California’s elderly parole program faces scrutiny after the Board of Parole Hearings granted parole to child molester David Allen Funston.
SACRAMENTO, Calif — California’s elderly parole hearing process has been thrust into the spotlight after convicted child molester David Allen Funston was granted parole, who has since been arrested on new charges in Placer County.
Funston was sentenced in 1999 for sexually abusing and kidnapping multiple children. He was serving three consecutive life sentences. However, under the elderly parole program, Funston, 64, was granted parole after serving nearly 27 years.
The decision was made by a panel of the Board of Parole Hearings in September of last year. Governor Newsom asked the full board to re-review the commission’s decision, which they upheld in January.
This led to public outcry from local law enforcement officials and state lawmakers, who decried the elderly parole program for allowing Funston to be granted parole.
“A judge in Sacramento described him… as the monster parents fear most, yet today the parole board decided he is suitable for release,” Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said during a press conference.
Despite criticism of the potential early release granted to people convicted of serious crimes, some criminal justice advocates say the program is working.
“It’s really dangerous when we allow those emotions to drive legislation. And, what’s really interesting, I think it’s something that’s been lost, I think in this conversation,” said Keith Wattley, founder/executive director of UnCommon Law, a criminal justice-focused nonprofit that provides legal assistance for people serving long sentences in prison. “Or at least I haven’t seen it. Is that the irony is that the elderly parole program is itself a response to the way in which this type of rhetoric and public outcry drove up our prison population through the 80s and 90s.”
In 2011, the Supreme Court ordered California to address its overcrowded prisons that were leading to inmates receiving insufficient medical care, violating Eighth Amendment rights, which ban cruel and unusual punishment.
The elderly parole program was established to help lower the prison population by allowing people 60 years or older, who served at least 25 consecutive years in prison, to be eligible for parole, unless they were sentenced to death or without the possibility of parole.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data from fiscal year 2019-2020, the latest recidivism data available, shows the three-year recidivism rate for people released through elderly parole was 1.8%, with four people reoffending of the 221 released.
According to CDCR, the three-year conviction rate for the 34,215 individuals released in 2019-20 is 39.1%.
“They have, by far, among the lowest recidivism rates. That’s just true. It’s been true for a very long time, and it’s in the folks who have been granted. Released through the elderly parole consideration process. Again, the recidivism rates remain low. And that includes people who have a history of sex offenses who’ve been released on this program.” Wattley said.
In 2021, a state law, supported by UnCommon Law, lowered the eligibility age to 50 and the years served requirement to 20. Other exceptions are for people for a second or third strike offense or for murdering a peace officer.
According to the CDCR, in 2024, the Board scheduled 3,580 hearings for persons eligible for elderly parole; 1,878 hearings were held, with 606 people being granted parole.
Following the lowering of eligibility age, there have been multiple efforts from state lawmakers to add sexually violent offenses, like the ones Funston was convicted of, as exemptions for elderly parole. However, each attempt has failed in the legislature.
State Senator Roger Niello is leading the latest attempt. He introduced the legislation after the parole board granted Funston parole in February.
“By granting Funston release, his victims, who were children at the time of the heinous offenses, must now relive their worst nightmare,” Niello posted on X.
Wattley disagrees with the proposals, as he says problems to address the issue of sexual offenses should be investing in crime prevention programs and evidence-based.
“The only reason to exempt them from the program is because of emotion,” Wattley said. “It’s not facts. It’s not the data about the risks that people who’ve committed sexually violent offenses pose if they’re released.”
What goes into an elderly parole hearing?
According to the CDCR, parole hearings are held to determine whether an inmate poses a risk to the public if released from prison. The panel has to consider “all relevant, reliable information” that is available in determining the inmate’s suitability for parole.
For elderly parole, the panel must give special consideration to the inmate’s age, long-term confinement and, if any, their diminished physical capacity.
Inmates also undergo a psychological evaluation to assess the potential for future harm if released.
“The number of hurdles that someone has to overcome to get to that point really shows that the consideration of this person staying in prison has nothing to do with public safety at that point,” Wattley said. “If you’re opposed to someone being released, it’s because you want more retribution, you want more punishment. It’s not because you are being guided by an evidence-based decision about rehabilitation and actual risk to public safety.”
Hours before he was expected to be released from custody in Sacramento, Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire charged Funston on one count of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. According to court records, the alleged crime happened in 1996 and involved a victim prosecutors say was younger than 10.
“The statute of limitations allows us to prosecute. There will be some legal hurdles, and there will be some litigation, I can assure you, but at the end of the day, is prosecuting this case the right thing to do to hold him accountable? The answer to that question is yes,” Gire said. “We always encourage victims to report whenever it is safe.”
Funston made his first court appearance on Monday for the new charges, where the arraignment and bail review were continued. He will remain in jail without bail.
“Whether or not we decide to prosecute them for something they could have been prosecuted for decades ago is a totally separate question. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going bring the kind of healing that the victims and survivors are looking for,” Wattley said.
WATCH MORE: Sacramento highway shooting investigation spans multiple locations
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read