"Such a deal!"
California Taxpayers, get to pay $35,000. per month for another year to house Mr. James Lamb in a spacious home located on River Road. This deal comes with round the clock protection, rent, utilities, food allowance, two personal aides, psychiatric counseling etc., etc. at an annual cost of more than $420,000.
Historically, Mr. Lamb had served out his sentence and completed all in-house phases of the violent sex offender program (at a cost of $10,000. per month for ten years), and should have been released in July of 2007; however, no one wanted him in their community so James Lamb spent nearly two years beyond his sentence cooped up in Atascadero and Coalinga awaiting housing in Monterey County. So the California taxpayers were into this deal for more than $2-million and Mr. Lamb had yet to complete his one year of supervised release.
Then, in May of 2009, Judge Richard Curtis ruled this additional in-house arrest did not count as part of "supervised" release. Judge Curtis, in his ruling, compared the early release of James Lamb with stopping antibiotics prior to the prescribed duration.
Now, some two years later, at a hearing before Judge Adrienne Grover , Prosecutor Angela McNulty recommended another extension claiming Lamb still poses a risk to the community. Dr. Douglas Tucker (a psychiatrist who charges the state $450 an hour for his work with Lamb and his multi-member "community safety team") testified that Lamb is not close to being ready for unconditional
Freedom. What benefits come from this arrangement? Was Mr. Lamb rehabilitated? Who knows? Prison officials are required by law to return Mr. Lamb to the same county he came from; however, no one wants a violent sex offender living down the street and future employment opportunities are un-likely! Does this mean Mr. Lamb will become a $35,000. a month ward of the State for the rest of his life?
But the real question is, if he wants to go to Arizona to live with his mother, how is Mr. Lamb a threat to our community? And, if he has developed income based on in-home sales (as was suggested in a recent Monterey Herald article), why wouldn't this be transferrable to Arizona? And finally, why can't we give him a release on the "condition" he go to Arizona to live with his mother?
Mr. Lamb has consented to one more year of supervised living at this River Road location. Even so, one wonders what part of the U.S. Constitution allows our court system to hold anyone beyond their judicial sentence when they have met all conditions of their release! We have no problem turning all sorts of thugs, robbers, con-men, and murderers loose upon serving their term, but we cannot allow Mr. Lamb to go live with his mother in Arizona because we are not satisfied with his attitude during two years of supervised living in our community at a cost of $35,000. per month. Frankly, I don't get it!
It appears the moral of this story is that if you confess to multiple acts of child molestation - fifty in Mr. Lamb's case - you get treated to multi-million dollar care for the rest of your life!