Parole, Part1
On the Promise of Good Behaviour...
It is said that the word parole is derived from a late 15th century Old French term for “formal promise,” or so the Oxford English Dictionary would have us believe. This “formal promise,” apparently, is derived from a belief that you have actually learned enough from the actual percentage period of the full sentence imposed by a legal body to warrant your early release, without having to serve the full totality of your complete sentence. An algorithm based on your prior convictions, previous parole success/failure, and a wealth of data regarding your history of success/failure while actually incarcerated (often referred to as “programming”) will undoubtedly contribute to the when and if you will qualify for early release and at what percentage of your sentence you must first serve in order to even apply.
A prime example of the complex process of parole application is the Charles Manson Family. The facts of the case were that, after midnight on August 9, 1969, Charles Manson sent his “family” members Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Linda Kasabian to the home of Hollywood director Roman Polanski (who was in London) to murder his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abagail Folger, her lover Voytek Frykowski, and Tate’s hairdresser friend Jay Sebring. The murders were heinous, brutal, and gruesome, and with the bizarre intent initiating a racial war, named after a Beatles song, “Helter Skelter.” This. then, was followed by a second night of murder, where the group took the lives of a completely random older couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, writing on their living room walls, “Death to Pigs!” and “Healter [sic] Skelter.” Eventually, the Manson Family, including Manson himself, were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death, later converted to life sentences when the SCOTUS determined that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment.
Charles Manson was denied parole 11 consecutive times before his death in 2017.
Susan Atkins was denied repeatedly, including an appeal for compassionate parole, before dying of brain cancer, in prison, in 2009.
Charles “Tex” Watson, age 80, has been denied parole18 times, and is on a 5-year schedule, and resides at RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
Patricia Krenwinkle, age 77, having served 56 years, as the longest sentence of any woman in CA, was recommended for parole this year, 2025, but is fighting Gov. Gavin Newsome’s hold on her release.
Leslie Van Houten, who was granted parole in 2023, and was actually released by a federal court of appeals, despite Gov. Newsome’s hold.
The parole saga of the Menendez brother, Erik and Lyle, who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989, and were sentenced to a term of life without the possibility of parole. Things seemed to be turning in their favor as new evidence led a California judge to resentence them in May, 2025 to a term of fifty years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole. However, both brothers, ironically enough, were denied on the grounds that each had histories of serious violations of prison regulations they did not report or rationalized, including possession of telephones [Fun Fact: one of the single most significant causes of drain clogs & backups in prison is inmates attempting to flush a contraband phone when a spontaneous cell search is announced]. The Menendez brothers can reapply for parole in 2028.
My introduction to parole began several days after accepting a job as the Clinical Director of a residential treatment facility for parolees with mental health and substance use disorders, as well as probationers with similar classifications. I had a week or so before actually starting, so I was sitting on the patio of my very quiet, residential neighborhood, second floor apartment drinking coffee and reading the mail. I happened to notice two young men hanging out on the corner diagonally away from me, when two black vehicles came racing up the street from opposite directions and screeching to a halt in front of the two young men. All four doors on each vehicle flew open, green tactical uniforms, weapons drawn, a very familiar song with a slightly altered lyric: “PAROLE! Get on ground! Do it Now!” The story was that both young men were on parole; they both had failed to report for three straight appointments; and the parole teams had been looking for them. It also turns out that before going to prison, one of them had robbed the bodega three blocks away, but apparently forgot. The second fellow had gone in today to buy two 40 oz. Old English Malt Liquor for himself & his buddy and the owner (with his hand on his gun under the counter, figuring it was another robbery) asked for ID. The fellow asked why, and the owner said that he got caught selling to an underage decoy, and in order to keep his license to sell beer & wine, he had to ID everyone. The fellow went out and got his friend to come in with his ID (verifying to the owner that he was the man who had previously robbed him), and inadvertently revealing that he had a gun in his waistband. They paid and went across the street to benches to drink (which broke a condition of their parole not to consume alcohol or mood-altering drugs), while the bodega owner called police. I showed my corrections ID to the parole supervisor and told him it somehow felt safer in prison. “Roger, that.”