,000 paroled sex offenders with GPS devices in the last fiscal year, a decline from $12.4 million four years earlier.

In a statement Wednesday, Steinberg said the state is committing significant resources to monitoring sex offenders and invited lawmakers to evaluate the inspector general’s findings.

“I look forward to studying the report in more detail, however it is clear this issue is not going away,” Steinberg said. “The report does show the need for a serious discussion about the effectiveness of GPS as a crime deterrent.”

The inspector general’s report doesn’t shed much new light on one of Steinberg’s biggest questions: the effectiveness of GPS monitoring to cut crime. Instead, it points to a 2012 study showing positive signs and anecdotal support from law enforcement officials, but also cites a lack of empirical research on the issue.

“There exists little objective evidence to determine to what extent, if any, GPS tracking serves as a crime deterrent,” the report says.

Like previous reports by the state’s Sex Offender Management Board, the inspector general also tied a spike in homelessness among registered sex offenders to housing restrictions brought by the 2006 ballot initiative known as Jessica’s Law. These restrictions, though well-intentioned, don’t accomplish the goal of reducing child molestation, the report said.

Jessica’s Law prohibits sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of schools or parks where children regularly congregate – an area blanketing most residential neighborhoods in Orange County and other urban areas of the state.

“While this premise might seem reasonable, research studies have found no connection between offenders’ residences and the commission of new crimes,” the inspector general said. “Researchers have found reasons to challenge the residency restrictions on the basis that it is neither efficacious nor practical for anyone.”

And while the housing restrictions do little to deter sex crime, a consequential spike in homelessness creates more work for parole agents and other law enforcement officials. Homeless sex offenders must re-register with local authorities monthly rather than annually, and authorities have logged more violations.

One official told the inspector general that his municipality has 270 homeless offenders that register monthly, and that it takes about 30 minutes to perform the registration process for each. As a result, the agency spends more than 130 hours per month – the equivalent of three weeks’ pay for a full-time employee – solely to register homeless sex offenders.

More than 76 percent of parolees charged with violating the terms of their release last year were transient, the report also said. Mental health issues, a lack of social support, increased exposure to drugs and prostitution, and unemployment are common contributing factors.

Ondre Henry, president of the parole agents union, said the department is making positive steps to improve sex offender supervision by requiring additional checks on GPS devices. Still, caseload sizes remain a big obstacle.

“We emphatically opposed the new changes without a reduction in caseloads. They just said, ‘We’re going to do it anyway,’” Henry said. “They want to incorporate all these new standards, but they don’t want to pay for it.”

Aside from caseloads and housing restrictions, the inspector general aired concerns about parole agents using GPS software on laptops to locate parolees. Agents complained the laptops are too bulky for field work and requested smartphones instead.

Hoffman replied, “We agree that parole agents supervising sex offenders should have mobile devices with top-of-the-line technology, and we will look into the feasibility of this recommendation.”

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