Attorney Training Overview Guidelines
Life Parole Consideration Hearings
Mentally Disordered Offender Hearings
Sexually Violent Predator Hearings
Authority, rules, and case law that govern BPT:
The BPT is California’s
adult parole authority. The
BPT conducts parole consideration and parole revocation hearings,
establishes terms and conditions of parole in California, conducts
Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) and Mentally Disordered Offender (MDO)
hearings, has the authority to review prisoner’s request for
reconsideration of denial of good-time credits, set parole length, and
process foreign prisoner transfer requests.
Rules that govern the BPT
include sections of the California Penal Code.
Those sections of the Penal Code describing the elements of crimes
are used to determine if good cause exists in parole revocation and
revocation extension hearings. Sections
2962-2970 provide authority for treatment as a condition of parole for
MDOs. Sections 3000-3004
define the BPT’s authority regarding release and periods of parole. And Sections 3040-3067, and 5075-5082 provide direction
regarding the general authority of BPT.
Other State statutes
include the Welfare and Institutions Code (W&I) Sections 6600-6609
dealing with SVPs and Health and Safety Code Sections dealing with
controlled substances.
Other Federal, State, and
local laws describing elements of crimes for law violations are also used
by BPT as well as administrative regulations found in Title 15 of the
California Code of Regulations, Division 2.
There is also precedent setting case law which governs the BPT. For example, Morissey v. Brewer, which defines the minimum due process requirements for parole revocation hearings. In Gagnon v. Scarpelli, the Supreme Court provided guidelines to follow in order to determine if attorney representation would be necessary to protect the due process rights of parolees and probationers. In People v. Lent and later in People v. Knox, the court spelled out the requirement of a “nexus” between conditions of parole and known criminal behavior. In United States v. Comito, the Supreme Court provided guidelines for the use of hearsay testimony in parole and probation proceedings. The Supreme Court case dealing with SVPs is called , Kansas v. Hendricks. And there is a more recent case dealing with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) called Armstrong v. Davis.