Do violent parolees need a more adequate support system, or do they need to stay in prison (or, go back to prison)? After Colorado released Evan Ebel, who had spent most of his prison time in solitary confinement, because he was such a violent dude, he killed a pizza delivery guy, then Tom Clements, the Chief of Colorado's Correction system. What's more, he got out of prison early because of the time he spent in solitary confinement! If that isn't absurd, I don't know what is!
Also in March a man named Warren Watson got out of prison, then sexually assaulted and strangled an attorney named Claudia Miller. So what has Colorado done about the problem? The state, being run by liberal Democrats, has made it harder for parole officers to revoke parole, and therefore, the caseloads are growing, because more parolees are staying in the community, rather than going back to prison when they violate parole!
Wouldn't you know it? Tim Hand, the state's Parole Director won't be available to talk to reporters about this problem until sometime this week! I am glad to see The Denver Post making it the main story in today's paper, written by Christopher Osher. Osher points out that Ebel was released straight from solitary confinement to the outside world! Nothing risky there! Oh, and the proper term now for solitary confinement is administrative segregation, or as the bureaucrats working in corrections call it, "admin seg."
What was Ebel doing in admin seg? Smearing his feces on the wall, and banging his head against the wall! (I don't know if he was banging his head before or after spreading the feces).
Osher points out that about 65 percent of parolees who are released from prison on mandatory parole (as in Ebel's case), are back in prison within three years. Mandatory parole means that the prisoner has served his full sentence.
Have law enforcement officials complained to the Governor about the increased threat to public safety? Yes! Greeley police Chief Jerry Garner is one who wrote to Governor Hickenlooper. What did Hickenlooper do? He sent Clements to talk to Chief Garner, explaining that it was not really something to worry about!
8,181 people are currently out on parole in Colorado. Nearly a quarter of them are homeless.
In a related story by Kirk Mitchell in the Denver Post, the family of the pizza delivery man who was killed by Ebel, are furious that Ebel was let out four years early because of a clerical error! The clerical error was that he was not given four years extra confinement after assaulting a prison guard!
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