THE California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has quietly embarked on a new and dangerous paradigm shift that replaces human judgment with a computer program. Tens of thousands of critical parole decisions regarding dangerous felons are now being made by a computer, rather than parole experts.

Under the new nonrevocable parole policy championed by CDCR, state parolees who qualify are exempt from parole supervision and cannot be sent back to prison for any parole violation. Getting NRP status - which is essentially no parole - is a big deal. For example, previously if a felon convicted of stalking or serious domestic violence was released from prison and re-offended, a parole board could send the felon back to prison. Both supervision and the threat of prison time for violating parole acted as strong deterrents to re-offending.

If the same felon is on NRP status, however, the felon would be unsupervised and can stalk or abuse victims without fear of being sent back to prison for violating parole.

Because the public safety consequences of releasing a felon onto NRP status are so dramatic, determining who gets NRP should be made with the utmost care by parole experts, not a computer. Unfortunately, CDCR has chosen to replace human expertise and judgment with a software program.

In a recent article in California Watch, CDCR spokesman Gordon Hinkle admitted that the agency must rely completely on a computer algorithm regarding who receives nonrevocable parole. "It's not like our department has a choice on who gets qualified," Hinkle said.

CDCR has taken us to a brave new world where a computer usurps human judgment and renders critical parole decisions. This is one small step away from CDCR eliminating all parole board members and replacing them with computer code.

Computers can do many things, but judging felons is not one of them. That is the reason we have humans - not computers - serve as judges, jurors, and parole board members.

Under Penal Code Section 3000.03(g), CDCR must conduct a "risk assessment" to determine which felons get NRP status. CDCR concluded that a computer system alone can make that assessment. While outsourcing human judgment to a computer may save minor employee costs, this is blood money that has already resulted in disastrous consequences.

Earlier this year, due to an alleged software flaw, CDCR's computer erroneously set free 656 dangerous convicted felons onto NRP status. CDCR is now attempting to get those felons back onto supervised parole.

CDCR's computer also decided to put violent felon Javier Rueda, a known gang member, onto NRP status. Recently, Rueda was charged in an attempt to murder Los Angeles Police Department officers. He is accused of shooting at law enforcement more than 10 times and injuring two officers.

The same computer placed onto NRP status a felon who was wanted for his involvement in the shooting of another man. He was heavily armed with automatic weapons when re-arrested.

CDCR's computer has already made tens of thousands of decisions and placed more than 6,600 felons onto NRP status. Some of these felons committed serious and violent crimes such as involuntary manslaughter, solicitation to commit murder, and cruelty against children. A reasonable parole agent would never have allowed many of these violent felons to be released onto NRP.

CDCR must immediately halt the failed NRP program and bring back human judgment and common sense before an innocent civilian or police officer dies, or gets mutilated.

Paul M. Weber is president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League. Ted W. Lieu represents the 53rd District in the California State Assembly.