Cascade Effect: California’s Prison Release Program
Here they come.
Back in May, I wrote about the wave of criminals about to be released from state penitentiaries in California in accordance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on prison overcrowding. The state is under orders to reduce its inmate population by as many as 30,000, and the implementation of this “prison realignment” began on Saturday, with the first of the so-called “low-risk” state inmates transferred to county jails.
Gov. Jerry Brown did his best to put a happy face on what will surely be a trying time for police officers in California. “It’s bold, it’s difficult, and it will continuously change as we learn from experience, but we can’t sit still and let the courts release 30,000 serious prisoners,” he said.
The greatest share of these prisoners, up to 7,000 of them, are expected to be transferred to jails in Los Angeles County, which, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, have only 4,000 vacant beds. This influx of felons will have a cascade effect, necessitating the early release of county prisoners doing time for misdemeanors and those convicted of felonies but serving jail time as a condition of their probation. And already county jail prisoners are serving only about 20 percent of their sentences behind bars.
Some state prisoners who otherwise would have been placed under the supervision of parole officers upon their release will now be added to the already crowded caseloads of county probation officers, most of whom don’t have a clue about what their charges are up to at any given time. As long as he shows up to his court appearances and checks in by telephone on a semi-regular basis, the typical probationer in Los Angeles has little to fear from his probation officer. He’ll have even less to fear now.
One public official who dares to openly discuss the foreseeable consequences of all of this is Steve Cooley, district attorney of Los Angeles County. “Defendants responsible for a wide variety of felony crimes will escape appropriate sentences,” Cooley said. “The crime rate will predictably and significantly rise.”
One advantage of having served as a cop for as long as I have is seeing everything old become new again. I worked through the horrors of the ‘80s and early ‘90s, when Los Angeles averaged more than 800 murders a year and violent crime doubled from the levels seen in the ‘70s. Like other states whose citizens grew weary of crime, California enacted a three-strikes law and other changes to the penal code that resulted in more criminals being locked up for longer periods. And what do you know? As the prisons filled up, crime went down. There were 297 murders in Los Angeles in 2010, the lowest number since 1967, when the city had almost 2 million fewer residents.
But now they tell us we have too many people in jail. So uncivilized, don’t you know, and so expensive to keep them there. So now we’ll be letting them out while we comfort ourselves with the illusion that they’ll be “supervised” in a probation system that can’t adequately mind the caseload it already has. Steve Cooley didn’t need a crystal ball to make his prediction; any fool can see what’s coming.
In some parts of Los Angeles the tide has already turned. Crime continues to fall on a city-wide basis, with murders down 4.5 percent from a year ago and overall violent crime down 7.8 percent. But so far this year, eleven of the LAPD’s 21 patrol divisions have seen increases in murders, with some areas up more than 50 percent. In Pacific Division, for example, which covers Venice and the area surrounding L.A.’s airport, there was but one murder as of Sept. 24, 2010. This year there have been six. In Harbor Division, which covers L.A.’s port area, there had been 13 murders as of this time last year; this year there have been 21. Even some of the relatively tamer districts of the San Fernando Valley have seen marked increases in murders. In Devonshire Division, consistently one of the least violent areas of the city, murders have gone from two to six on a year-to-date basis.
And those numbers will get worse before they get better. As murders and other violent crime increases, the resources needed to combat the surge will be further and further stretched, allowing many criminals to go undetected and undeterred until, as was the case twenty years ago, people decide they’ve had enough and demand their elected officials do something about it.
Yes, it’s expensive to keep people in prison, but Californians will one day discover – or rediscover – it can be even more expensive to let them out.
The drug war has seen a huge increase in the number of incarcerations as it has eroded liberty and responsibility. The cost of the drug war will continue to escalate and the dead bodies will pile up until the American people realize the principles of liberty are inconsistent with a “war on drugs.”
Which has what to do with the rising crime as violent criminals are released from prison?
Whether their profit motive is drugs or something else- violent people are violent and the point of the article is that when those people are locked up, society is safer. If those people are allowed to roam the streets vilonce goes up.
