Arnold Pardons Druggies

NewsMax ^ | Dec 23, 2004

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pardoned three men yesterday who were convicted of drug charges in the 1970s, marking the first state pardons in six years.

The actions are a turnaround from the policy of Gov. Gray Davis, who never pardoned a convict during his 4½ years in office. Schwarzenegger has also been more aggressive than his predecessor at paroling convicted murderers and kidnappers, freeing dozens in his first year in office compared with the eight life-term inmates Davis paroled.

The governor's office said in a statement the pardoned men, each 53 years old, had committed nonviolent crimes and rebounded by contributing to their communities. The men are James Brown, Antonio Garcia and Alec Webster. The last pardon in the state was by Davis' predecessor, Gov. Pete Wilson, in 1998.

[26lemoncharlie]

Non Violent Crimes? In the 70's, that would make them in their 20's? Think they learned their lesson?? Don't blow it boys!

[silent_jonny]

The men are James Brown

Thanks, Arnold!

[VOA]

The very under-reported "nasty little secret" is that CA parolees that are
caught in violation of parole...are not being returned to custody.

That's right...if Joe Citizen commits a minor infraction, he gets prosecuted and sent to jail;
a convict does the same in violation of parole...and the state just releases them back
to the street.

The only place I've heard this Only In California lunacy reported is on
Eric Leonard's crime-news show on KFI radio on Saturday nights 8-10PM PAC TIME:
http://www.kfi640.com

[Enterprise]

According to the Fresno Bee, Brown and Garcia served in treatment programs, and Webster served three years on probation. Brown became a drug counselor, community volunteer and college professor. Garcia served 20 years on the board of directors for a drug treatment program and as a lawyer serving on court committees related to juvenile dependency. Webster spent more than 20 years giving his time and money to his community.

They all made mistakes. It appears that they learned from those mistakes, and devoted a lot of their time to helping others. God Bless them.

[26lemoncharlie]

They deserve their Freedom, God be with them.

[freekitty]

Arnold, either you are a conservative or you are not.

The problem with people like you is you want it all. And it really doesn't matter who you hurt in the process because it's all about you.

I don't think you will ever understand what I am saying because you are so caught up in flattering yourself at all levels. You are perfect for your wife because she can use you through your dumbness, naviety, or maybe you are a socialist at heart and this is the plan you have been nursing for a long time.

I pray, someday, there will be someone who will just care to do the right thing and not for profit or fame; but for his fellow man.

[Echo Talon]

MerrY Christmas, Enjoy the Gonja!

[Luigi Vasellini]

He realizes he could be in there for steroids!!

[LloydofDSS]

On Christmas Eve, it is only appropriate to point out that putting your neighbor in jail for using, making or selling his favorite form of intoxicating substance is about as far from the message of Christ as you can get.

Arnold is taking a tiny baby step in the direction of the message of Christ and he gets back biting comments from conservatives. Does that make sense?

[GregW8705]

"I gave you every seed-bearing plant" --God, Genesis 1:29


He only made marijuana so self-righteous people would have a reason to look down on people...right?

[TKDietz]

Are you sure about that? I don't live in California or anywhere close to California, but I've had clients in the last few months who were on parole from California who had their parole revoked and were put back in California prisons. The last one had to go to our prison first and then be transported back to California to do the remainder of his time on a California parole violation.

[TKDietz]

Is it conservative to want to keep people in prison forever? Is conservatism the reason why our incarceration rate has absolutely shot through the roof since the late 1970's? Is conservatism the reason why we have more people in prison than any other country in the world and the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world?

I don't see how such liberal use of prisons is conservative. We have something like 2.1 million people in prison in this country and if we cut that number in half we'd still have a per capita incarceration rate up there in the top twenty-five with countries like Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and others we don't want to be anything like. We are having to feed these people, keep a roof over their heads, provide them medical, guard them. It's costing us a fortune. Most only stay a couple of years and then about 70% will be rearrested on new felony charges within three years. It doesn't work and it's out of control. If Arnold or anyone else wants to let some out who have proven themselves to be changed men, more power to him.

[TKDietz]

Unfortunately a lot of people who claim to be conservative are Christian in name only. They do not understand the concept of forgiveness, and they ever ask themselves what Jesus would do in a situation they are facing.

[freekitty]

So what.

[VOA]

Are you sure about that?

I'm not in law enforcement, but I think the reporter is pretty much on the level.
Eric Leonard did the three-hour show "Manhunter" with former FBI profiler
John Douglas for at least 6 months. After Douglas moved on due to other projects,
Leonard has continued doing it (as a two-hour show, 8-10PM Sat., PAC TIME).

