The Release That Wasn’t: A Look At California’s Dysfunctional Parole System

On September 12, 2010, Jerome Wilson was released from Pelican Bay State Prison to Solano County on parole, after serving 15 years on questionable charges of burglary and possession of an unregistered firearm. Jerome’s family members asked the parole officer in Solano County to submit a request for a transfer of parole to Santa Clara County. The reason for this was simple: 15 years is a long time to spend in prison, especially for an inmate with mental health issues (as is the case with Jerome), and family support is essential for a successful reentry and recovery. However, the California prison system has very clear shortcomings, which is why we have a 70% recidivism rate – the highest in our country. These shortcomings were to become known all too well by Jerome and his family.

Jerome and his family encountered problems immediately. Jerome’s parole officer, Agent Garnika of Solano County, was aggressively opposed to Jerome’s transfer from the beginning. Agent Garnika never even submitted the simple request for a transfer to Santa Clara County, even after Jerome’s family abided by all of the proper procedures involved with filing the request.

In the meantime, Jerome was released to Agent Garnika’s custody. Agent Garnika immediately had Jerome admitted to Napa Valley State Hospital — the nearest hospital which housed individuals with mental health issues. This was done against the wishes of Jerome and his family. In fact, Jerome’s mother, Marian, drove from San Jose to Solano and Napa the morning of Jerome’s release to meet with Agent Garnika to ask him not to subject Jerome to the mental hospital.

When Marian arrived at the Solano County Parole Office, Agent Garnika would not even meet with her until she repeatedly complained to the clerks and administrators in the office. By the time she was able to speak with him, it was too late, and Jerome had already been placed under a 72-hour involuntary hold at the mental hospital in neighboring Napa County.

There were many reasons to fear Jerome’s involuntary commitment to the hospital. These fears were soon realized when the 72-hour hold was extended to a 14-day hold, and then to another 72-hour hold, and then to another 14-day hold, and on and on it went… (Jerome spent a total of 2 months against his will in this mental hospital.)

During his involuntary commitment of 2 months, Jerome was subjected to 3 changes of doctors, 2 changes of social workers, and several changes of psychiatric drugs. It is fair to say that Jerome never received the proper medical attention that was needed by an individual in his condition. The damage caused by 15 years in a state prison, many of which were spent in a psychiatric prison ward in which inmates are overmedicated, under-diagnosed, and inadequately monitored, will require careful medical and psychological attention to recover from.

Given the chaotic situation which Jerome was placed in for 2 months at the hospital, what happened next comes as no surprise. On October 6th, 2010, Jerome told his mother during a visit that he had been administered new medications the previous week – and that these new medications were causing him to lose control over himself. Jerome’s mother pleaded with the hospital staff about this problem, but they did little to help. A few days later, Jerome struck a hospital worker, and was charged with violating his parole agreement. His trial was set for November 23, 2010.

A state-funded organization called the California Parole Advocacy Program (CalPAP) – which provides attorneys to defend parole violators – was contacted. Jerome’s family and the De-Bug staff had prepared several emails filled with information regarding Jerome’s history and potential medical and mental health issues, hoping that this information would assist the CalPAP attorneys in preparing a strong defense for Jerome.

After all, there was a good argument to be made. Jerome was overmedicated, most likely without the proper therapy or supervision from doctors to accompany the medication, and he was being held against his will in a psychiatric ward, immediately following his release from a 15-year sentence in the State prisons. This type of neglect on the part of the parole officer and doctors would surely invoke anger in even the most patient individuals. However, CalPAP was unresponsive to the emails which were sent by Jerome’s family and the De-Bug staff. The agency failed to inform his family of the hearing dates, outcomes, and general conversations about what was happening and what could be done to help Jerome. That is, CalPAP, a state-funded organization whose sole purpose is to advocate and defend parole violations, failed to provide Jerome’s family with the most simple information. To this day, Jerome’s family nor the De-Bug staff have heard back regarding Jerome’s whereabouts, nevertheless his trial outcome.

This entire process has been a tortuous nightmare for Jerome’s family who fought with whatever resources they had available to try to protect him. His mother had taken those two months off from her job as a San Jose city bus driver in order to stay in Napa and Solano County to consistently fight for Jerome’s release from the mental hospital and his transfer to Santa Clara. Although she has resumed her job, she will continue to fight for justice for Jerome.

However, none of this comes as a surprise when taken into account the State’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners. Recent publishings estimate that there are upwards of 700,000 mentally ill individuals in the American jail and prison systems – This makes up over 56% of the total inmate population. Furthermore, it is no secret to prison administrators that their own prison facilities lack the proper resources and training needed to rehabilitate these individuals. Instead, most are overmedicated without appropriate supervision, while others are simply labeled as deviant prisoners and not medicated at all. To make matters worse, mentally ill prisoners are expected to follow the same rules and procedures as the general prison population. However, mental illness induces symptoms such as delusions, poor memory, disruptive thought processes, mood swings, and other cognitive impairments — which make it nearly impossible for these individuals to behave in accordance with the prison rules. And when they fail to follow these rules, they are punished, often through solitary confinement, which only worsens their already damaged mental conditions. These conditions are in absolute contradiction to the goal of recovery and rehabilitation of our prison system.

Often, mentally ill inmates come out of prison in a worse state than when they went in. It is fair to say that Jerome was never given a fair chance to recover in prison or to succeed in his parole release. It is true that he violated his parole agreement when he struck a hospital worker. However, it is also true that this attack would never have taken place had he been provided with the proper supervision, and familial support – both which were denied to him by the Solano County Parole Office. He was released from prison, and immediately placed in a vulnerable position with no family or support, and forced to take several different psychiatric drugs under 3 different doctors – all in the span of 2 months. After struggling for 2 months, he fell victim again to the very same system which had set him up for failure the first time. What else could he have possibly done?

While Jerome’s family and the De-Bug staff work to locate Jerome and find out his next release date, the next challenge will be how to deal with this same system which will subject Jerome to this same parole agent and the same hospital treatment after his next release.