Denver Post writer Kirk Mitchell has an above-the-fold front page story today that reads like something one might see in my favorite newspaper, The Onion. Colorado's Democrat Governor Bill Ritter has decided to release prisoners early in order to save money it would cost to keep them in prison until their sentences are fulfilled. Additionally, in order to make room for the new parolees, 2,600 people currently being supervised will no longer be supervised!
The first ten prisoners have been released. These are the cream of the crop. According to Mitchell, Jose Madrigal "had trouble following rules in prison." In fact, seven of the ten had previously violated parole conditions, and six of the ten had tried to escape! Mr. Madrigal is only 27, but he had nine prior arests, including rioting in prison, car theft, drug dealing, and vehicular assault. Benny Joe Rael had 16 prior arrests for charges including sexual assault, child molestation, drunken driving, and cocaine distribution. Rick Martinez had 46 prior arrests for charges including assault, escape, hit and run, and burglary. John Cox had 29 prior arrests for charges including theft, fraud, escape, drunken driving, assault, and drug dealing. Betty Jean Kelly had 12 pror arrests for charges including larceny, property damages, theft, and forgery. Jestin Leeks had nine prior arrests for charges including robbery, trespassing, vehicle theft and larceny. Louis Powers had 27 prior arrrests for charges including vehicular assault, drug dealing, and car theft. Cynthia Lucero had 20 prior arrests for charges including drunken driving, fraud, cocaine dealing, and domestic violence. Erin Dunlap had 22 prior arrests for charges including trespassing, burglary, cocaine possession, theft and escape.
In a classic understatement worthy of an Onion quote, Attorney General John Suthers said, "I have to assume the first ten released were deemed to be among the lowest risk of the possible releases. Frankly, this doesn't portend well for public safety as large numbers of such offenders are released early in the coming years."
Over 8000 additional prisoners are expected to be released over the next two years back into Colorado communities. If you were thinking of moving to Colorado, you might want to wait a few years.
I wonder how much money it will cost to rearrest these individuals, retry them, resentence them, and reimprison them in the coming years.
3 comments:
Wow. Satire is pointless when reality can one-up you.
Mushroom said it best. I think I'll stick to my neck of the woods.
This is the same task that the California Supreme Court set Schwarzenegger to do this year and he has refused, trying to come up with a better way to relieve the overcrowding of prisons in CA. There are some who are trying to get him arrested for contempt of court! They can just look at Colorado and see how they will be screwing up their societies, but asking their governator to do what Colorado is already learning from this incredible mistake.
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