You’ll never know the psychopath sitting next to you
You’ll never know the murderer sitting next to you
You’ll think, “How’d I get here, sitting next to you?”
But after all I’ve said, please don’t forget
— Heathens by Twenty One Pilots
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Division of Adult Parole Operations (DAPO) is tasked with public safety, primarily via supervision of parolees and also by helping reintegrate them back into society. According to several longtime San Francisco parole agents, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s direct policy orders have allowed dangerous repeat felons to remain on the streets despite numerous parole violations. “All of this was coming down from Newsom because he wanted it to look like rehabilitation was working and there was less crime. He weaponized Covid to let these guys out,” said Ches Hunter Fry, a retired Parole Agent 1 with San Francisco’s DAPO, said in an exclusive interview with The Voice.
During the pandemic, California’s prison system used the potential spread of coronavirus to justify the early release of over 25,000 inmates and parolees. In April 2020, following Governor Newsom’s State of Emergency proclamation, parole agents received a memo instructing them to avoid sending parolees to jail or prison except when there was “an imminent threat to public safety or when state statutes require detaining them.” The memo also stated that agents “should not conduct routine inspections of parolees’ living quarters or test them for drugs.” But according to Fry and several other current and former parole agents who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, supervisors routinely told them not to re-arrest even the most violent and disturbed parolees, leading to additional cases of child molestation, rape, kidnapping, and even murder that could have been prevented.
California Government Code section 12838(a) states that CDCR is to be headed by a secretary “who shall be appointed by the Governor and shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor.” In an Aug. 19, 2025, email obtained by The Voice, DAPO District Administrator Shawn Wilson directs all DAPO supervisors to “prioritize parolee voter registration,” which ultimately interferes with the vast, daily public safety duties required of California parole agents. “This is about Newsom’s aspirations to be president,” one longtime agent said. “He wants parolees left alone and registered to vote. It also allows him to say ‘crime is down’ which isn’t true. Parolees are committing crimes, but they’re not being ‘violated’ — which means we would add those violations and bring remand them to custody because that’s what our supervisors are telling us to do. So, we’re ignoring crimes, many of them violent.”
‘Since we are told by supervisors to ignore violations, that means a lot of really bad people are out there. California residents have no idea how violent and evil some of these guys are. …
— Veteran San Francisco Parole Agent
Public safety duties for agents were already hampered when, on May 1, 2018, Proposition 57 was adopted, granting the CDCR secretary the authority to issue “good behavior credits” to reduce an inmate’s prison term. This allowed the secretary to reduce an inmate’s sentence by one half or two thirds. “If a guy goes a day without knocking someone over the head, he gets a ‘good behavior credit’ and those add up fast. Next thing you know he’s out on parole,” Fry said.
When Newsom ordered parole policies amended in 2020, it presented an additional loophole where parolees, including those sentenced to life in prison, can violate the terms and conditions of their parole and still be guaranteed an administrative parole discharge.
‘Even lifers can never go back’
On Aug. 6, 2020, Senate Bill 118 was signed by Newsom, changing the duration of mandatory parole supervision to require a person released on parole from a determinate term be reviewed by DAPO for possible discharge from parole no later than 12 months after release.
Penal Code section 3000.01(2) further clarifies that any inmate sentenced to life in prison “shall be released on parole for a period of three years.” The inmate is to be reviewed by DAPO and referred to the Board of Parole Hearings for possible discharge from parole no later than 24 months after their release.
“If at the time of review an inmate has been on parole continuously for 12 months since release without a violation, that inmate must be discharged from parole, and for ‘lifers’ it’s 24 months,” said a veteran San Francisco parole agent. “Since we are told by supervisors to ignore violations, that means a lot of really bad people are out there. California residents have no idea how violent and evil some of these guys are, and they can never go back to prison. Even lifers can never go back.”
The ‘lifer loopholes’ within the language of Penal Code section 3000.01(2) are exposed in the case of The People v. Joseph Patrick Reed heard by the California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3, where it was determined that individuals sentenced to a life prison term and who have been granted release by the Board of Parole Hearings to parole supervision cannot be returned to CDCR custody.
Joseph Patrick Reed was convicted in 1992 of second-degree murder and originally subject to lifetime parole under Penal Code section 3000.1. He was released on parole for a three-year term on June 16, 2021, under the new statute. That same year, CDCR alleged Reed committed felony reckless evading and traveled more than 50 miles from his residence without approval. Evidence included a California Highway Patrol officer’s testimony that Reed’s car was speeding at 89 mph and fleeing in Humboldt County. A 2022 petition alleged Reed voluntarily admitted to using cocaine. At revocation hearings in December 2022 and June 2023, the trial court found sufficient evidence of both violations, rejecting Reed’s claims that the travel was “unintentional” or the drug use “non-willful.” The Court of Appeal upheld the decision, and Reed was sent back to prison where he is currently serving his life sentence.
Agents say the level of privilege afforded criminals like Reed under California’s current laws frustrates them and makes their jobs even more difficult. “A guy like Reed should have been violated and sent back to prison,” one former agent said. “Instead, he gets appeals that set precedent for future lifers to violate and stay out of custody. CDCR is a paramilitary organization therefore staff are required to obey orders from superiors. If you speak up like some of us did, they use their positions as a weapon and a tool against subordinate employees to get rid of us. That means the agents left are following orders to ignore violations and keep people out of prison no matter what.”
Next up: A meth-addicted child predator who kept a teen boy locked in his bedroom and later tried to kidnap his trans girlfriend catches a break thanks to Gov. Newsom’s 2020 parole revisions. “My supervisor told me to put all the stuff back and write it up as a regular home check. I was supposed to let his drug dealer go, hand the meth back to him, and allow him to keep his electronics or [my supervisor] would write me up for Covid violations.”
