Free Republic

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – More than 250 state prison inmates freed without supervised parole under a new California law were convicted of crimes considered violent or threatening, according to prison records obtained as part of an inquiry by state lawmakers. A handful are sex offenders. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state corrections officials said the law, passed last year, was designed to improve public safety by concentrating parole supervision on the most dangerous felons. Allowing those convicted of lesser offenses to go unsupervised after their release would mean fewer people being sent back to prison for parole violations, reducing the inmate population...

Hinckley allowed unsupervised visits 1 hour, 19 minutes ago By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan in a failed assassination attempt more than two decades ago, will be allowed to leave the mental hospital grounds for a series of unsupervised visits with his parents, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Over the objections of the federal government, the Reagan family and the former president's press secretary who was badly wounded in the 1981 attack, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman concluded that Hinckley, 48, no longer posed a danger and that all the medical evidence weighed...