Jerry Brown and paroles

California Gov. Jerry Brown has received some criticism for not being more assertive in prison reform matters. But he is distinguishing himself in one way on criminal justice matters, as Paige St. John reports in Brown's parole record sets him apart from recent predecessors Los Angeles Times 02/15/2013:

The report follows Brown's disclosure that he pardoned 128 people last year, mostly expunging the records of felons who had served their time.

The governor signed off on parole for 377 convicted killers who have been serving life sentences, according to numbers provided by his staff. That's 81% of those the parole board endorsed for release.

Brown approved a similar portion of parole grants the year before, in contrast to earlier governors, who rejected almost all release recommendations for murderers.

Among those to be freed — years from now — is Bert Cole, 43. In 1991, Cole was a member of the Graveyard Crips and killed a man he thought belonged to a rival gang.

Brown's letter approving Cole for release in 2017 notes that the inmate has worked toward a college degree and developed a business plan for a nonprofit agency to help troubled youths. His file contains a note from a Los Angeles prosecutor stating that Cole "impressed everybody in the room" at his last parole hearing.

Jerry served as state Attorney General before running for his current term as Governor.

Jerry's Facebook feed featured the report on this from the rightwing Breitbart.com site, CA GOV. BROWN PAROLES 377 CONVICTED KILLERS by Ben Shapiro 02/18/2013. It's intriguing that he would link to a piece that is clearly hostile to his actions.

Tags: california politics, jerry brown