More than one in three of violent career cons turned loose in 2010 — freed by the same disgraced Parole Board that sprang a lifer who killed a Woburn cop a year ago today — have violated their parole terms, according to shocking statistics that suggest it could be a matter of when and not if tragedy strikes again.
A Herald review found parolee violence, drug use and drunken driving that stunned families of murder victims, who say a 37 percent violation rate — 17 of 42 freed lifers rearrested — leaves them worried about hundreds of other murderers and rapists still free today. Even after two Dec. 26 murders by parolees in the last two years, a new, tougher Parole Board already is processing 11 lifers for release, under new measures officials hope will prevent further violence.
“Ring the alarm bell, please,” said David Flood of Ipswich, a member of Parents of Murdered Children, whose brother was murdered in 1979. “Get the message out there that these people are slipping through the net as we speak.”
Of a total of 336 lifers currently on parole, 25 are wanted, the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety said. Details of violations behind those warrants were not immediately available.
The rearrested 2010 parolees include Robert Cantell, who was convicted of kidnapping and raping a nurse at knifepoint. He was locked up after his parole officer caught him with a knife and pornography in February, records show.
Another 2010 parolee was charged with assault and battery after a fight with his girlfriend. Others have been picked up for crimes such as drunken driving. One parolee, convicted of murdering his live-in girlfriend, is back behind bars and awaiting a revocation hearing decision after his wife alleged he was having an affair, raising his parole officer’s fears for the wife’s safety, records show.
Parole came to an abrupt halt Dec. 26, 2010, the day ex-con Dominic Cinelli killed Woburn police officer John “Jack” Maguire, prompting Gov. Deval Patrick to oust five Parole Board members and name Josh Wall, a former prosecutor, as chairman. Maguire died exactly a year after the 2009 murder of store clerk Surendra Dangol by paroled killer Edward Corliss, which failed to raise the same kind of alarm.
No lifers have been freed yet under Wall. But the new board heard pleas from 104 lifers this year and voted to parole 11, who face a year or more in transition programs before they’re freed.
Wall points to measures he hopes will make parole a safer bet. Hearings that once took an hour now take three, with more information demanded. Board members now put their names on their votes. They have attended 25 training sessions on everything from psychology to drug abuse and the law. Supervision of parole officers has increased. Wall personally conducts an annual review of every paroled lifer.
“There’s never been a particular goal to crack down,” he said. “The goal was ... let’s just do it right.”
Wall said he can’t help worrying about the potential for another murder.
“It’s my job to worry, and so I do worry,” Wall said. “But it’s also my job to reduce that possibility.
“Our focus is on evaluating inmates to make sure they work their way out of prison through meaningful programs,” he said. “We’re on the lookout for the inmate who thinks he can talk his way out. A lot of people who looked at the Cinelli case were concerned Cinelli had talked his way out.”
Wall said most parolees who fail fall down before they hurt somebody, by failing alcohol tests, lying to parole officers or skipping work. Of 2010’s 17 violators, Wall said, “That rate of revocation is something we’re trying to address ... we’re trying to be more careful, more methodical about who we’re releasing.”
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