HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Friday banned parole for all Connecticut inmates serving prison time for violent crimes, in response to another serious offense allegedly committed by a state parolee.

New York City police shot and wounded James Biggs, 45, in the Bronx early Friday when they say he threatened them with a kitchen knife. Police say the car he was in was taken in a carjacking in Hartford on Thursday. Biggs was paroled less than a month ago.

Rell’s announcement also came two months after two convicted burglars on parole were charged in a violent home invasion in Cheshire that left a woman and her two daughters dead.

The governor also directed the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to immediately review all current parolees who were sentenced for violent crimes. She said any of those convicts who are in violation of their paroles, no matter how minor the offense, will be returned to prison to serve out the remainder of their sentences.

Some state lawmakers agreed with Rell’s decision, but said the move will cause a major population increase in an already crowded Connecticut prison system. Legislators said millions of dollars will have to be spent on new jail space and other measures.

Rell said the parole ban will be in effect until the state reforms its parole process.

“No more. Security comes first,” Rell said in a prepared statement late Friday afternoon. “I will not allow public safety to be jeopardized because parolees return to a life of crime.”

All criminals convicted of violent offenses in the state are already required to serve 85 percent of their sentences. The parole ban would boost the percentage to 100.

State lawmakers and other officials have been discussing parole reforms since the Cheshire killings in July.

The legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing on sentencing and parole reforms last week, is considering several proposals, including building new prisons, enacting a true “three strikes and you’re out” law, classifying home invasion as a violent crime to increase prison sentences and expanding monitoring of parolees.

Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven and co-chairman of the committee, said he agreed with Rell’s ban because of a series of incidents involving parolees, including the Cheshire killings.

Lawlor also said he expects the legislature to convene a special session before next year’s regular session. Majority Democrats at a special session on Thursday defeated a Republican proposal to expand the agenda to include bills related to the Cheshire home invasion.

“This is truly an emergency that we’re going to have to deal with,” Lawlor said Friday.

Democratic leaders said the reforms should not be rushed into but undertaken deliberately with purpose.

The day before the Cheshire killings, there were 18,864 inmates in the state prison system, which is designed to handle 17,000, Lawlor said. There are more than 19,100 inmates today, he said.

Lawlor expected the state prison population to increase another 1,500 within the next year because of the parole ban. He said it would take about five years to open a new prison.

Last week, Correction Department Commissioner Theresa C. Lantz told the Judiciary Committee that the state could build a new 1,000-bed prison for about $110 million, in addition to annual operating costs of $38 million. She also said existing prisons could be expanded.

A 506-bed wing not being used at the state prison in Cheshire is available to handle more inmates. The Carl Robinson prison in Enfield is constructing facilities to handle another 230 inmates.

Since the Cheshire murders, the parole board has reclassified burglars who break into occupied homes as violent offenders. That means they must complete at least 85 percent of their sentence before being eligible for parole. In the past, they needed to serve at least 50 percent.

Meanwhile, current and future second-degree burglary parolees are now subject to random, unannounced nighttime checks of their homes and workplaces by parole officers.

Biggs, the man shot by New York City police, was in stable condition at a local hospital with a thigh wound.

Meanwhile, the two suspects in the Cheshire killings, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, are both being held in $15 million bond and face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted. Their cases are pending in New Haven Superior Court.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky are charged with capital felony and other crimes in the killings of 48-year-old Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. Hawke-Petit’s husband, Dr. William Petit Jr., was badly beaten but managed to escape after his home was set on fire.

AP-ES-09-21-07 1821EDT