Parole Board

As early as 1975, Pennsylvania prison officials regarded Robert "Mudman" Simon as a dangerous, amoral criminal unlikely to ever change. Even then, Simon had a love of guns, an arrest record dating back to age 8, and a steadfast devotion to the Warlocks motorcycle gang. "He sees his present lifestyle as an adventure, and his crimes are viewed as personal challenges," a corrections counselor wrote after Simon reentered prison in 1975. "His only regrets are that he was caught, and he has no concern or feeling for his victims.

IN YOUR June 15 editorial ("Serious Parole Violations, Disturbing Trends in New Parole Board Report") and the one on June 17, ("Safety Money"), you refer to the tragedy of the three children and a mother killed by an individual fleeing police. No matter whether these individuals were involved in the juvenile or criminal-justice system, it's a horrible nightmare for the victims, family and community. However, you concluded from this story that it affirms the auditor general's report released last week.

An inequitable and inefficient parole system is largely to blame for overcrowding in Pennsylvania's state prisons, leaders of state House and Senate Judiciary committees said yesterday. The lawmakers' solution: Abolish the state Board of Probation and Parole. At a news conference in Harrisburg, the committee members announced plans to introduce legislation soon after Jan. 1 that would place the Department of Corrections in charge of parole supervision and eliminate much of the guesswork over when an inmate's sentence would end. Instead of the current practice, in which the parole board evaluates an inmate's fitness to be freed before release, inmates would be let go automatically upon a date set by the trial judge.

An HBO film crew was in Dr. Brian Raditz's Huntingdon Valley home to capture the happy moment when he received the call that would confirm long-incarcerated former junior middleweight contender Tony Ayala Jr. finally was granted his freedom by the New Jersey State Parole Board. The call came at 1:29 p.m. yesterday, but the pained expression on Raditz's face did not indicate a celebration was in order. "I've been maxed out," Ayala told Raditz, the onetime prison psychologist who now serves as the inmate/fighter's manager-adviser.

Carbon County Judge John Lavelle says he has never met so dangerous a criminal as Robert "Mudman" Simon. In 1982, Lavelle sentenced Simon to the maximum of 10 to 20 years for the murder of a Drexel Hill woman. Ten years later, when Simon became eligible for parole, Lavelle sent a letter strongly warning state officials not to let him out. "I consider him one of the most dangerous individuals who ever appeared before me," Lavelle wrote in the May 7, 1992 letter. "This man has no respect for human life and I believe that it would be only a matter of time before he would kill again.

A federal appeals court yesterday gave Pennsylvania's parole board 45 days to decide the case of Louis Mickens-Thomas, the West Philadelphia man whose life murder sentence was commuted by Gov. Robert P. Casey in 1995 - and rebuffed ever since by parole officials. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously affirmed a federal judge's ruling last year. The judge decided that the parole board's use of stricter 1996 rules in the cases of Mickens-Thomas and other inmates was unconstitutional retroactive punishment.

Legislation that would overhaul the state Board of Probation and Parole as well as make changes to Pennsylvania's recently enacted gun law will highlight a brief pre-Thanksgiving session of the General Assembly. The House is expected to vote today on a bill that would expand the parole board from five to nine members and make it more difficult for violent offenders to be paroled. The bill was written in response to a number of cases, in particular that of Robert "Mudman" Simon, a Pennsylvania parolee who is accused of murdering a New Jersey police officer.

Gov. Ridge removed Allen Castor Jr. as chairman of the Board of Probation and Parole yesterday and - bolstered by an inspector general's critical report on the agency - said further changes were forthcoming. Nicholas P. Muller, the former chief federal probation officer in Western Pennsylvania, will replace Castor. Ridge, speaking at a news conference, called Muller a "no-nonsense parole professional. " Of Castor, who began as a parole officer 23 years ago and was named chairman in 1993, the governor said: "His management style and approach does not reflect what I believe is necessary.

Thomas Trantino, New Jersey's longest-serving prison inmate, will be a free man once again today. The state parole board announced yesterday that it would lift a warrant filed against Trantino when he was arrested last year on charges of beating his girlfriend. A jury acquitted Trantino last week on six charges and deadlocked on a seventh charge. Prosecutors said they would not retry him on the remaining count, leaving his fate in the hands of the parole board. The board could have found that Trantino violated his lifetime parole even though he was acquitted of beating his girlfriend because the standard of proof for a parole violation is less than at a criminal trial.

