Law Enforcement Responds To Potential Early Prisoner Release
Sonora, CA — The proposed early release of 44,000 prisoners from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would be " … very, very devastating to law enforcement on both the state and local level."
That’s a quote from Sonora Police Chief Mark Stinson who adds, "This will have a major impact on the local level because we are already struggling to provide the basic services without the influx of convicted criminals coming back into our community early. We’re going to be really stuck supervising these individuals. Of course, the individuals who reoffend is astounding (70 percent). We’re looking at these individuals returning to our community and then continuing to commit crimes in our community which we’re left to have to deal once again and pick up the pieces of the state’s broken system."
Stinson adds that given the current economic downturn it will be difficult for ex-convicts to secure employment. Many of them, he says, will simply return to what they know best, a life of crime.
Now more than ever Stinson comments that neighborhood watch groups must take very seriously the mandate they protect themselves and each other should this judgment not be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Written by bill.johnson@mlode.com
