Attorney J.P. Lavallee has advised over 1000 parolees and has been counsel at more than 150 parole revocation hearings. If you need experienced and vigorous parole defense, contact criminal defense attorney J.P. Lavallee.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the Board of Prison Terms (BPT) are the agencies that govern the parole process. Generally, when a person is on parole, they have been convicted of a felony, and have been sentenced to a term in the California State Prison System.

Life on Parole - Revocation Pitfalls Abound

The parole system is defined by the Legislature in the California Penal Code beginning at §3000. Important provisions that affect those on parole include §3056 – no-bail parole holds, and §3040, which sets out the system of parole in the overall state corrections scheme.

Parole has been described as follows: “While humanitarian in character, [it] is reformatory in purpose. Its object is to mitigate the rigor of the former penitentiary system by allowing the prisoner to reenter society by replacing contained incarceration with a conditional freedom controlled by prison regulations.” People v. Denne (1956) 141 Cal.App.2d 499.

The Penal Code, at §3000, sets a slightly more realistic and practical description: “It is in the interest of public safety for the state to provide for the supervision and surveillance of parolees, including the judicious use of revocation actions....”

If one substitutes the word judicious, defined by Webster’s as “done with good judgment or sense,” with the word liberal, defined as “occurring in generous amounts,” one is much closer to the reality of life in the parole system: Revocation is lurking around every corner, for virtually any reason, "in generous amounts.”

Parole Violations

A prisoner may do more time on parole revocation than for the original commitment offense. More than ½ of all inmates in the California Department of Corrections are there for “short time” parole violations.

A parole violation can be as long as 1 year, with no credit for good time or work time, often referred to as “half-time”. Depending on the violation and the original commitment offense, the good time or half time credits can be one of the most important battles that an attorney may fight for someone accused of a parole violation.

After the landmark decision in Valdivia v. Davis, the parole system now requires that the state provide counsel at parole revocations for all parolees. This is a significant change from the former system, which only provided attorneys if there was a disability as defined under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Valdivia also greatly improved the timeliness requirement. Now paroles may expect that a hearing will occur within statutorily defined periods or they can demand release. Under the former system, a parolee could remain in custody without a hearing for many months and there would be no sanction.

Length of Parole

In general the parole period is three years. This period may be shorter if there is good cause, but it depends on many factors. A life prisoner released on parole will be subject to a "seven-year-term."

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