2016-IPG#24 (NEW CASES ON PRCS & PAROLE VIOLATIONS)

This edition of IPG covers relatively recent cases that prosecutors handling postrelease community supervision (PRCS) and parole revocations should know about. Among the issues raised by the cases discussed: (i) can a judge terminate a defendant’s parole under his or her power to dismiss pursuant to Penal Code section 1385 when defendant has been sentenced to state prison in a different case? (Vonwahlde 2016 WL 5800026); (ii) can a judge impose additional time (even beyond the 364-day maximum sentence for misdemeanors) on a defendant for violating the one-year parole period imposed on him after his felony was reduced to a misdemeanor under Prop 47? (Hronchak (2016) 2 Cal.App.5th 884); (iii) are PRCS revocation hearings subject to the same rules governing parole revocation hearings? and, if not, do the procedures comport with due process? (Byron (2016) 246 Cal.App.4th 1009 and Gutierrez (2016) 245 Cal.App.4th 393); and (iv) is a defendant who has completed one year of PRCS without violating conditions of his supervision no longer subject to a search condition imposed pursuant to the statute governing PRCS? (Young (2016) 247 Cal.App.4th 972).