The principles of liberty are diametrically opposed to the war on drugs. Was there less violence or more violence during alcohol prohibition? Was there less violence or more violence during the war on drugs? Making believe that ingesting drugs is a crime that is worthy of jail time is simply making a crime out of human nature. The war on drugs is a war on people; it’s scapegoating, and it’s as old as humanity. Have at it, drug warriors, just try to stop making believe you’re morally virtuous. (See Szasz, Dr. Thomas: “Our Right to Drugs” and “Ceremonial Chemistry”.
Thomas Szasz also wrote a book entitled “The Myth of Mental Illness”. His views on this and other subjects of his withering criticism have been largely discounted. Anyone who has ever came in close contact with a fullblooded schizophrenic would have realized that the “mental disease” was no myth. One wonders whether Szasz himself ever worked with mentally deranged individuals. I doubt it. At any rate, your reference to Thomas Szasz came out of the blue and suggests that you, too, know little to nothing about psychiatry and mental illnesses.
We’ll see how quickly your bizzarro views change after your mother, daughter, wife or you, get sodomized by some early release savage. Can we send some of the overload numbers to your house for housing? yeah, I didn’t think so.
It has this to do with it. Some guy got thrown into jail for marijuana violations, which, while self destructive, wasn’t basically bothering anyone. With a prison record, our released inmate will have trouble getting a job, particularly in California’s ‘vibrant’ jobs market. But his roomie will have taught him how to cook meth while in prison, it’s part of the ‘jobs’ training program. So now we have another professional criminal who can’t get any other work. Nice plan we have there.
yeah..he got thrown in jail for a pot violation. They are letting people out of prison. So, if I understand your point, I should feel reassured that only people who have marijuana violations will be released from prison and they will become model citizens the very next day. whew, I guess I can unlock my doors and walk down the dark alleys now.
Mr. Olsen: The judge mandating the releases did so by sustaining the argument that overcrowding makes punishment too cruel (violation of the 8th Amend.) When you don’t explicitly say “a prison cell taken up by a druggie reduces the space and money that otherwise could be used for the violent criminal,” each critic will find a way of not figuring it out. You don’t say it, he evades it and then plays innocent while he upbraids you for foolishness.
Heck, even were you to have included it, I have little doubt you’d still be criticized for pointing out the damage of the drug war to this zero sum game. But then when your critic ignores the math, you have proof of his stupidity. All we have now is suspicion that each of your critics is obtuse and evasive and chooses to appear ingnorant for reasons unstated.
I’m happy to know that druggies are never violent criminals, at least in lala land. I’m sure the statistics of violent crime perpetuated by drug-addicts will back up your claim.
Pascale, thanks for giving me heart! It is nice to know that when all of those two-bit drug dealers get out and hook your daughter on crack, for the few extra bucks it earns them, that there will be no violent fall out from her eventual cycle of joblessness and prostitution, or from her six neglected and unfed children.
Much ado about nothing, I’m more concerned with high pensions, top pay and collective bargaining bonuses within out corrections and law enforcement officers than I am with these low end felons coming out.
More than likely they will move to Antelope Valley or Apple Valley area. Skid Row and Venice are virtually cleaned up, so the homeless low wrung felons will end up somewhere else, other than L.A.
Just who do you think cleaned up Skid Row and Venice? Oh, could it be the overpaid cops (as you put it)? Why don’t you go find a real job in the private sector and quit complaining that you’re not getting enough. We the taxpayers are sick of paying for your jobs far more than we are for the cops.
Let me explain further, Skid Row/Venice are not success stories. Poop on the ground, smeared around to cover a wider area, maybe be less concentrated poop, but it is still poop–the problem wasn’t solved.
As for gov’t employees, most have been laid off, but police officers just got a bonus thanks to their collective bargaining power. My neighbor LAPD officer did 20 yrs and retired at 50, and I’m suppose to pay for his high pension (6 figures) for 40 yrs? Hell no!
I’d like to know how your neighbor retired as an officer with just 20 years of service and is receiving a six figure retirement check. Last time I checked a service pension with 20 years of service is 40 percent of your final pay. According to your calculations, he was paid more than Cheif Beck. Your neighbor is more likely being paid less than 30 grand a year and paying his own medical. FYI.
May you be visited by several of those released and may they educate you to the seriousness of this catastrophe. And may you survive the lessons and eventually recover, perhaps even gaining your mobility and some of your childish, silly mentality. Good luck!
