Senate Republicans want to make it more difficult for violent offenders to receive parole and improve the process of notifying victims that a prisoner is facing the parole board.

Republican Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, state Sen. Michael Nozzolio and other GOP senators introduced legislation Tuesday in response to what they say is a philosophical shift in parole practices since Gov. Eliot Spitzer took office.

Parole boards last year released about 18 percent of eligible violent felons, a higher rate than in 2006 under former Gov. George Pataki.

Michael Balboni, the deputy secretary for public safety, rejected notions that the parole board has changed its practices since Spitzer became governor.

"The Senate's tough criminal justice reforms helped to produce record-breaking drops in crime throughout the past decade, and we are not going to allow that progress to be reversed under any circumstances," said

Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee, in a press release.  "These critical parole reforms will help keep our communities safe, empower crime victims, and help to ensure that cop

killers and other vicious criminals are kept behind bars where they belong."