People have been raped, robbed and murdered by parolees who should have been locked up because parole officers are being saddled with paperwork, restricted in the number of arrests they can make, and spending less than 50 percent of their time on the streets keeping tabs on parolees, the officers testified.

Wednesday's hearing, which drew close to 300 people, follows a Times Union series in July that first exposed the allegations. Following the report, several parole officers reported being treated like criminal suspects and threatened with the loss of their jobs as internal affairs investigators tried to learn who leaked confidential criminal files.

"Heinous things are being done to parole officers," Manuelita Clemente, a Manhattan-based parole officer, testified Wednesday. "We're being treated as parolees."

The Times Union reported that parole officers said they are being guided by a secret warrant quota system that limits the number of parolees they can take off the streets, even when they have been accused of crimes such as drug dealing and assault. Division of Parole officials have denied there is a quota system and said data supports their position that more parolees are being locked up.

Jeffrion L. Aubry, D-Queens, who chairs the Assembly's Committee on Correction, threatened to subpoena testimony at a second hearing from Anthony G. Ellis II, the agency's executive director. Ellis did not attend Wednesday's committee hearing. Instead, he issued a written statement which provided a historical outline of the agency's successes and avoided the allegations raised by parole officers.

Ellis, a State Police official who was appointed head of the agency by Gov. George Pataki in December 2003, was not available for comment on Wednesday. Scott Steinhardt, an agency spokesman, said Ellis was not at the hearing because his "schedule prohibited him from being there." He declined to disclose Ellis' schedule.

The agency released a written statement calling the parole officers' assertions "baseless union allegations" that have followed attempts by Ellis to make the division more accountable.

The office previously released data showing that the number of parole violation warrants is higher than in 1995, when many parole officers contend the policy changes began to take shape.

During Wednesday's hearing, which lasted several hours, parole officers and others outlined how policies that require them to spend more time at their desks, filling out paperwork, preventing them from keeping tabs on dangerous felons.

Jim Jones, a parole officer in the Rockland County region, said caseloads are so high on some days that officers spend only minutes with dozens of parolees who must be drug tested and queried to determine whether they are following rules.

Clemente, who was assigned a desk job after speaking out several months ago, said there is less electronic monitoring of parolees, including sex offenders, because resources have been gutted.

Joseph Ingemie, a senior parole officer, testified that he was reassigned two months ago after standing up for another officer who was interrogated by internal affairs investigators following a shooting incident in Syracuse.

The shooting unfolded Nov. 18 when a parole officer and police went to arrest a man on a parole violation. They arrived to find the man in a violent struggle with his wife, and he allegedly attacked them and stabbed the parole officer in the head before being shot and wounded by the parole officers. The man's wife was hiding behind the parole officer when the incident took place, officials said.

The parole officer was being treated at a hospital when internal affairs investigators allegedly pulled him into a locked room and began questioning him over the objections of medical staff, testimony revealed Wednesday.

Ingemie, who had been supervisor of the Upstate Bureau of Special Services before his recent reassignment, said he has not been told why he was taken off his job. Another officer, Bob Georgia, was suspended and faces termination for allegedly trying to prevent internal affairs investigators from interrogating the officer.

"Without going into all the details of that incident I will say that the chief of the Syracuse Police Department called the (injured) officer's actions heroic for saving the woman's life," Ingemie said.

Roger Benson, president of the Public Employees Federation, the parole officers umbrella union, said parole officers from Long Island to Buffalo have documented cases where parolees have been set free despite repeated violations. He said the agency has implemented "gestapo tactics" to keep parole officers from speaking and "systematically and effectively demoralized them."

It is the second time in six months that parole officers have spoken out. In August, they held a news conference two weeks after allegations of a warrant quota system were outlined in the Times Union report, which relied on confidential criminal records and internal agency memorandums.

The newspaper found dozens of cases in which supervisors had rewritten reports or manipulated hearings to prevent parole violators from being returned to jail.

After the stories, officials launched a probe to learn who leaked the information.

Gov. George Pataki's office has declined to comment on the allegations by parole officers.

Aubry, who said a second hearing will be scheduled, characterized the testimony as "stunning."

"Division of Parole policies ... have allowed parolees to commit violent crimes and the assertion that at least three murders can be directly attributed to harmful changes in recent parole policies demand answers from the Pataki administration," Aubry said.