Olsen is a loadie and childishly resents interdiction of his self destructive addiction.His point is that, if he and his equally irresponsible punk-pals were allowed to use all the dope they wanted, there would be more space in the local jails for violent criminals. But dopers are violent criminals. Eightyfive percent of all felonies are committted by jerkoffs under the influence of one or more drugs.Because they lack the guts to “do it” clean and sober.
They need a Sheriff Joe type jail out in a desert somewhere with the appropriate chain gangs coupled with a deportation program for any illegal who violates a law from jay walking to theft. This should ease the numbers without increasing the cost…as soon as Obama and Holder are out of office the better to get a program like this up and running.
Now if California had the sense to pass an Alabama like law, much of this can get done at no cost to Californians…the savings would be across the board for the dependent class. Schools, jails, hospitals, welfare rolls all would experience huge savings.
not to mention “re instituting” the death penalty
cant remember the last time a death row inmate was executed here in cali….
WIth all of these felons being let back onto the streets do you think any of the 58 sherrifs make it easier to get a License To Carry? For the most part, nope. We need shall issue in California, and this only helps to make the case. I wonder if anybody in Sacramento will listen before it effects them?
Both the “upper class” (socially) and the criminal dregs believe that having a firearm makes the possessor somebody special. For that reason, both believe that the average citizen has no business owning or carrying firearms.
One recurring problem with “progressive” types regarding this matter is that, when increased incarceration rates result in a reduced rate of violent crime, the editorial writers immediately begin demanding to know, “If the crime rate is down, why are you (evil, callous, brutal) law-and-order types locking so many people up?” Followed by demands for a reduction in the incarceration rate, usually on “humanitarian” grounds, with terms like “rehabilitation”, “mainstreaming”, and “compassion” thrown about freely.
When more felons are let out, and the crime rate explodes again, they call for… more gun control.
I used to think this weird phenomenon was due to an innate inability to relate cause and effect. But since it happens over and over again, I’m forced to conclude that it’s because our “enlightened elite’” resent any interference in what they regard as a legitimate redistribution of wealth from “haves” to “have-nots”. Not to mention what thy consider an unjustified interference in the activities of those they consider both “innocent victims of society” and the “front line soldiers in our (their) war against a repressive society”.
Then again, they could all just be unbelievably stupid. Or quite mad.
Or both.
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“Or both.”
That’s my take.
Chanting the same old (failed) solutions to society’s problems doesn’t take any effort, intellectually or morally, and the cognitive dissonance needed would drive a reasonal person mad.
Or course, they really don’t care for the vicitims or justice– it’s all about how they feel about themselves.
In http://www.warriortalknews.com/2011/10/the-dos-and-donts-of-open-carry-part-i.html concealed-carry instructor Roger Phillips explained a number of reasons why he is not a proponent of open-carry:
“There are certain neighborhoods in Las Vegas where open carry may be seen as a sign of disrespect to the criminal organization that controls those neighborhoods. I know we all want to `go where ever I want to go’. But, is it really smart to fly the one finger salute in the most dangerous neighborhoods in Vegas, to the most dangerous people in Vegas?”
I suspect the people running the governments of a number of American states and most foreign countries have mentalities similar to the people running the Las Vegas gangs and mob. And similar motivations.
If these people are all that “dangerous,” why are they allowed to roam free?
Knowing that they’re bad and being able to prove it are two very different things.
That is a profoundly naive comment.
A couple of points Jack on policies California’s law enforcement officers should get behind to help deal with this issue…
1) LEOs get behind shall issue concealed carry in CA. If you don’t then you’re just trying to lock down a body of work for your union brothers as opposed to acting the public interest. It works fine in 40 other states and the crime rates are generally FALLING in shall issue states.
2) Public employee pensions are too high. They are way out of line with what the rest of us citizens get. They are financially unstable over time. Get behind reduced pensions and a to a lesser extent salaries and benefits for public employee union members – aka, police, fire and prison workers. It’s going to happen sooner or later and you can help yourselves in the long run by biting the bullet now.
3) Face facts – the war on drugs is what fills our prisons. We ought to give that a major re-think. I have my own views as to how it ought to end up, but until we get hold of the WOD, we’re not going to manage prison populations.
