No obvious failing

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Stanko is accused of killing two people and raping a teenager while he was completing the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services' Community Supervision Program. Stanko had been sentenced for kidnapping and assault.

In the April 17 Myrtle Beach Sun-News, Rep. Greg Delleney Jr., R-Chester, called for a review of the state's parole system. It's worthwhile for lawmakers to ask how many convicts commit crimes while on parole. That is a fair measure of the parole board's decision-making.

But those lawmakers must remember that parole is not — and never will be — a safeguard against a convict committing future criminal acts. Therefore, the Stanko case alone doesn't tell us much about how well Parole is operating.

We know that far fewer prisoners win parole today compared to 10 years ago. And today's parolees are under much stricter supervision due to get-tough policies adopted nearly a decade ago.

The state must do a thorough job of screening prisoners for early release, and lawmakers should make sure that's being done. But the board cannot, as Sen. Dick Elliott of North Myrtle Beach said, "look inside the souls of offenders and see if they are ready to be back in society." That's not a fair nor realistic expectation. And any review of the parole system should proceed with that understanding.