CDCR: "This Won’t Happen Again"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCBS) -- Parole reforms are on the horizon in California following measures approved by lawmakers last month, and following a scathing report about the supervision of Phillip Garrido who is accused of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard, raping her, and holding her captive for 18 years.

KCBS’ Margie Shafer Reports

State Prisons chief Matt Cate says improvements to the parole system will focus parole supervision on high risk offenders, reducing supervision on parolees who have committed low level violations, and allowing smaller caseloads for those supervising more serious offenders.

"We need line supervisors," said Cate. "Most police agencies have a sergeant who is in the field and provides supervision. In parole we have a lieutenant who does these duties, and each one can have upwards of 800 parolees, and more than a dozen agents who they supervise. It's too large a span of control."

In addition, Cate promises that they will end the strictly passive use of GPS tracking devices for sex offenders. A report on the Garrido case found that agents took no action on Garrido's GPS alerts, and that he was wrongly classified as low-risk when he initially went into the system.

"Parole and the department have the responsibility to protect the public from this kind of abject evil, and we need to do so to the greatest extent possible with the resources we have," said Cate.

Secretary Cate says he is committed to ensuring a case like Garrido’s never happens again.

”A Changed Man”

Meanwhile, the state inspector general's report also contains some details of what his alleged victim went through.

The report concludes that Dugard exhibited indications of Stockholm syndrome, which is a psychological response in which some victims come to identify with their captors.

Dugard was questioned at a state parole office in Concord last August, one day after Garrido and Dugard's daughters first came to the attention of Cal police officers whose suspicions eventually brought down the whole case.

According to the report, Dugard angrily asked why she was being questioned and identified herself as "Alyssa."

It says Dugard grew agitated under questioning, and that she said that while she knew about Garrido's earlier crimes, she described him as a changed man who was good with her kids.

(MGO)