Tuesday, August 31, 2010

WE'RE NOT TO BLAME, IT'S GARRIDO'S FAULT

Another bureaucratic whitewash. If any reprimands will ever be issued, it will be the lowly parole agents who will get them, not that they don’t deserve them. In my professional opinion, supervision and management are just as culpable in this mess as the fuck-up agents and should be disciplined accordingly.
 
Here is a case in which there was a lack of supervision, first by the parole agents, second by their immediate supervisors and then by the immediate supervisors of the immediate supervisors. I know of several police agencies in which the immediate supervisor will be disciplined the same as the officer (or supervisor) who fucked up unless he can document that he offered the kind of supervision that should have prevented the misconduct. That policy has led to closer supervision and far fewer fuck-ups.
 
"CRIMINALS WILL DO TERRIBLE THINGS"
CDCR: Phillip Garrido’s parole oversight aftermath still under review
 
By Jeff Doyle
 
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 30, 2010
 
SACRAMENTO, CA – Exactly 365 days after Jaycee Lee Dugard was rescued from 18 years in captivity, no one from the agency responsible for overseeing her accused captor and rapist has been held accountable.
 
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was ultimately in charge of overseeing Philip Garrido, but failed to do so many times, according to a report from the State Inspector General.
 
"This department has enormous empathy for the victim," said Terri McDonald, the chief deputy secretary for adult operations at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who oversees prisons and parole.
 
… McDonald said she didn’t agree that her department failed 90 percent of the time.
 
"I don’t agree there’s a 90 percent failure rate in anything," McDonald said. "I wouldn’t put a failure rate on it."
 
As for reprimands for agents assigned to Garrido, McDonald said none were issued…
 
Asked about whether systematic failures, partial or complete, caused the Garrido surveillance lapse, McDonald said, "I don’t know that systematic failure is a fair term. I think that we learned from what we did and from there we’re going to continue to improve."
 
"I think that we continue to do better as we learn from the information," McDonald said.
 
While McDonald admitted not everything was handled properly…
 
"I’ve never said nothing is wrong nor has the department said nothing is wrong," McDonald said. "We did our own internal review and we do one on every incident that occurs."
 
…McDonald pointed out no matter how hard they try, criminals will do terrible things.
 
"We ask for understanding and (community members) working with us when that occurs to help us remove them from the communities in general," she said…
 
Better training will begin soon, McDonald said. A new field training agent program has been established and they’re using photos from the Garrido home in that training…(Full text and video at News10.net)

Jeff’s comments follow:
 
Sometimes, it’s better to stay mum. After reading the attached article and reviewing the painful video, it couldn’t be clearer this was one of those times.
 
In the interest of staying on message, CDCR again opted to send a spokesperson with no corrections experience–It’s called consistency.
 
But, again, "no comment" would have been much less damaging than the piffle flowing from McDonald’s lips.
Hell, even Forest knew when to run.
 
And Bob Walsh says:
 
I guess paying $20 million and saying you are sorry means you don’t have to do anything else about it.

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