The Senate Public Safety Committee today, on a bipartisan, 6-to-1 vote, approved SB 1064, a bill by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, that would eliminate the use of uncorroborated allegations from a confidential informant as evidence in a parole hearing.
“Allowing uncorroborated information from a confidential informant to influence a parole hearing is deeply unfair.
However, such uncorroborated allegations are still used to deny parole to people in state prisons.
SB 1064 would bar California’s parole board from denying release to a person based solely, or in part, on uncorroborated information from an in-custody confidential informant.
Parole commissioners must not rely on biased opinions and unproven allegations to condemn people to die in prison,” said Keith Wattley, founder of UnCommon Law, an Oakland nonprofit legal organization that works to help California prisoners gain parole.
