BIZARRE DEMOCRAT PROPOSAL FOR EARLY RELEASE OF THOUSANDS OF PRISONERS

NJReporter ^ | 12/18/03 | NJ Assemblyman Joe Pennacchio

[thenderson]

For Release: Immediate December 18, 2003

Contact: Assemblyman Pennacchio 973-984-0922

PENNACCHIO CALLS DEMOCRAT PROPOSAL FOR EARLY RELEASE OF THOUSANDS OF PRISONERS 'BIZARRE' SUGGESTS PRISONERS SHOULD BE SERVING LONGER – NOT SHORTER SENTENCES

Assemblyman Joe Pennacchio today criticized a proposal being supported by the McGreevey administration and some Democrat legislators, that would trim New Jersey's prison population by allowing prisoners to earn credits toward early releases.

"The Governor should not risk the safety of our citizens to balance New Jersey's state budget," said Pennacchio, R-Morris, Passaic. "The idea that we need to start letting thousands of prisoners out of jail early just to ease overcrowding and balance the budget is not only dangerous but also bizarre."

According to newspaper reports this week, State Corrections Commissioner Devon Brown is backing a plan that would make 40 percent of the state's 23,000 inmates eligible for early release through a "good-time" credits program for well-behaved prisoners.

"We are punishing these inmates for crimes they committed against society and they should pay the full penalty for those crimes," Pennacchio said. "Behaving well while incarcerated does not undo the damage they did to society by the crimes they committed when they were free."

Pennacchio said that he has no problem with reviewing the sentencing laws to ensure they are fair and sufficiently tough, but that doing so with the intention of allowing inmates to leave prison early is the wrong approach.

Assemblyman Pennacchio concluded "The administration's handling of Homeland Security is an obvious failure. Most notably the hiring and firing of Golan Cipel as Homeland Security Czar and Joseph Santiago as Superintendent of the State Police. Both appointments ended in failure and now this."

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Links to New Jersey Press, TV, and Radio Web Sites

NJ Governor James McGreevey
A Miserable Failure

[Unknowing]

Oh, I'm certain that you are correct about the kinds of offenders who are incarcerated in the NJ state system. I just wanted to respond to that one sentence because it sounded so ironical -- and true.

And how about plea-bargaining! It does seem wrong to plead guilty to a "lesser offense" while the crimes of which a perpetrator is truly guilty are dismissed. The state gets their perp into a cell, and the perp makes a deal which lessens his sentence, but the truth is plowed under for fertilizer.

[thenderson]

Recently, someone was released from the NJ state prison system after serving a little over twenty years. This individual had shot and killed a Port Authority Police Officer.

The murderer was smoking on a PATH subway train. The policeman, not particularly paying attention, mentioned that there was no smoking on the subway. Not liking the policeman's "attitude," the subway rider produced a gun and killed the policeman.

The original sentence was for 44 years. For "good behavior" while incarcerated, the sentence shrank by half.

[mvpel]

New Jersey information from http://www.packing.org/

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Issuance of the permit is almost completely discretionary, and New Jersey courts have upheld the policy of strictly limiting permits ``to persons specifically employed in security work . . . and to others who can establish an urgent necessity for carrying guns for self-protection. While NJ does issue non resident permits, few are allowed, and they are harder to obtain than a resident permit.
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[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Plus it frees up room in the prisons for all of those non compliant gun owners out there.

[Clintonfatigued]

If this actually happens, it's going to be another Willie Horton scandal.

[flashbunny]

wow, he looks like a huge, almost-human weasel.

[thenderson]

December 23, 2003
Dear Editor:

Not since the Governor selected Golan Cipel -- an obviously unqualified foreign national -- to head New Jersey's Department of Homeland Security, has our citizens safety been so ill-exposed. The recent statements of Devon Brown, the Administration's Commissioner of Department of Corrections, leads me to ask the question, "Whose side is he on, anyway?"

Mr. Brown has been codifying an administrative policy by giving prisoners accelerated, early release for good behavior. Along with this corrections policy, the administration has sent word to the states parole officers: look the other way when drug and alcohol criminals violate their parole.

This policy ignores a number of facts. First, 40% of prisoners entering New Jersey's prisons this year have been guests of our prison system before. Allowing convicted criminals early release will only add to these numbers. Second, the administration's policy of discounting drug and alcohol violations of parolees sends an ominous signal that drug and alcohol related crimes are "victimless." Unfortunately, drug and alcohol abuse are the seeds for many of our state's more violent and hurtful crimes.

The major impetus behind this ill-conceived social engineering is the desire to trim the state's budget by reducing inmate population. This policy is not only shortsighted but dangerous. It is also demeaning and insensitive to all the victims that these criminals abused, as well as a contradiction to local and federal anti-crime priorities.

An increased prison population means law enforcement, our judicial system and our state's criminal policies are working. This administration would be ill-advised to open up the floodgates and let our prisoners out just to save a buck.

Respectfully,

Joe Pennacchio
Assemblyman-District-26

Posted Online at:
http://www.njreporter.com/pr/penlet122303.html

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NJ Governor James McGreevey
A Miserable Failure

[Ron in Acreage]

Democrats love felons. They're fellow democRATS.