California's loose treatment of
prisoners
In January-2011, as a solution to a federal mandate to
reduce California's overcrowded prison system, Governor Jerry Brown signed into
law AB 109, the infamous realignment bill which released "low level" state
prisoners into county and city jail systems.
Many of these prisoners were paroled into the county probation system.
Not everyone agreed with this solution. Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor recommended
the State should consider exporting more felons. Governor
Schwarzenegger, in his State of the State address in January 2010, compared
California's $50,000 annual cost per inmate with other states which average
$32,000 and Texas, which houses almost as many felons as California, but spends
less than a third as much on its system.
There were and are serious problems with this
so-called solution. Most county jails
were already over capacity. More
recently (Feb. 25, 2013), an Associated Press article revealed that thousands
of California parolees, many of them sex offenders, were removing court-ordered
GPS monitors resulting in more than 3,400 arrest warrants. Because many counties are under court orders
to reduce jail populations, parole violators are often freed within days, or
even hours, of arrest; accordingly, there is little risk of serving time by
removing GPS devices because state prisons and local jails are too full to hold
them.
Apparently AB 109 was not enough; Governor Brown
recommended passage of Proposition 47 which, not only lowered the penalties for
forgery, fraud, petty theft and drug possession, but also included a provision
that any crime involving a monetary value of less than $950 is a misdemeanor.
In California's largest cities, according to Magnus
Lofstrom of "the Public Policy Institute
of California," there has been a troubling increase in property crime since
Prop 47 took effect, and a preliminary FBI crime report shows a 12 percent jump
in larceny-theft - which includes shoplifting.
Why not? As long as the offender
keeps the value of his theft below $950, it is a mere misdemeanor.
And now, according to a May 21, 2016 Associated Press
article, our Governor is recommending the passage of yet another "crime
initiative" which would increase "credits" for early release of so-called
non-violent criminals. Do you folks
really think that tripling early-release credits because inmates participated
in rehab and vocational training is going to decrease "recidivism?" It certainly will reduce the prison
population if that is the real reason for this legislation.
Where
is all this going to end? Maybe this
State ought to eliminate crime all-together by making all criminal acts legal.
California would not need a prison
system, court system or even a police department. A huge savings all around!
Has
everyone forgotten? The justice system
came into existence because there was an imminent need to prosecute and
imprison thugs, thieves, racketeers and murderers because taking them off the
street just might prevent further harm to others. Rehabilitation was determined to occur when
prison inmates came to realize there were consequences for their wrongful acts.
Gee Mr. Governor, I
know you can do better than this!!!!