On my original blog (8-28-09} in the case of Jaycee Dugard, I gave a scathing rebuke of the parole supervision given Phillip Garrido. My criticism of parole agents upset a former corrections officer ["A Former Corrections Officer Answers Back" (8-30-09)] who thought that my blog did not consider the trying circumstances California parole agents find themselves working under these days. Now Paco has posted his thoughts on this case.
I do not believe that parole agents visited Garrido at his home "a few times a month." With caseloads exceeding 100 parolees, most field visits, if they actually occurred, must have taken place in the parole office parking lot because the agents would not have found the time to go to Garrido’s home. And while a disinterested or lazy sheriff’s deputy failed to make a thorough investigation of complaints by neighbors that Garrido had children living with him, that does not excuse the year after year failure of parole agents to detect that this sex offender on life parole was holding Jaycee Dugard captive.
In fairness though, here is Paco’s take on this sordid affair.
OF SECRET ANNEXES
PacoVilla’s Corrections Blog
September 01, 2009
"One question that has dogged the Garrido case is how parole officers, who have visited the home a few times a month, could have missed the compound in the backyard...[parole agents] never went into the backyard...simply noting the high fence covered by trees and bushes." -LA Times
OFFICIALS ASK HOW THEY FAILED TO DETECT KIDNAPPING VICTIM
Parole officers and other law enforcement agents visited the home of the woman's alleged abductor but never entered the backyard where she lived with her daughters, authorities say.
By Maria L. LaGanga and My-Thuan Tran
For years, neighbors knew something was off about Phillip Garrido, the registered sex offender now accused of abducting an 11-year-old girl and holding her for 18 years, much of the time in an overgrown backyard filled with sheds and tents. One neighbor even called 911, worried about children living in the yard.
Authorities regularly visited Garrido's home in Antioch, northeast of Oakland, but never detected the presence of Jaycee Lee Dugard, whom Garrido allegedly kidnapped in 1991, or the two blond, blue-eyed girls officials say she bore him during her captivity.
On Friday, authorities retraced their steps to explain and understand where they had failed...(Full text at LATimes.com)
It is only normal and necessary to question how and why sheriff's deputies and parole agents could have missed the compound where Jaycee Lee Dugard has apparently been detained since 1991. Surely, the failure to detect such a hiding place points to a lack of due diligence...or does it?
Forgive the comparison, but Paco wonders if it was a lack of due diligence that led the Gestapo to overlook the hidden apartment of the Frank Family for several years? In that case, just as with Dugard, the hideaways were only discovered after officials received a tip.
Clearly, a clever person may, with enough time and ingenuity, fashion a facade to conceal people in a home, garage or yard. Similar ruses worked under the noses of Roman Centurions--Slave hunters were fooled by the Underground Railroad. In that context, it comes as no surprise a hideout worked so well right under DAPO's nose.
Phillip Garrido is a clever, resourceful sexual predator who managed to carry off the Sex Crime of the Century right under the noses of parole agents charged with his supervision. Doubtless, those agents followed the procedures. Nobody found the walled-off yard worth a 2nd look...not even the deputy called out to investigate reports of children back there.
There's plenty of blame to go around--We all failed Jaycee Lee Dugard.
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