A controversial former chair of Connecticut’s Board of Pardons and Paroles has won state Senate confirmation to serve another term on the board.
Carleton Giles of Milford won his reappointment by a 21 to 14 party line vote.
Giles, a former Norwalk police officer, led the board in changing policy during the pandemic. And that resulted in the commutation of sentences for too many prisoners, claimed state Senator Heather Somers of Groton, who spearheaded the Republican opposition to Giles.
“The previous six years we had 5 commutations. Since this policy was enacted we now have close to 71 — 44 of them are serious violent offenders,” Somers said during the floor debate.
The majority Democrats did not buy the argument.
“We asked him to come up with a policy. They stopped doing what they were doing and came up with a policy,” said Democratic Senator Gary Winfield of New Haven, the judiciary committee chair.
Earlier this week, Governor Ned Lamont had announced earlier that Giles would no longer serve as chair of the board.
Lamont said he will convene a meeting within the next two weeks to review the state’s parole policy.
He would invite victims’ rights advocates, prosecutors, lawmakers, public defenders, other stakeholders and the pardon board, said the governor.