4) Another non-politically correct fact – illegal aliens make up over 20% of California’s prison population. Use the military and close the damn borders. Deport illegals when you catch them for other violations. Use E-Verify and put Americans in jail when the hire illegals. The math is inescapable. What is needed is will and leadership to do what the majority of Americans say they want done.
5) Prisons can and should be built more inexpensively. Barbed wire and tent cities will do for many prisoners. Save the brick and mortar for the bad boys and crazies. Chain gangs are OK too. You think I’m joking, but I am not. We’ve got plenty of desert state lands which will work just fine with a few guard towers. And no the guards won’t get to live in coastal California with nice places to go in their off hours. Prisoners do stuff like grow their own food to keep them occupied.
So, there you go Jack, five positive things that California’s LEOs can do (or support) to help the state deal with our overcrowded prisons.
+ 1X 10 to the million on getting behind shall issue concealed carry. The rank and file officers need to revolt against their politically motivated leadership to push it. Let the public know the rank and file are for it since they can’t protect the public (ain’t even their job to do so according to the courts)
You mean Police pensions are too high. All other public pensions are getting bargained down, but Police pensions are still holding steady and they are getting bonuses in the middle of a deep recession. And now they are scaring us with this felons are coming BS? C’mon!
There are over 35 million Americans WHO WILL NOT WORK(WNW) and are struggling to survive. Most sponge off others, sell drugs,live in homeless shelters, or spend their lives in prison. They are causing a blight upon our nation and an eye sore. Expansion of the federal welfare program(SSI) will make honest citizens out of them. Each should be provided with a 1200 monthly check plus Medicaid health insurance. It will clean up our nation and make us proud to be called Americans.
You’re making a parody, I’ll play too…Kenneth’s first comment makes a lot of sense to me…leave off the ‘war on drugs;’ quit being a spoilsport and join in the recreation! Let’s all get stoned out of our gourds, spending hours sprawled half-conscious on the floor and vomiting while the dirty kids forage for food and the dogs tear through the garbage after a piss on the plants.
That way, when the druggies invite themselves into our homes (if we still have homes) they won’t find it necessary to kill or break things, a leisurely ransack for valuables to hock for their next desperately needed hit is all that is necessary…we all win!
And, if we repeal the laws against homicide the murder rate will drop to zero!
Morris, what ARE you smoking?
Nothing LEGAL, I’d wager. That’s simply INSANE!
Not insane just stupid. He’s been indoctrinated into the government as religion with the attiude that it should dispense charity as it’s job. Hence, no need for those receiving the charity to be grateful to those who provide it, who sacrifice their wants or needs to feed/clothe and provide.
It’s the same entitlement mentality you saw in the England riots. I eat and breathe and it’s the governments moral (religious)obligation to provide for me. No sense of the sacrifices required of those funding the charity.
Frederick Bastiat call your office. This is a perfect example of Bastiat’s book, (as I recall) ‘That Which is Not Seen”. We see the poor crowded inmate; we see the general taxpayers being tapped out. We do not see the individual victims of these guys when they get out of jail. I have read that keeping a habitual type criminal in jail saves sooooo much money for society. It is just that it is easier for judges, who usually live in protected surroundings, to allow the crooks to just go at it with poor unprotected shnooks (and no firearmes to protect themselves!)
Blame the prison guard unions
Also quit treating marijuana as a criminal matter.
the overwhelming majority of “marijuana” offenders that are actually locked up are the sole result of plea bargains- not some sap smoking a doober
Grass is and should be a criminal matter. No one, ever, functions more effectively when loaded. Sans inhibitions folks do awful stuff while drunk on pot. Grow up! Get a job! Ask mommy if you can stay up to 9 pm. Forget the fantasies and see all the things which need doing.The, do them!
The lawsuit was bogus bullshit. Thirty thousand of those inmates are illegal aliens and could have been early released to the Feds for deportation–yes, the Feds, the same people who created this mess with their bogus lawsuit and thus richly deserve to provide the upscale health care benefits to those misunderstood “citizens of the world” they are apparently so concerned about. The Rosie and Supremes governor has no balls, but that’s hardly new news with California. You get what you vote for.
Ol’ Moonbeam is an interesting critter. It’s impossible to pigeonhole him as a typical leftist. For example, he keeps saying things that make sense. Not all the time, of course, but often enough to break the mold of “typical leftist”.
