California said Monday that it will fight a judge's ruling ordering the state to consider earlier parole for potentially thousands of sex offenders, such as those convicted of raping an unconscious person.
Gov. Jerry Brown's administration will appeal the order by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner, said Vicky Waters, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The judge previously said in a tentative ruling that prison officials must rewrite part of the parole regulations in a ballot measure passed by voters in 2016.
No inmates will be released while the appeal is underway, Waters said. She said in a statement that the ruling "does not reflect the intent of California's voters who approved Proposition 57 by a 2-to-1 margin."
The ballot measure allows earlier parole for most state inmates as a way of reducing the prison population, but the Democratic governor promised voters that all sex offenders would be excluded.
California will challenge the judge's decision that only those serving time for a violent sex offense are not eligible for early parole. He also ordered corrections officials to better define what crimes fall into that category.