Just one week after he was booted from his job as boss of the state parole board, Alan Castor is such an unwanted man he can't even get into prison. Castor, who lost his job over the mess surrounding the prison release of accused cop-killer Robert "Mudman" Simon, had scheduled a press conference for this morning at Graterford Prison to explain his side of the fiasco. But the session was canceled yesterday when the man in charge of state prisons said Castor couldn't use Graterford as his pulpit.

CORCORAN, Calif. - A California prison panel denied parole Wednesday to mass murderer Charles Manson in his 12th and possibly final bid for freedom. Manson, now a gray-bearded, 77-year-old, did not attend the hearing where the parole board ruled he had shown no efforts to rehabilitate himself and would not be eligible for parole for 15 more years. "This panel can find nothing good as far as suitability factors go," said John Peck, a member of the panel that met at Corcoran State Prison in central California.

Last Thursday, 75-year-old inmate BB8134 - William Barnes - was in cell B177, one of 500 men housed in one of four blocks at the sprawling state prison at Graterford in Montgomery County. Monday afternoon, Barnes was 36 stories above Center City, with a vista that included the skyline and the Schuylkill, meandering its way through the distant suburbs. He was paroled Friday, almost two years after a Philadelphia jury acquitted him of murder in the death of city police Officer Walter T. Barclay, whom he shot and wounded in 1966.

Last Thursday, 75-year-old inmate BB8134 - William Barnes - was in cell B177, one of 500 men housed in one of four blocks at the sprawling state prison at Graterford in Montgomery County. Monday afternoon, Barnes was 36 stories above Center City, with a vista that included the skyline and the Schuylkill, meandering its way through the distant suburbs. He was paroled Friday, almost two years after a Philadelphia jury acquitted him of murder in the death of city police Officer Walter T. Barclay, whom he shot and wounded in 1966.

William Barnes, acquitted nearly two years ago of charges that he murdered a Philadelphia police officer, was released from prison Friday. Barnes, 75, has been behind bars since the August 2007 death of Officer Walter Barclay. Barnes shot and paralyzed the officer 41 years earlier during a botched burglary. Barnes served 16 years for the shooting but was rearrested and charged with murder after the officer died. Although a jury acquitted Barnes in May 2010, he remained at Graterford Prison and was repeatedly denied parole.

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett's proposal for the biggest reduction in the prison population in Pennsylvania history is getting a cool reception from state prison guards. Corrections officials say reducing the population by more than 2,500 inmates could be accomplished through increased efficiency in the parole process. Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel said it can take up to 100 days for paroled inmates to be released. But Roy Pinto, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, said the projected reductions weren't going to happen.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A California man once known as the nation's worst serial killer was again denied parole Monday after he admitted his guilt for the first time before the parole board. Juan Corona said he murdered and mutilated 25 farmworkers four decades ago because they were trespassing in the orchards north of Sacramento, said Sutter County Assistant District Attorney Jana McClung. Parole officials decided that Corona could try again in five years, McClung said after the two-hour hearing.

Linda Ann Weston's brutality knew no bounds. Over three decades, she starved a man to death, terrorized her siblings, beat her children, and stole money from the disabled, police and her own family say. The details of her reign of terror are still emerging, but this much is clear: The children, men, and women under her control were victims of catastrophic failings of multiple agencies designed to protect the most vulnerable. From police departments to child protective services, the parole board to the Social Security Administration, Weston eluded - and sometimes exploited - each one. "How did she manage to get away with it?"

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A woman who killed her newlywed husband and chopped and cooked his body parts over Thanksgiving weekend in 1991 is seeking release from a California prison. Omaima Nelson, an Egyptian-born former nanny, was set to appear before parole commissioners today at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla where she has been serving a life sentence. Nelson was convicted of murdering her husband,,William Nelson, 56, in a grisly killing that authorities likened to the fictional slayings of Hannibal Lecter.

Jacob Wideman, son of author John Edgar Wideman, was denied parole in Arizona on Tuesday for killing a fellow camper when they were 16 in 1986. The decision by a five-member parole board was unanimous. Wideman, whose family's roots are in Pittsburgh, killed Eric Kane and was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years. Tuesday was his first chance for parole. His bid was supported by his parents and opposed by Kane's family. The board said Wideman had not sufficiently demonstrated that he had dealt with the problems of his youth to the point where he would no longer be a threat to society.

Jacob Wideman has paid a heavy price for the unprovoked killing of Eric Kane when they were both teenagers - a life sentence, starting at age 16, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Now those 25 years are almost up, and the question is whether Wideman - the son of a celebrated novelist - has paid enough and deserves a second chance. His victim's parents, Sanford and Louise Kane, are emphatic that he does not. Their only comfort since their son's murder was knowing that his confessed killer was in prison.