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Parole is an integral part of any criminal justice system. But, California decided to throw it out the window a few months back. As it turns out, maybe that decision wasn’t such a good idea. Surprise, surprise.
Fresno’s ABC 30 ran a story on April 7 about a new law that was implemented in January that allows criminals in California’s state prisons to be released after their sentences without supervised parole.
As is the case with most new laws, there are hidden loopholes that allow things, in this case violent criminals, to slip through the cracks.
The law was only meant for non-violent offenders to be released without being supervised. However, 250 offenders convicted of sex crimes, involuntary manslaughter and various weapons charges have been released without supervision.
“In a review of some 2,000 records of prisoners who were released without any parole,” the article said, “hundreds were convicted of violent crimes.” Oops.
The story featured some commentary from Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). “I was shocked because we have state prisoners being released without parole supervision, and now walking the streets for some heinous crimes,” Lieu said.
“The department of corrections is not following the letter of the law,” Lieu said. “They have a sex offender walking the streets without parole supervision.”
Who is to blame? Surely not the bumbling state government. How about the department of corrections? It must be their fault.
“To be criticized on a penal code implementation that we didn’t create is not right and is not fair,” said Gordon Hinkle of the California Corrections Department.
For some reason, I was under the impression that we, the citizens, elect officials to govern our state with our best interests in mind. With this particular case, citizens’ lives are now being jeopardized because of this new law.
“The new parole law is supposed to reduce the state prison population by 6,500, and save California $500 million in its first year,” the article said.
Basically, what’s happening is that some prisoners convicted of violent crimes are serving their sentences and are being released. Nobody will monitor them to make sure they are on their best behavior and become productive citizens.
Parole acts like an insurance policy. Recently released offenders’ every move are watched under a microscope to make sure that they maintain a strict law-abiding lifestyle. Any little slip, and it’s back to prison.
With this new law, some of these recently released violent criminals may come to the conclusion that they just need to be more allusive and careful, and do whatever it takes to not get caught. Especially, when nobody will be watching.
According to a story from bnet.com, “Fifty-six percent of violent felons are repeat offenders.”
If my math (which has been known to be questionable many times) is correct, slightly more than half of violent offenders either have or will repeat crimes.
The dunces in Sacramento need to figure out a different way to try to save money. Endangering citizens by letting felons out of prison without parole is not the way to do it.
Criminals are supposed to be on parole upon their release. California’s elected politicians should be as well.