Lawmaker Seeks To End California Parole Law

SACRAMENTO (CBS/AP) -- A state senator is seeking to halt a new law that allows unsupervised parole for thousands of ex-convicts after a former inmate was charged with a double homicide in Southern California.

The parolee is charged with killing a woman and an elderly man this month in Culver City, near Los Angeles.

The Legislature passed the unsupervised parole law in 2009 to save money. Under it, lower-level offenders do not have to report to parole agents and can be returned to prison only for committing crimes, rather than minor parole violations.

Sen. Ted Lieu criticized the computer program the state uses to decide when it's safe for parolees to go unsupervised.

He calls the risk assessment "fatally flawed" in a letter sent to corrections officials and provided to The Associated Press.

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