Leonard seems to have the pulse of many cases in the Los Angeles area and
also on the operation of the jails and other parts of the jail/court system.

I think he's been commenting on this new wrinkle in the California parole system
for at least the last two Saturdays. He said he's even getting passed some
confidential information.

Leonard's show will be off this Saturday (Christmas Day) as Leonard said he didn't
think the audience would like hearing about murder and mayhem on that day.
But as far as I know, he'll be back on the air (and available over the Internet
at www.kfi640.com) the following Saturday (New Years Day!).

If you listen in for a couple of weeks, I bet he'll cover the subject.
When he gets on something, he tends to push it and get a lot of input in
terms of folks either "pushing back" or feeding him inside info.

[TKDietz]

So there is nothing conservative about locking as many people up as we have since the late 1970's. It's gotten out of hand. If you look back in our history, we've never had incarceration rates anywhere close to where they are today. Look at the link I'm providing you. It shows the numbers of people per hundred thousand incarcerated in state and federal prisons from 1925 through 2002. The rate in 1925 was 79 per 100,000. It hit a peak of 137 in 1937, but dropped off and stayed at around a 110 give or take a little through 1975, when it started climbing up to 476 in 2002. It was 483 in 2003, and that doesn't include those in jail. Including those in jails along with those in prisons the rate in 2003 was somewhere around 730.

I don't understand how anyone can say "so what" to what has been happening in this country with respect to our growing prison populations. In my county and the neighboring county they've threatened to close down our jails unless we can get the populations down to design specifications. Both jails are only a few years old and we can't afford to build new ones just yet. About 40% of those in both jails have already been sentenced to prison but there is no room in the prisons. Our state keeps adding prison beds but still the legislature keeps passing new bills to let more and more out before their parole eligibility dates because the prisons are too full. It's bankrupting our state, and the situation is similar in most other states.

More than the money we are blowing is the fact that putting so many in prison doesn't do us any good and in many ways causes further problems. As I said, nationwide about 70% of people released from prisons are rearrested on new felony charges within three years. They get sent down their where they make new criminal friends, join gangs, white supremacy groups, or join the Muslim Brotherhood, get a bunch of tattoos, learn new meth cooking recipes, scams and other criminal skills, and then are pushed out the door amongst the rest of us where they won't be able to get decent jobs and where most will go back to what they were doing before prison or worse. Most cycle out in a couple of years or less and each year we are adding hundreds of thousands to the millions of ex cons having been toughened up and having had a "higher education" in criminality.

I deal with criminals everyday. I've been working in the criminal justice system for many years. I can tell you that we aren't turning many of these people around, but we are probably making a lot of them worse. And that can't be good for us. The prison explosion in the past thirty or so years has not been a healthy thing for us, and there is certainly nothing conservative about it. It's a runaway train that needs to be stopped.

A major part of the problem has been the ever increasing sentences by politicians who have been too lazy to roll up their sleeves and come up with real solutions that might actually turn some of these people around and reduce recidivism. The easy route for them has been to just jump on the "tough on crime" bandwagon and spit out new statutes lengthening sentences and adding sentence enhancements. That takes almost no work and involves no political risk. A vote for these laws makes them appear tough on crime so they can say they've done something without really having done anything but added to the prison population explosion. Voting against these laws would make them appear soft on crime and cost them dollars from the private prison lobbyists, prison workers unions, and others who build new facilities and supply services and products to prisons and jails.

If some governor wants to release some prisoners because they've turned their lives around, I say more power to him. That eases the burden on taxpayers slightly and encourages others to turn their lives around in hopes that they'll be released early. This doesn't make the governor a "liberal." In fact, liberals have been responsible in large part for the massive growth in prison populations over the last thirty years. Carter was president when it really started taking off and Clinton presided during the period where we experienced the biggest part of the growth.

Anyway, if Arnold wants to let a few people out who have turned their lives around, I say so what.

Here's the link on state and federal prison populations from 1925 to 2002:

http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/pdf/t622.pdf

[TKDietz]

I don't know. I'm no expert on the workings of California's parole system. I just know from my work that at least a couple of people I have dealt with who happened to be from California were sent to California prisons on parole revocations. I don't know how common or uncommon that is but I know it does happen.

I will say this though. In my state people on parole who get in trouble often get their parole revoked, but not always. It depends on what they did, and I know our parole board takes into consideration that our prisons are overcrowded to the point where it takes several months for people being sentenced to prison to actually get sent there and our jails are packed way beyond capacity in large part because they are holding people who have been sentenced to prison (it's been taking at least three or four months lately, sometimes longer). I would not be surprised if overcrowding and lack of money to keep adding more prisons and jails has something to do with whatever problem they might be having locking up parole violators in California.