Rendell: Eliminate parole for repeat violent offenders

After a year marked by horrific crimes committed by repeat violent offenders, Gov. Rendell called yesterday for legislation to keep them locked up longer.

"The parole system simply doesn't work for these violent individuals who use deadly weapons," Rendell told reporters yesterday at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue.

"It works for nonviolent offenders," he said. "In 2007, 95 percent of the state's nonviolent 31,000 parolees were not rearrested.

"But not for this dangerous group of individuals . . . who learn to game the system."

Rendell's effort would not change the sentencing guidelines that judges employ or the factors that parole boards can consider.

Instead, he would require judges to sentence repeat violent offenders to specific, fixed terms, instead of ranges, in effect eliminating any opportunity for early release.

Whereas current law allows judges to sentence violent reoffenders to, for example, three to six years, the new legislation would require a sentence of a set number of years within that range. Rendell expressed hope that, circumstances permitting, judges would impose the maximum sentences.

The law would apply to people previously convicted of such violent crimes as manslaughter, robbery and rape.

For such criminals, almost any second arrest would trigger the tougher sentencing rule.

The overarching goal, Rendell said, is to keep the public safer, if only for a time.

"Obviously, unless they are lifers, violent offenders have to be released at some point, but this buys the public some time."

Rendell's proposal was criticized by some civil-rights advocates who said it would result in less discretion for judges and more crowding in already stuffed prisons.

Civil-rights attorney David Rudovsky dismissed the idea as "yet another effort to increase sentences with the illusion of safety, but the reality of higher expenses and increased overcrowding."

The governor said he was motivated in part by at least three recent deaths of police officers at the hands of repeat offenders.

Two Philadelphia police sergeants, Patrick McDonald and Stephen Liczbinski, were shot and killed last year by felons on parole.

After Liczbinski's death in May, Rendell sought and won the support of State House Speaker Dennis M. O'Brien for legislation requiring a 20-year minimum sentence for anyone convicted of shooting at Philadelphia police.

Rendell said he was also troubled by the case of Jermaine D. Burgess, 37, of Upper Darby. Burgess repeatedly served only the minimum sentence for violent crimes he committed and was charged with committing two home-invasion killings within two weeks.

He was charged in the Oct. 27 killing of 81-year-old Marie Ott and the Nov. 10 slaying of Hao Pham, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army.

"If the legislation I'm proposing had been in effect," Rendell said, "Burgess would not have been on the street to kill Mrs. Ott and Mr. Pham."

Rendell said he had only just learned details of Burgess' parole record. He said that gave him the final push to seek longer sentences for "the worst kind of offenders."

But he acknowledged that his law wouldn't have made a difference in the case of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Timothy Simpson, who was killed in a crash caused by a fleeing fugitive Nov. 17. That offender had not been previously convicted of a violent crime.

"Clearly, we can't eliminate all contingencies," Rendell said. "And just locking people up doesn't solve the problem. But it does buy time."

In parole hearings, he said, much emphasis is put on inmates' prison behavior. But inmates know that and learn to game the system, he said.

"This situation simply has to change," Rendell said.

He has struggled since the fall to develop a plan to keep repeat offenders in jail. In September, he announced a parole freeze for all violent offenders while Temple University professor John Goldkamp studied the probation system.

The ban was lifted last month after Goldkamp reported that the parole board followed valid procedures. But his report also urged better methods for setting aside "the worst of the worst" in the prison population.

"Goldkamp's report shows we must change the way we deal with violent repeat offenders," Rendell said.

Beginning now, Rendell said, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole will identify every repeat violent offender who has been on parole for fewer than five years and review their cases to see whether stricter supervision is needed.

Sherry Tate, spokeswoman for the parole board, said she did not consider Rendell's plan a criticism of the agency.

"I think this is an effort to improve public safety and the parole board is concerned about that, too."

William DiMascio of the Pennsylvania Prison Society said Rendell's plan would pressure judges to get tougher.

"This puts the onus on the judge. And given that we elect judges in Pennsylvania, puts the heat on them," he said.

"I know the governor has been under a lot of pressure to do something because of these horrendous cases," DiMascio said. "But this proposal is disappointing because it seems just a continuation of the failed approaches of the past.

"This seems based on hope that by longer sentencing, we're going to change the way they behave when they come out," DiMascio said. "But we know the result could go either way."

Rendell acknowledged his plan would not address prison overcrowding or the cost of incarcerating prisoners longer.

But, he said, other recently enacted legislation promoted by State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, (R., Bucks), would likely reduce the prison population by advocating alternative sentencing for nonviolent offenders.

"Close to 70 percent of our prison population in Pennsylvania is comprised of nonviolent offenders," said Greenleaf, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. In an interview, Greenleaf said he supported Rendell's proposal.

The same approach toward longer prison terms for repeat violent offenders was recently enacted in four states, among them New York, Rendell said, but results cannot yet be gauged.

The governor said plans to expand three state prisons are proceeding. Construction at Rockview State Prison should begin this year.