Youth Offender Parole Hearing - How do I get one?

The has been many different youth offender laws in the last 4-5 years, it is hard to keep track of them. Our law office continues to get phone calls about HOW do they bring their loved one to the Parole Board (for the Youth offender hearing) once they received their CDC-128 chrono with the YPED (Youth Parole Eligible Date) date. Sometime the date is in the past and sometime in the future.

As of January 1, 2018, Youth Offenders were augmented to include the Youth Offender that were under the age of 26 years old, on the day of the crime, NOT the conviction day. If you think your loved one is a Youth Offender and need an experienced attorney please contact ATTORNEY DIANE LETARTE @  619-233-3688 or via her Website. 

GETTING THE YOUTH OFFENDER HEARING: There is not action needed on the part of the inmate to be scheduled for his youth offender parole hearing, CDCR and BPH working together will schedule him/her at the appropriate time, UNLESS there is an obvious error in the date calculation.

If the Inmate feels his Sentence, MEPD, YPED or anything is incorrect (has an error), he has the options of submitting Appeals (CDCR 602’s) or Form 22’s – to Records and CDCR will answer any questions he may have about his term or MEPD. It is also noted that upon requesting a “Haygood Hearing”  - Haygood vs. Younger in his appeal, he will have a Supervisor come out and interview him to explain all issues of his appeal.

Be mindful that those YPED dates are NOT release date, the dates are a point in time when the inmate will be eligible to attend a Parole Suitability Hearing for a chance to be released to the free community. In looking at the logistics of scheduling 1000's of parole hearing the Board of Parole Hearings was given a certain time frame by the Youthful offender Laws. It is time consuming to schedule throughout the 35 State Prison, be patient, the inmate will get a NOTICE several months ahead of the Youth Offender Parole Hearing.

 In order to assist with this maze of dates see the EXCERPT from the BPH website below.  BPH YOUTH OFFENDER WEBSITE

 

Timing of a Youth Offender Hearing

Youth offenders sentenced to a fixed, determinate term are eligible for a parole hearing during their 15th year of incarceration unless previously released. Youth offenders sentenced to life with the possibility of parole (also called an indeterminate term) and who received a life term of less than 25 years-to-life are eligible for a parole hearing during their 20th year of incarceration unless previously released or entitled to an earlier hearing. Indeterminately sentenced inmates who received a life term of 25 years-to-life or longer are eligible for a parole hearing during the 25th year of incarceration unless previously released or entitled to an earlier hearing. And inmates who were under the age of 18 when they committed their controlling offense and who were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole are eligible for a parole hearing during the 25th year of incarceration.

Youth offenders who became eligible for a youth offender hearing when the youth offender laws were enacted may not have a hearing until the end of 2019 or 2021, depending on their original sentence. Specifically, the board is required, by January 1, 2020, to complete all youth offender parole hearings for inmates sentenced to life with possibility of parole who became eligible for a youth offender hearing on January 1, 2018 (when Assembly Bill 1308 went into effect). And the board must complete, by December 31, 2021, all youth offender parole hearings for inmates sentenced to fixed or determinate sentences who became eligible for a youth offender hearing on January 1, 2016 (when Senate Bill 261 went into effect) or on January 1, 2018 (when Assembly Bill 1308 went into effect).

Editor's NOTE-- (DSL) Determinately sentenced inmates who are scheduled to be released before December 31, 2021, will not receive a youth offender hearing, because they will automatically be released based on their determinate sentence. BPH does not have the resource to provide a parole hearing for those inmates that will be released no matter what, within 2 years or so.

Youth offenders sentenced to life without the possibility of parole who were under the age of 18 when they committed their controlling offense, and who became eligible for a youth offender hearing before July 1, 2020 as a result of Senate Bill 394, will receive a parole hearing by July 1, 2020.

Factors considered at a Youth Offender Parole Hearing (YOPH)

The board is required at youth offender hearings to give great weight to factors specific to youth offenders. For example, the board is required to give great weight to the diminished culpability of juveniles as compared to adults, the hallmark features of youth, and any subsequent growth and increased maturity of the inmate. Moreover, if the hearing panel relies on a risk assessment in assessing a youth offender's growth and maturity, the risk assessment must also take into consideration these factors.

Editor's NOTE -- BPH is working on releasing the OVERDUE new Youth Offender Regulations, which will be under Title 15 Ca. Code of Regulations 2440-2446  (15 CCR 2440-2446). The regulations enumerate approximately 20 youthful factors to look for when showing Growth and Maturity, among other factors. These should be published very shortly and will start being used by the Commissioners at the Youth Offender Parole Hearings. We hope these factors will helps in defing the "great weight" factors that juveniles are suppose to be given at their YOPH.

