If there was ever any hope that Governor Jane Swift would interrupt a decade of Republican administrations’ sound-bite approach to criminal justice, it died last month. Since September, the lame-duck governor has rushed to put her mark on the Massachusetts Parole Board; she has nominated for reappointment those same law-and-order types who turned the panel into a non-parole board in the 1990s.

This week, Swift presented her latest nominee, former prosecutor and parole-board member Maureen Walsh, to the Governor’s Council, which will vote on the nomination on October 16. An October 9 public hearing on the matter is sure to draw its fair share of Walsh backers, from district attorneys to fellow parole-board members. But a vocal and well-organized opposition plans to make its presence known, too. Says Ellen Gagliardi, a local activist who’s pushed to reform the parole board, " This is an opportunity to speak out for diversity on the board. Swift has refused to break from the Republicans’ law-enforcement streak — and that’s a problem. "

Indeed. In the past 18 months, three comprehensive reports have shown how a parole board stacked with former prosecutors and police officers has failed to live up to its own mission (see " Costly Rhetoric, " News and Features, August 23). As a result, more convicts are leaving prison without the transitional supervision and training provided by parole. Back in 1990, before Governor William Weld assumed office on a get-tough-on-crime platform, 70 percent of prisoners serving non-life state-prison sentences were paroled by the board. By 1999, the rate had plummeted to 38 percent. Gagliardi has also gathered equally eye-opening statistics: on September 23, the parole board held hearings at North Central Correctional Institution at Gardner for eight prisoners seeking supervised release. Of those eight, only one of them got paroled. Two received a split decision, while five were denied outright. Apparently, as Gagliardi points out, " This board is still not paroling people. "

Whether the Governor’s Council will agree — and thus refuse to reappoint Walsh for her role in the board’s sorry legacy — remains anybody’s guess. Some councilors, such as Mary Ellen Manning and Marilyn Devaney, have spoken out against the parole board’s current composition and could conceivably block Walsh’s nomination. Then again, they might not. When Swift nominated board member Daniel Dewey, a former probation officer, to a second five-year term last month, only Manning voted to oppose his appointment.

One thing is certain, however: activists are gearing up for even more nominations from Swift before she vacates the corner office. Two other members’ terms have already expired, including that of Chairman Michael Pomarole. And the seven-member board has operated with one vacancy for nearly two years now. " Clearly, " says State Representative Ruth Balser, one of the only legislators to challenge the current parole board, " the governor is trying to load up the board with these former prosecutors while she still can. She must know that if Shannon O’Brien were to become our governor, she would appoint somebody very different to that board. "