Tuesday, 28 July 2026, 6:27
Gov. Gavin Newsom faces serious accusations from California parole agents who claim his administration ordered them to overlook parole violations to project lower crime rates. The allegations, detailed in an exclusive interview with The Voice SF, suggest that dangerous repeat offenders—including child molesters and murderers—remain on the streets due to policy changes enacted during the pandemic.
In April 2020, following Newsom’s State of Emergency proclamation, parole agents received a memo instructing them to avoid sending parolees to jail or prison unless there was “an imminent threat to public safety.” The memo also banned routine inspections of living quarters and drug testing. Retired Parole Agent Ches Hunter Fry told The Voice that supervisors routinely told agents not to re-arrest even the most violent parolees, leading to additional crimes such as child molestation, rape, kidnapping, and murder that could have been prevented. During the pandemic, California’s prison system used the potential spread of coronavirus to justify the early release of over 25,000 inmates and parolees.
“Since we are told by supervisors to ignore violations, that means a lot of really bad people are out there. California residents have no idea how violent and evil some of these guys are.” — Veteran San Francisco Parole Agent
In an Aug. 19, 2025, email obtained by The Voice, DAPO District Administrator Shawn Wilson directs all DAPO supervisors to “prioritize parolee voter registration,” which agents say interferes with public safety duties. “This is about Newsom’s aspirations to be president,” one longtime agent said. “He wants parolees left alone and registered to vote. It also allows him to say ‘crime is down’ which isn’t true. Parolees are committing crimes, but they’re not being ‘violated’ — which means we would add those violations and bring remand them to custody because that’s what our supervisors are telling us to do. So, we’re ignoring crimes, many of them violent.”
San Francisco parole agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they are forced to ignore crimes committed by parolees under their supervision. This has created a public safety crisis in the Bay Area, where residents unknowingly live alongside violent offenders who cannot be returned to custody. One agent noted that even parolees sentenced to life in prison can never go back because the system prevents agents from documenting violations.
Retired Parole Agent Ches Fry also highlighted the role of San Francisco’s sanctuary city law in compounding the problem. “I had a parolee, a Mexican National with a fake green card, who sexually assaulted a woman in the middle of the street in broad daylight. I couldn’t get him deported. He ‘completed his parole successfully’ but I arrested him several times. I also had grandparents who molested their grandkids. I was told ‘we don’t deal with ICE.’ Nothing,” Fry said. He added that drug dealers from Oakland specifically targeted San Francisco because they knew they wouldn’t be arrested there. “They said they came to San Francisco to deal because they don’t get arrested. They didn’t go past the San Francisco County line; they didn’t like going south. They get prosecuted there,” Fry explained.
Proposition 57, adopted in 2018, granted the CDCR secretary authority to reduce inmates’ sentences by up to two-thirds through “good behavior credits.” Senate Bill 118, signed by Newsom in August 2020, further limited parole supervision to 12 months for determinate sentences and 24 months for lifers, after which parolees must be discharged if no violations are recorded. Agents argue that these laws, combined with the 2020 memo, create a system where violations are deliberately ignored, ensuring parolees are released without accountability. Penal Code section 3000.01(2) clarifies that any inmate sentenced to life in prison “shall be released on parole for a period of three years” and must be reviewed for possible discharge no later than 24 months after release. “If at the time of review an inmate has been on parole continuously for 12 months since release without a violation, that inmate must be discharged from parole, and for ‘lifers’ it’s 24 months,” said a veteran San Francisco parole agent. “Since we are told by supervisors to ignore violations, that means a lot of really bad people are out there. California residents have no idea how violent and evil some of these guys are, and they can never go back to prison. Even lifers can never go back.”
California Government Code section 12838(a) states that CDCR is to be headed by a secretary “who shall be appointed by the Governor and shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor.” This provision underscores the direct control the governor has over parole policies.
One of Fry’s most memorable cases involved a registered sex offender named Donovan James Boileau. Boileau was on parole in 2017 after molesting a 17-year-old girl in Georgia, which required him to register as a sex offender. He moved to San Francisco under an interstate compact agreement to live with his parents. Fry and his partner suspected Boileau was using methamphetamine and would catch him for petty crimes. When Boileau’s GPS showed him in Benicia late at night, Fry investigated and discovered Boileau was communicating with a 14-year-old boy named Jessie on Instagram. During a search of Boileau’s bedroom, Fry found meth and a distinctive hat seen in Jessie’s photos. Boileau was arrested, and it was later learned that Jessie had been locked in Boileau’s bedroom for three days, doing meth and having sex. Despite the severity of the case, Fry’s supervisor had previously told him to return methamphetamine and electronics to Boileau, reflecting the systemic reluctance to enforce violations. According to Fry and other former and current parole agents the Voice interviewed, there were thousands of incidents after the Covid releases where parolees committed heinous crimes that didn’t make the news.
As reported in a Voice exclusive, the relaxed rules led to the notorious case of parolee Troy McAlister, who struck and killed 60-year-old Elizabeth Platt and 27-year-old Hanako Abe in San Francisco on Dec. 31, 2020, in a vehicle carjacked from a woman after he displayed a firearm. That arrest was one of several over a six-month period that should have resulted in the issuance of a parole hold, yet supervisors repeatedly ignored McAlister’s escalating crimes.
In a separate development, Newsom has alleged that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating people in his orbit due to his political opposition to President Donald Trump. In a video released on June 15, 2026, Newsom claimed that “federal agents have knocked on the door of family, friends and former employees. Not because they found crime, because they’re simply trying to find one.” He acknowledged speculation that he would seek the White House in 2028, alleging Trump was “coming after me because I’m considering running for president.” A source familiar with the investigation confirmed to the BBC that there were “several investigations ongoing” for “roughly a year,” but denied Trump’s involvement. The investigations “all originated out of California, working through whistleblowers and government sources,” the individual said. Federal prosecutors in Sacramento were handling the investigations, one of which pertained to Newsom’s wife’s taxes, and another related to Newsom’s former chief of staff. The governor’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty to federal charges in May 2026 over a campaign finance fraud scheme that did not implicate Newsom. Newsom portrayed the investigation as an act of political persecution and accused the president of corruption. “Donald Trump picked the wrong target,” Newsom said. “We have nothing to hide.”
The allegations paint a troubling picture of California’s parole system under Gov. Newsom. With agents claiming they are ordered to ignore violations, residents may be at risk from repeat offenders who should be in custody. The governor’s office has not commented on these specific claims, but the implications for public safety are significant.
