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Governor Admits Initiative Will Release Early
Inmates Who Committed Despicably Violent Crimes
by George Hofstetter
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| George Hofstetter |
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When Governor Brown
telephoned me in February,
asking ALADS to not oppose his early prisoner release initiative--which the ALADS Board voted to oppose--he took care never to describe it as applying to violent prisoners. Now, however, the pretense has been dropped. Early release of violent inmates will be allowed if the initiative passes, a fact the Governor's own campaign manager has now acknowledged.
The California District Attorneys Association has done an
extensive analysis
of the initiative and the inmates who will benefit from early release. As reported by
columnist Dan Walters
, early release would be allowed for what Walters correctly labeled as "despicably violent crimes" such as resisting arrest that injures a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon, soliciting murder, intimidating or harming a crime victim or witness, violent elder or child abuse, arson with injury, human trafficking and several forms of manslaughter are among the violent crimes for which early release would be allowed.
In reaction, Governor Brown's campaign spokesperson "confirmed that the association's interpretation is correct." In short, his own spokesperson confirmed that Governor Brown has not been truthful in claiming violent prisoners would not be released early by his initiative.
Walter wrote, "It's somewhat disingenuous for Brown to claim that the measure would apply to 'nonviolent felony offenses' when unwinding the verbiage reveals that it applies to many despicably violent crimes." Actually, "somewhat" dramatically undersells the behavior of Governor Brown the past three months while he has been attempting to qualify the initiative. He has deliberately--even Walters labels it "perhaps by design"--attempted to hide the truth from voters.
It is hard to find the right words to describe a Governor seeking law enforcement support for an initiative that would release criminals sentenced to state prison for resisting arrest that injures a police officer, let alone any of the other "despicably violent crimes" his initiative qualifies for early release. Hubris? Arrogance? Or, is the Governor so infatuated with the belief he has the corner on wisdom and virtue that he feels comfortable trying to play ALADS and the general public for dupes when describing his initiative?
The story by Dan Walters, follows a Los Angeles Times piece that first exposed the facts about the Governor's plan. The story by
Paige St. John
exposed that in practice, the initiative essentially would undo many of the sentencing enhancements added to the penal code by state lawmakers and ballot measures, such as the Three Strikes Law, approved by voters.
The mask has been ripped off of the
Governor's initiative
. We eagerly await engaging the Governor before voters, and hearing how he plans to justify early release for those sentenced to prison for committing despicably violent crimes.
George Hofstetter is President of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. ALADS
is the collective bargaining agent and represents more than 8,200 deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators working in Los Angeles County. George can be contacted at
[email protected]
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