SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A state senator said Wednesday he
wants to change California law so prisoners like the sex offender
who was paroled before taking Jaycee Dugard captive for 18 years
would have a tougher time getting out of prison.

The proposal by Sen. Ted Gaines aims to undo a 2008 California
Supreme ruling that requires the parole board to consider more than
the original crime when deciding whether a prisoner is released.

Gaines and El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said
the board currently pays too much attention to mental health
evaluations, and inmates like Phillip Garrido can fool
psychiatrists.

Garrido was on parole after serving time for rape when he
kidnapped Dugard in 1991.

"Release is the rule rather than the exception" under the
state Supreme Court ruling, Pierson said at a public hearing at the
state Capitol. "The burden has shifted."

Gaines, a Republican who represents the South Lake Tahoe area
where Dugard was abducted, said the board has granted parole to
more than 1,300 prisoners serving life terms since the high court
ruling. That amounts to 42 percent of all paroles granted to
life-term inmates since 1978.

Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Dugard while she
was locked in a backyard compound at his home in the Northern
California city of Antioch.

The judge, however, made sure he won't be paroled again by
sentencing Garrido in June to 431 years to life in prison. His
wife, Nancy Garrido, was sentenced to 36 years to life after
acknowledging she aided the crime.

Harriet Salarno, chairwoman of Crime Victims United of
California, believes that under the current rules, even Garrido
could be deemed unlikely to commit new crimes if he ever did come
up for parole. As recently as June, El Dorado County probation
officers had determined he was a low-to-moderate risk as a future
sexual predator.

"This (court ruling) should be overturned. Phillip Garrido is a
perfect example of this," Salarno said at the hearing. Her
organization receives much of its funding from the union that
represents state prison guards.

Pierson recommended the legal change in a report released
Tuesday that had additional revelations about law enforcement
failures to monitor Garrido.

Gaines plans to introduce his bill this month and is seeking
bipartisan support to pass a bill before the Legislature adjourns
next month.

Gaines said the parole board should be given more discretion to
deny paroles based on convicts' original crimes, especially sexual
predators who may be more likely to commit new crimes if released.

"The parole board doesn't have the flexibility to be able to
err on the side of caution," Gaines said in an interview.

He also said the legal change he is seeking would not overload
prisons because there are relatively few inmates serving life terms
who are eligible for parole.

"If we're holding back maybe 100 or 200 a year to err on the
side of caution, that's keeping our society safer and thereby
saving probably tens of millions of dollars in court cases that
could occur as a result of more crime committed on the streets,"
Gaines said.

He said funding for keeping the additional inmates behind bars
should come from a recent increase in projected state revenues.

Phillip Ung, a policy advocate for the California Coalition
Against Sexual Assault, said the organization representing rape
crisis centers has not taken a position on overturning the state
Supreme Court ruling.

But he said state lawmakers should concentrate instead on
enacting stalled recommendations from the California Sex Offender
Management Board, an expert panel created by the Legislature to
advise lawmakers on corralling sexual predators.