What is happening in Colorado is happening all over the country.
EARLY PAROLES ARE DANGEROUS
By Kenneth R. Buck
The Denver Post
October 18, 2009
Four years ago in the quiet town of Platteville, a grandmother who should have been playing bridge with friends, lay dying in her home — bleeding from cuts to her throat. For 15 minutes her attacker, Terry Sanchez, watched her die before he ransacked her home looking for items to steal. At the time of the crime, he was on parole.
This wasn't the first time Sanchez had burglarized a home. Two months before, Sanchez was involved in another burglary and sexual assault. In fact, Sanchez had a long criminal history of burglary, and he admitted on several occasions to trading stolen items for drugs. For 21 years, Sanchez had been in and out of prison, paroled numerous times. And with each parole release, he became more brazen in his crimes.
Will we have to endure more accounts like this as the state's plan to release inmates early to parole goes into effect? Parole recidivism rates are approaching all-time highs. Every year we see an increase in the number of prisoners who were paroled and are now returning to prison. In fact, from 2000 to 2008 in Colorado, releases to parole increased 126 percent while parole returns to prison for a new conviction increased 195 percent.
The parole system is a revolving- door this state can no longer keep up with. Of the inmates released in 2005, 33.9 percent returned to prison within one year; 53.2 percent returned within three years. Similar return numbers can be found every year for the past 10 years. Last year, 41 percent of Colorado's 11,038 admissions to prison were parole returns.
Ten of the 25 criminals on a recent list of Weld County's Most Wanted had new arrest warrants for, among other crimes, parole violations. The parole supervision department has seen a 175 percent funding increase from 2000 to 2008 but Colorado taxpayers aren't seeing a beneficial return on their parole investment.
Yet the state says releasing a few thousand inmates early to parole will help balance the budget. In reality, the money they claim early release will save now will have to be spent to remedy this action in the future.
Many parolees re-enter the system because they have committed a new crime. Those crimes will cost each of us money: victims will pay, communities will suffer, and more money will need to be directed to the entire criminal justice system. The end result will not be a monetary savings for the state, but an increased financial burden for taxpayers and compromised public safety for all.
The state, however, is hoping you won't think about these consequences; it is hoping that you will be lulled into a false sense of security by reports that crime is down and early release to parole will not change that. Crime is down and that's good news, but don't forget how that decrease in crime was achieved.
Tough-on-crime legislation passed in the '90s has led to longer incarceration times. Legislation including changing life sentences for first-degree felonies to life without parole in 1990, added sentencing requirements for habitual offenders in 1993 and the three-strikes legislation of 1994 has contributed to crime reduction. When criminals are in prison, they aren't committing more crimes.
Purse strings are being tightened everywhere. Smart budgeting, however, means looking not only for ways to save money today but also making sure greater problems aren't created for tomorrow. The early release could cause future emotional and financial harm to Colorado taxpayers. It is a dangerous idea.
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Kenneth R. Buck (weldda@co.weld.co.us) is Weld County district attorney and has declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
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