Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/116697
4A Daily News – Thursday, March 21, 2013 Opinion Penalties lacking for sex offenders who remove GPS devices DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. As distressing as it may be, for the sake of your family, take a look at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's link: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Parole/G PS-Wanted-Alerts.html. Scroll down and you will see mug-shot after mug-shot of some of the thousands of convicted sex offenders who have cut-off or disabled their GPS tracking devices and are now living who knows where. After perusing the site, you might want to double-check your doors and windows before you head off to bed. You might think twice before you allow your children to walk out the front door by themselves. You might also want to sign up for a class in selfdefense, or maybe get yourself a big dog, a home alarm system and some pepper spray. Voters approved Jessica's Law in 2006, in part because it requires that all convicted sex offenders be fitted with a GPS monitor and tracked for life upon their release. We found a little measure of comfort in the assurance that someone was sitting behind a computer tracking exactly where these potentially dangerous people are all the time, but there remain limitations in law enforcement ability to monitor and because under the Governor's realignment plan, even those caught now face minimal or no consequences. Unsurprisingly, a recent widely circulated news story reported On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 jails already overcrowded, even return to custody with no good the most dangerous felons are time credit. We may have some being released. In the first week difficulty garnering the support of the Democrat of the AB 109 implemajority, however. mentation sex offender For many years now, parole violators were the Democrats in being arrested, and both houses have immediately released for abided by a blanket their violations because policy of rejecting of jail overcrowding. any and all legislation This continues. that either creates or Governor Brown expands felony sencalls realignment a suctencing. Neverthecess. The state may have less, I have to have saved $1 billion on faith that those who prison costs to date, but a majority in what is the cost in Sen. Jim hold houses of this both human suffering? Legislature will recOne of the registered ognize the significant sex offenders who threat to public safety removed his GPS device is Sidney Jerome DeAvila of that GPS tampering presents. After my colleagues in the Stockton. DeAvila was an AB109 inmate, according to the Legislature take a good look at San Joaquin County Sheriff's the long list of offenders walking Office. Records showed that our streets, and if they are willDeAvila was arrested at least 10 ing to hear the collective voices times in the past nine months. In of overwhelmed local public almost every instance, he was safety officials as well as the tesreleased within 24 hours due to timonies of victims of realignment and their family memovercrowding. Shortly after his last release in bers…well, I have to believe that February, he was charged with SB 57 may just have a fighting raping and killing his 76-year old chance. This bill is only one step. I am grandmother and leaving her body in a backyard wheelbarrow. asking for a special session to be As a first step, I am support- called so the governor and legising State Senator Ted Lieu's (D- lature can focus on and pass a Torrance) Senate Bill 57, which number of bills to address this defines GPS tampering or public safety disaster. removal as a felony. This bill Sen. Jim Nielsen represents does require amending to ensure the 4th District, which includes all sex offender parole violators are subject to the maximum Tehama County. Nielsen Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 that there are currently about 3,400 open arrest warrants for GPS tampering, and most of them are sex offenders. The number of parolees who have ditched their GPS tracking devices is up by 118 percent in the year following the implementation of Governor Brown's realignment plan. Before realignment, parole violations included a more severe penalty for removing a GPS monitor – a return to prison for a full year. Today, under the Governor's "historic" realignment, such parole violations incur a penalty of no more than 90 days in a local jail – and probably much less as a direct result of local jail overcrowding – a consequence of the state pushing former state prison inmates into county jails. Sex offenders, in some instances, strolled into their parole officers' offices, dropped their GPS devices on the counter, told law enforcement officials to pound sand and walked out. This brazen attitude is becoming the norm among criminals. The National Institute of Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice found that for sex offenders who are not monitored by GPS, the risk of re-offending triples. Of course, even jail time can only be imposed when public safety officials actually locate the offender, and that's more difficult to do once the tracking device is removed. With local Commentary Madness is in the air When you move around as a child your classmates often recognize you as much by where you came from as they do who you are. So when I moved to North Carolina for a time during my elementary school years I was sometimes known as the kid from Michigan. It wasn't a big deal until March of each year when the NCAA Tournament rolled around. In North Carolina hoops is king. It's where Michael Jordan went to high school and college. It's the home to three historic collegiate programs in the North Carolina Tar Heels, the North Carolina State Wolfpack and Duke Blue Devils. As coincidence would have it for all three years I lived in North Carolina, the Tar Heels got matched up with my home state Michigan Wolverines at some point in the tournament. 1987 the top-seeded Heels ran past Michigan 109-97 in the second round. In 1988 the schools met in the Sweet 16 with the Tar Heels prevailing again 78-69. That night after the game ended at an absurdly late hour for 7-year-olds our phone rang. My dad answered it and quizzically looked at me, "some kid, for you?" It was a fellow classmate wanting to rub in the fact North Carolina won. As I said, hoops is king in North Carolina. That phone call made it even more sweet the following year when Michigan got past North Carolina 92-87 and eventually went on to win the tournament. Rumeal Robinson made a pair of free throws to knock off Seton Hall 80-79 in an overtime thriller for the championship. I saw the highlights the next morning. It was a school night after all. Four years later when I could actually stay up past 10 p.m., if I begged my parents and was good all day, I got to see Michigan and North Carolina play again in the tournament — this time in the championship. The Wolverines, led by the Fab 5, rallied back at the end and had a chance to pull it out until Chris Webber called a timeout. Michigan didn't have any timeouts. It was a technical foul and a moment that lives on forever as the worst I've had watching sports. I thought of that classmate back in North Carolina. I'm sure he was thinking of me, grinning away. Since I've been alive, a school from Michigan or North It's also one of the tournaCarolina has won the tournament 11 times. Schools from ment's most endearing qualities. We know it will those states have happen, we just don't appeared in the title know where and game another eight when, and even more times. important we don't Obviously that conknow who. nection has made the March Madness has tournament special to taught me George me. Mason was as influenI have memories of tial as James Madison, trying to stay awake, that Butler is more while adjusting the than just an answer in rabbit ears to get better Clue and that VCU reception. Kids ask isn't a bad Arnold your parents. Rich Schwarzenegger I've lost many memimpression. ories from when I was My Wolverines are older and the tournaset to open up the ment coincided with St. Patrick's Day. Kids ask your tournament today against South Dakota State, a school I knew parents when you're older. I have more current memo- little about until it offered Red ries of trying to sneak in games Bluff High School's Dillon Reid while at work. I hope my boss a wrestling scholarship a few years ago. doesn't ask about that. The tournament has a way of I'm not the only one who bringing us all together. loves March Madness. Now if I can just dig up DilIt's hard to gauge just how many brackets are filled out lon's phone number in the next each year, but considering ESPN few hours. receives 3 million it would be Rich Greene has Duke, Ohio safe to say we're into tens of State, Florida and Indiana in his millions per year. One of the most frustrating Final 4, with the Hoosiers things about watching the tour- winning the title. Connect with on Twitter nament is when a small school him does a Cinderella act and busts @richgreenenews or at 5272151, ext. 109. your bracket apart. Greene