Release violent lifers? The California parole board is crazy

California’s soft-on-crime lunacy continues –– and we’re glad to see a victims’ rights group fighting back.

The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation is suing over regulations by the California Board of Parole Hearings that could make it easier for at least some of the state’s heinous criminals to win early release from prison.

Good. The parole board’s move –– which could facilitate the freedom of some of California’s most violent lifers –– is nuts.

Per the foundation and its law enforcement allies, the new regulations could render thousands of state prison inmates –– including those convicted of murder, torture and crimes against children –– eligible for early release.

Does any sane, law-abiding Californian actually want that?

How many more victims would fall prey to these thousands of felons, should some be released? 

Among the convicts potentially eligible to walk are some serving “life without the possibility of parole,” the foundation says.

So the crimes were so egregious that a court determined the offenders should be confined for life, and the state parole board might say, in effect, “never mind, we know better than the judge and jury”?

That’s galling.

It would also be a gut punch to victims, and a broken promise to society, to free heinous criminals who –– we all were promised –– would be safely locked away for life.

The legal foundation says the parole board exceeded its authority by making such a sweeping change to the state’s legal system without either legislative or voter assent.

Good point.

State officials wouldn’t dare put this scheme before voters, and even soft-on-crime legislators might not go this far.

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So an unelected board issues regulations while the left moans about prison crowding.

But if prisons are packed to bursting, that argues for more prison space –– not the wanton release of felons who probably, based on recidivism rates, will go find new victims.

This move at its core is not about prison crowding, or the pursuit of justice, or “evidence-based policies,” as Gov. Gavin Newsom put it. 

And it’s certainly not about public safety.

The culprit, as ever, is probably ideology.

These days, it’s en vogue on the far left to treat criminals as victims. The idea: Those who harm others are somehow deserving of compassion, leniency and, for those with long rap sheets, 57th (or so) chances. 

Also: The entire 21-member parole board is composed of appointees of Democrat Govs. Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom.

There was a time when public safety transcended party and ideology, when both parties saw the sense in locking up the worst offenders and keeping them caged where they can’t hurt innocents.

No longer. From defund the police to no jail for thieves to early prison releases for felons, many on the left are now, for all intents and purposes, pro-criminal.

So good for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

Someone needs to stand up for victims and innocents while the parole board and governor ease up on the perps.

True public safety comes from law and order. Not from leniency, misplaced compassion and far-left wishful thinking.