This is in addition to the suitability factors the Board must consider at regular, non-youth offender parole hearings, defined under 15 CCR 2402 - Determination of Suitability.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2018 to the VSP - Day of Hope group

WISHING YOU ALL A GREAT 2018

****HAPPY HOLIDAYS*****

 FROM  THE LAW OFFICE OF DIANE T. LETARTE

========================================

                                          A BIG THANK YOU
                       for a warm welcome we received at 
                         VALLEY STATE PRISON (VSP) 
                      as the Attorney Guest Speaker for the 

                   1st Annual (2018) Day of Hope (Youth Offender)  
                         [Attorney Letarte bottom row, near center] 



*Photo at the gym location, inside VSP

In re PALMER, No. A147177 / S252145 - Petition for Review Filed 10/23/18

 In re PALMER  [25 Cal App5th 120], No. A147177 / S252145 *** Status UPDATE ***

As a quick reminder on the In re Palmer  - it is a great Youth Offender Parole Hearing case Published September 13, 2018. Shortly after the decision came out -- it was sent up to the CA Supreme with the Filing of a Petition for Review (by opposing counsel (aka BPH)) on October 23, 2018. No Surprise here!

SUMMARY:   (see my prior BLOG post)
In re Palmer was  published in September 2018 by the First District Court of Appeal on what it means to give “great weight” to the youth offender factors at a youth offender parole hearing, and finding that the Board’s lip service to the youth offender factors in this case was insufficient. 

The Court held that “to give ‘great weight’ to the youth offender factors as required under section 4801, subdivision (c), the Board must accept those factors as indicating suitability for release on parole absent substantial evidence of countervailing considerations indicating unsuitability.”  It also holds that the Board is “required to satisfactorily explain why a youth offender is not entitled to a finding of suitability for release despite the presence of the statutory youth offender factors to which the Board is required to give ‘great weight.’”  

 

One of the interesting comments by Judge Kline in Palmer was the reference to the proposed Title 15 Ca. Code of Regs (CCR) 2440-2446 - which are still "in the making" by BPH for the Youth Offender Parole Hearings. The Youth Offender Regs are way overdue, in my opinion and many others. As you will notice below that comment [on proposed regs] did not go unnoticed by the Supreme Court. See the partial docket below of 11/26/18 on the Extension of time granted to December 7, 2018. This will give BPH a push to give priority to the new proposed youth offender Regs, which have been in the making for 4 years or so.

A second Note is the attempt [by BPH]  to "depublish" this great Youth Offender case. As you can see several agencies have pitched in to OPPOSE the depublication of the case.

Let's hope for the best on several fronts of this case... It appears there is more action to come in December stay tune... or  go to http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/  using the search of In Re Palmer under the Supreme Court case #S252145

PROCEDURAL UPDATE of the case: 

 

 10/23/18       Petition for Review filed by BPH

 

 11/13/2018     Answer to petition for review filed by Petitioner  

11/13/2018     Request for depublication (petition for review pending)    

11/21/2018     Application for 14-day extension of time filed by  Petitioner

11/21/2018     Opposition to depublication request filed Pacific Juvenile Def. Ctr 

===============================================================
11/26/2018     Extension of time granted The application for an extension of time is

granted to December 7, 2018. No further extensions of time are contemplated. In the reply to the answer to the petition for review, please also apprise the court of the following. 

 

1. What was the outcome of the December 6, 2018 parole suitability hearing for inmate Palmer? 

 

2. Was the December 6, 2018 hearing a regularly scheduled parole hearing, or an advanced hearing pursuant to Penal Code section 3041.5, subdivisions (b)(4) or (d)(1)? 

 

3. What formal action was taken, if any, at the Board of Parole Hearings' November 2018 Executive Board Meeting regarding proposed regulations for Parole Consideration Hearings for Youth Offenders (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 15, proposed §§ 2440-2446?)

==============================================================
11/26/2018     Opposition to depublication request filed Dr. Kristen Bell Rstr. Justice

11/26/2018     Opposition to depublication request filed  by  Petitioner  

 

         ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

In contacting BPH regarding Cal. Code Regs., tit. 15, proposed §§ 2440-2446 STATUS this was their comment:

 

"We [BPH] are in the final stages of updating these regulations so that they are in compliance with AB 1308 and SB 394, which both took effect on January 1, 2018.  We initially anticipated voting on and filing these regulations earlier this year, however, Senate Bill 1242 (Reg. Sess. 2017-2018) was introduced this year and, in its earlier drafts, it was making additional amendments to the youth offender statutes. Thus, we were forced to again delay the regulations pending the outcome of that bill.  However, the bill was ultimately amended and those changes were removed.  Therefore, we are now in the last stages of finalizing these regulations for presentation to the commissioners"

 

 

 

 

STAY TUNE FOR In re PALMER updates in Dec 2018 and onto early 2019 - let's hope for the best outcome to assist all the YOUTH OFFENDERs which will have their Parole hearing coming up in 2019....