The State of California, or should I say The California's State? We have been awaiting The Big One. I just did not believe I would live to see it. This entire time maybe The Big One consisted of California's political financial quake.
California's new early release program is an effort to save cash. What is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thinking? Is he kidding me? Who has found rewarding bad behavior to work?
Our state has several cracks and faults.
Fault: Yes, it cost the state about $57,000 a year per inmate. I think they need fewer privileges. This might save money, but that is a whole other story. Correctional officers are understaffed per inmate. Both the safety of our officers and inmates are at risk. If correctional officers and staff safety is a daily concern, what guarantees do we have that we will be safe? Why bother to continue to fight crime, call the crime hotline or even arrest people? They are just going to be released as if their crimes were some sort of joke. Is the public even aware that the State of California has plans to eventually build another prison due to overcrowding?
Crack: Nina Salarno from Crime Victims United said the state's classification for a low-risk offender was shocking. Domestic abuse, child/elder abuse and manslaughter are considered nonviolent in our state.
Fault: Should I remind you that things accidentally pass through the cracks in our system? How thorough is our prison system's paperwork? California parole officials have ordered increased monitoring of all sex offenders after recent criticisms, one being the case of a young woman who was held captive by a convicted rapist. We were told by a state representative on the "Today Show" the parole officer in charge was overwhelmed by having 35 cases to monitor every month. There are an average of 30 days in a month. Could he have monitored one or two a day, and maybe he would have noticed what was really going on in that backyard? In 18 years he did not discover a convicted sex offender was allegedly keeping Jaycee Dugard in his back yard. The system failed Jaycee.
Fault: Gov. Schwarzenegger last month ordered California corrections officials to keep sex offenders' parole records indefinitely, only after realizing that files of a man now charged with killing a 17-year-old girl had been destroyed. Why would we destroy the records? If the state was worried about paper and filing storage issues, we have computer scanning systems that can store documents in CDs or zip drives.
Fault: Correctional Officer Manuel A. Gonzalez, a 16-year employee of the California Department of Corrections, was stabbed by an inmate while serving lunch. Inmate Jon Christopher Blaylock was convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer. He was sentenced to 75 years and had served time twice before. He was previously released from prison in 2002. After the death of Officer Gonzalez, it was realized that inmate Blaylock was under the wrong classification level and was in a proper yard and lunch line. Also, Officer Gonzalez was not given a proper vest for his protection. A supply of vests was found in storage instead of assigned as they should have — several cracks in our system this time, not only paperwork, but proper safety protocols from prison administration.
Fault: Kevin Peterson was released 16 days earlier for good behavior from Sacramento under the new early release program. Twelve hours later, he was booked for assault, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, sexual battery, false imprisonment and violation of probation. In an interview, he was asked if he believed he should have been released early. Peterson's response was he should have not been released because his mother was right. He was a menace. He stated maybe this time he would be placed in a proper facility like Atascadero and get help.
Fault: How can someone who is listed on Megan's Law be a federal employee? A local postman in King City delivered mail to schools. The media let us know he would no longer be delivering mail to local schools. Wow, that should make us feel safer. There are children at homes and business where mail is delivered every day. Hmm? Guess his paperwork background check fell through the cracks.
Maybe The Big One is really only caused by one major fault — people not doing what our tax dollars pay them to do, and inmates not doing the time they were sentenced to do.
Suggestion: If the governor wants to choose the prison system, let's limit inmate medical care (from Cadillac plan to basic care), limit their costly privileges and monitor staff hours properly. Inmates should lose their citizenship privileges, we should deport undocumented inmates, etc. The problem is that our governor is fighting one of the strongest unions, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, not to mention a strong inmate population with legal human rights.
We, as a society, should have rights for our safety and the safety of our children.
Mary Vargas grew up in south Monterey County. The mother of two works at the Soledad Community Health Care District. Her column appears in Opinion on the third Friday of each month. E-mail to: vargasnotes@yahoo.com.
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