SACRAMENTO, CA - In the aftermath of the Jaycee Dugard case, California officials are taking a hard look at their state's parole system

But a public discussion of the case and its lessons at the state capitol in Sacramento Wednesday raised questions that go beyond mistakes made in the parole supervision of the man who took and kept her captive for 18 years.

In 1976 Phillip Garrido was charged with the kidnapping, rape and sodomy of a 25 year old South Lake Tahoe woman at a mini storage unit that was then located in the 3000 block of Mill Street.

He received a 5 to life sentence in Nevada, 50 years on federal charges.

He asked to serve his sentence in federal prison where he said more psychiatric help would be available and it wasn't long before he began using that help.

As El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson noted yesterday within a year he'd asked for a reduced sentence and was getting glowing evaluations from a prison psychologist.

"His prognois for successful transitionn to the community is considered very good," Pierson quoted thepsychologist. "The likelihood of further extra legal behaviors is seen as minimal."

The feds released him to Nevada after 11 years of that 50 year sentence.

It wasn't long before he was actually teaching a course telling other inmates how to successfully make it on the outside and, after a few months, he received another encouraging evaluation from Nevada prison psychologists.

"Garrido is an above average inmate who is likely to benefit society (i.e. raise a family, work and not return to criminal behavio)," the report read.

He was released on parole to California. A few years later he would kidnap Jaycee Dugard in South Lake Tahoe and, though he had a history of sexual assault there, he never surfaced as a potential suspect in her disappearance.

Mike Malloy was the Washoe County Deputy District Attorney who had the 1976 rape case. Two years ago after Garrido was arrested, Malloy said he never understood why he was released in the first place.

"That's the kind of person you don't let out."

That poses a scary question to people like Fred Escobar, who traveled to Sacramento from southern California to speak for his daughter murdered just three months ago, by a parolee with a violent past.

"It's bad enough to lose a child," he said, "but this is a comedy of errors. How many more are out there who will murder and rape."

That's a good question and, unless Phillip Garrido was the exception, uniquely able to game what many say is a flawed system, the answer ought to concern all of us.