The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agreed today to immediately stop using the FSORA tool for women on parole who have been convicted of a sex offense. In addition, CDCR has agreed to reclassify all female registrants as low risk within 12 months.
Further, CDCR will review all female registrants on a case-by-case basis to determine whether they should be reassigned from parole to probation which has fewer restrictions. These changes are the result of a lawsuit filed in July 2025 in which ACSOL challenged CDCR’s use of the FSORA tool, which has not been validated, to determine the risk of re-offense for female registrants on parole.
Due to CDCR’s application of the FSORA tool, most female registrants on parole were determined to be high risk. As a result, there were few places where the female registrants could reside due to a state law that prohibits high risk registrants from living within one-half mile of a K-12 school.
“This is a major victory for female registrants,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “ACSOL is pleased to help these female registrants while on parole.”
Also included in the settlement agreement between CDCR and ACSOL is recognition that female registrants on parole are ineligible for scoring on the Static-99R tool. That tool is used for assessing risk levels of most registrants on parole. CDCR also acknowledged in the agreement that there is an “absence of validated methods for determining a female’s risk category.”
