Caroline Aguirre, a retired California parole agent, writes that the early release of prison inmates constitutes a threat to public safety. She also notes that by pressuring its agents not take any action that could result in the return of parole violators to prison, the California parole system “has become one big joke.”
When I was a California parole agent we sure as hell arrested a lot of parole violators and they were returned to prison if the parole violations were serious. We had minimum specs to meet with respect to the number of field visits and we sure as hell didn't phone up the parolee or his family to set up an appointment for those visits.
Because most states are reducing their prison populations as a result of state budget cuts and/or to comply with federal court orders to reduce prison overcrowding, what is happening in California is either already happening in other states or will surely happen in the near future.
Politicians and state officials claim that only non-violent offenders will be eligible for early release. That is simply not true! Some inmates, like kidnapper-rapist Phillip Garrido, have been misclassified as non-violent. Many more inmates actually committed violent crimes but had the charges against them reduced by plea bargaining for a lesser sentence.
Caroline Aguirre shows us that today's non-violent offender may very well be tomorrow's violent offender. Here are some excerpts from her article:
THREATS TO PUBLIC SAFETY
By Caroline Aguirre
OurLA.org
December 7, 2009
I'm a retired parole agent who knows first hand the threat to our safety posed by the early release from prison of more than 25,000 inmates classified as non-violent.
Crime fell sharply under the watch of Police Chief William Bratton as the LAPD became more proactive in combating crime and more involved in multi-law enforcement agencies task forces.
But even with the overall reduction of murders and violent crime, there has not been a passing day where we have not heard or read a story about an individual on active parole status involvement in the commission of a violent crime.
Parole and parole supervision has become one big joke.
Parole agents have been encouraged by their supervisors to make advance appointments when conducting home site visits. Reasoning behind this is so that the parole agents won't observe any signs of a parole violation. Remember parole agents are being instructed not to arrest parolees. State elected officials have openly stated that with the passage of SBX 3-18, the reduction and the amount of parolees being supervised by parole agents will be reduced and thus in the long run the parole agents will be supervising smaller case load.
SBX 3-18 is the California state legislation that deals with prison overcrowding, the return to custody of parolees for parole violations, placing parole holds on parolees when requested by various law enforcement agencies and changes in sentencing laws. The bottom line is that it will lead to the early release of thousands of supposedly non-violent, low-level criminal offenders from our state prisons. Most law enforcement agencies up and down the state of California opposed passage of SBX 3-18 and for good reason.
How can anybody forget or not know about the Phillip Garrido case and the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard? [Aguirre than goes on to list some noteworthy examples of violent crimes committed after the early release of parolees who had been classified as non-violent offenders.]
Just last Nov. 11, Flor Medrano was stabbed to death by a male suspect. The suspect who was shot and killed by police officers was subsequently identified as a ex felon who had spent time in California State prison for Domestic Violence. He was discharged from parole supervision after only one year because Domestic Violence convictions are classified as non-violent low level criminal offenses.
In another case, Scott Thomas, on parole for property related criminal offenses, was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after he stabbed two individuals inside a bakery.
Carlos Velasquez on parole for resisting arrest and classified as a non-violent offender was arrested and charged with the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Abel Escalante
Howard Astorga on parole for possession of controlled substance for sales and classified as a non-violent offender was arrested and charged with the murder of 4-year-old Ricardo Lopez
Charles Samuel on parole for Petty Theft with Priors arrested and charged with the murder of 17-year-old Lily Burk
Salvador Solis on parole for Domestic Violence a non-violent offender was arrested and charged with Kidnapping ,Attempted Rape and Rape.
Two weeks ago, non-violent offender parolee Alberto Alvarez, on parole for Illegal Possession of a firearm, was found guilty of the 2006 murder of Palo Alto police officer Richard May.
The list of paroled non violent offenders committing new violent criminal behavior is endless.
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