(The Center Square) – A new law taking effect in 2027 will cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually to keep convicted sex offenders incarcerated longer.
The law is Assembly Bill 2727, which was introduced in the California Legislature this year after two convicted sex offenders over age 50 – but younger than 65 – became eligible for the state’s elderly parole. Under state law earlier this year, California inmates were eligible for elderly parole if they reached age 55 and had served at least 20 years of their sentence, or if they reached age 65 and had served at least 25 years of their sentence.
Under the new law, inmates have to be at least 65 years old and have served at least 25 years of their sentence, making those in their 50s ineligible for elderly parole.
The earlier law was passed after overcrowding in California’s state prisons prompted lawmakers to find ways to let nonviolent offenders out of prison, according to the original 2017 bill that established the elderly parole program.
“Protecting our children and our communities has been at the heart of this bill from day one,” said Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, the author of AB 2727.
“When someone has been convicted of some of the most serious sexual offenses, especially crimes against children, we have a responsibility to make sure every safeguard is in place before they are released back into our communities,” Nguyen said in a press release sent to The Center Square.
Nguyen did not respond to The Center Square’s request for further comment.
According to the bill analysis for AB 2727, California’s taxpayers pay $138,000 annually to incarcerate convicted prisoners in California’s prison system. Every year an older individual is incarcerated costs an additional $138,000, ultimately costing millions of dollars more to keep sexual offenders in prison for longer.
Taxpayers would pay roughly $4.13 million each year to the Department of State Hospitals to expand screenings for inmates who are being evaluated as sexually violent predators, and an additional $10.23 million to $20.46 million for treatment for those individuals, according to fiscal comments included in the legislative analysis of the bill.
Additional costs to taxpayers is one of the main concerns Prison Policy Initiative, which opposed the bill, has about implementation of this law.
“This law expands the resource expenditure that California is burdened with in order to release certain people from its state prisons,” Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for Policy Prison Initiative, told The Center Square on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, two convicted child molesters – David Allen Funston, 64, and Gregory Vogelsang, 57 – were eligible for elderly parole. Funston was granted elderly parole and was immediately re-arrested by Placer County authorities upon his release on new charges from another child sex abuse case from the 1990s. He pleaded not guilty in that new case. Funston is in county jail in Placer County, according to county records.
Vogelsang was considered for elderly parole by the California Board of Parole Hearings and was ultimately not granted elderly parole, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. He is incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Sacramento County, according to the California Incarcerated Records and Prison Search database.
During a March press conference in which lawmakers called attention to Vogelsang’s potential release, Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez, R-Indio, told reporters that public safety considerations were more important than the cost of keeping sex offenders in prison for longer.
“I don’t give a damn about the rising costs,” Gonzalez said. “I give a damn about these victims. When we say ‘What about the rising costs?’ that is so disconnected from the pain that we are feeling. That is so disconnected from the problem that we have. The rising costs are not a factor here.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment before publication time. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as well as Democratic and Republican lawmakers on public safety committees in the Legislature, also did not respond to The Center Square.