I think his problem is that he’s basically an honest guy, and not stupid. Yes, he’s embraced all the leftist ideology, so of course, he’s at odds with reality most of the time, but then, once in a while, his basic honesty asserts itself and he makes sense. At least for a few sentences, anyway. Then the ideology kicks in again.
It’s kind of fun watching him.
This applies to prisoners as well as people on welfare. “Who will not work, shall not eat.” Lefties should recognise this quote—it’s Lenin, folks. It’s also from St Paul. Proprtionally speaking, there are more whites on welfare than non-whites. More whites are, in proportion, are functionally illiterate than non-whites. Maybe we all need to rethink our fundamental attitudes. They aren’t necessarily so.
You lie!
Just wait until California officially goes broke. When that happens, this will become an even bigger problem. It also tells criminals the best state to commit a crime in: California.
Yes, it’s expensive to keep people in prison, but Californians may one day rediscover that it’s even more expensive to let them out.
Actually, Jack, it’s more expensive to pay for your high pension, collectively bargained bonuses and $90K/year salaries to high school grads. I’m more scared of your pension and salary than I am with these low level felons, I can always defend myself, but I can’t defend myself from collectively bargained bonuses during the city’s hard times.
Those fated with feces for brains cannot, in fact, defend themselves. And those with only a trace of concern for the many who cannot defend themselves would not wish the release of these animals from prison.
In CA real people don’t get sent to prison. They go to jail, probation, work furlough, home detention, etc. Only the animals are caged; and then not for nearly long enough. You.ve got a smart mouth and a dumb head. Bad combination.
I hope none of the animals call on your family while you are not there to defend them.
I have gone trough the Texas death row pages in detail, it is some interesting reading. Half the executions should not have happened, not because they were not guilty but because they were supposed to be in jail serving time but were let out early. When you read : sentenced to 20 years for violent crime, released on shock probation three months later only to commit a more violent crime that resulting in the death penalty you wonder if those giving the probation ought not to be hanged instead.
I heard that they are going to let out the female prisons first. Just about any woman can get a “Get Out of Jail Free” card under the proposed terms.
Of course, most prisoners are male.
hopefully, they stay away from this one for awhile:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-model-1006-model-murder-20111006,0,2691474.story
Prison is expensive.
Cops are expensive.
Retired Cops Pensions are expensive.
You know what isn’t? Bullets… Shovels… and quicklime.
Give them a Section 8 application to Lancaster and have them black and brown criminals deal w/ Mayor Rex Parris and gang.
Mayor Rex Parris should run for governor.
…Long as they dont mess with Lancaster City Council’s Sandra Johnson…she gots freckles in the right places
If you are in possession of a legally owned hand gun….my best advise to you is “keep in loaded with one in the chamber”.
For LA Employee check your facts before you start blaming cops and firemen. Obviously you work for LA as a civilian and have your pension paid for 100% while the hard working police and fire paid 9% towards their pension and now another 2% to total 11%. Thats right the police and fire pension is mostly self funded but if Mayor Villarigosa allowed you to know that then his typical bs redoric would not fly like usual. So before you start going and ask everyone else to stand up against their union why don’t you ask for a pay cut.
Secondly the majority of criminals have upwards of 6 or more arrest which typically involve violent cases. However, that will not be taken into consideration when they are released early only there most recent arrest will and if it’s not violent they will be out. So when we all become victim to crime remember the final fatal words I TOLD YOU SO.
Now lets stop blaming our trusted civil servants and take a stand against crime keep them locked up.
California is fooling itself with this whole charade of moving criminals around. We know who the criminals are, lets keep them behind bars. We know who the murderers are, lets execute them after a fair trial and a reasonable appeal process. As long as CA continues to listen to lawyers and more importanlty the ACLU, they will continue this long descent into a Third World Country. Having the experience of working as a policeman and in a prison, I have seen millions upon millions wasted in a system that clearly doesn’t work anymore…Whether it happens in my lifetime or 100 years from now, society will grow up. Society will re-correct the score and justice will come to those who offend our communities. Until then, the fight goes on, one brick at a time.
my best friend’s mom makes $77 an hour on the computer. She has been out of job for 9 months but last month her check was $7487 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read about it here LazyCash4.com
The love of money is a root of all evil.
Go write your irrelevant, selfish crap on your toilet door.
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