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4A Daily News – Saturday, April 13, 2013 Opinion 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. Waste management Editor: As Steve Martin says, "Well, isn't that nice." So, we taxpayers are to believe that a few elected supervisors recommend taking away jobs from hard workers who pay their taxes, raise their families, and buy locally are to lose their jobs to prisoners? A prisoner is a person who did not do what the workers at the landfill have been doing. Mainly they were up to doing something illegal. I am all for using prisoners that want to change their life through work programs. But not at the expense of doing away with jobs that people get out and hustle for. They are good citizens that contribute back to our community. Many times a prisoner that works on probation are hired later by those observing if they did a good job. I have personal- ly worked with furloughed prisoners and know this to be true. Within days you can tell which person wants to work for their community and those who will go back to illegal ways. Again, we need hard working people to work in our community. Not takers. Cee Dempsey, Red Bluff Little free libraries hold 10 to 15 books and installs them. it in their front yard. Take a Why does the media give book and leave a book is the them the attention they so desmotto. perately crave? The details for Why print their building and registernames and pictures on ing them can easily be the front page — or Your found on the Internet. the back page for that What a great idea to matter? promote reading. They are not part of Marlene Messler, the solution. They are Red Bluff part of the problem. Linda Richards, Cottonwood Editor: I am hoping Red Bluff residents will begin to host Little Free Libraries in various neighborhoods through out the town. This began in Wisconsin in 2009 and has become very popular. Shasta County plans on having 50 in different parts of the county. They are doing theirs as part of an Early Literacy Project. These can also be built and hosted privately. One simply builds a waterproof box that can Editor: The article on the tree sitters made me ill, it gave some insight as to what is wrong in this country. Why was this fiasco allowed to go on for months? What did this circus cost the taxpayers? Will the sitters be held accountable for the cost? It reminds me of the monkeys at the zoo. They don't have a clue. They sit up on a limb and throw feces at those that feed Turn Tree sitters 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. 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 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 Call for help Editor: Sheriff, chief of police, City Council, Board of Supervisors. Dorothy Britton's letter is a call for help. My heart goes out to her. I don't know what I would do in her situation. Do we as taxpayers have rights? I should hope so. As a fellow taxpayer please do something to alleviate this problem. It will get worse if ignored. Sam Collins, Red Bluff 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. Commentary Crime and Punishment III Sam called the other day and said we needed to have coffee; it was important. We met on Wednesday and talked for about an hour. Sam came right out and asked the big question, "Why did you decide to write about plea bargaining.?" "I started out thinking I could support my bias against it, but fortunately I decided to do some research before I wrote and made myself look even more foolish than usual." "Well, I'm not sure you realize just how foolish that would have to be." "Thanks, Sam. Why did you want to have coffee today?" Then Sam asked the big question on his mind. "What made you change your mind about plea bargaining? How did you decide to be more objective about it?" " I think it was talking to the attorneys who represent defendants and attorneys who represent the prosecution that shed enough light on the process to make me feel it was not the evil I had originally thought. Both said plea bargaining was necessary and that it was an effective and efficient way to resolve many criminal cases. They gave good reasons for their opinion. I learned I did not know very much about plea bargaining. They also told me that plea bargaining can be abused." "You mean like the young boy who was exonerated and is now trying out for the NFL?" "Right. After my first two commentaries, a former judge told me that none of our judicial system is perfect. Wrongly accused persons are convicted and sometimes people take a plea to avoid something that seems even scarier than the plea. So I feel much less uncomfortable about plea bargaining than when I started to investigate the practice. I still worry about its misuse." "Do you think you really understand it?" "Not really; it is on my list of things to learn more about." "Your 'I don't know' list is still growing," smirked Sam. "At least I haven't started making a bucket list yet," I retorted. "Okay, but give me an example of the good use of plea bargaining." "One example I was given was a case where a person had been arrested for exposing himself. There were 18 possible charges since there were 18 children who had been exposed; so 18 charges could have been brought before the court; only three were brought." "Why?" "There were at least three reasons. First, having all 18 charges on the table would have meant a lot of child witnesses; putting a child on the stand can be very stressful on that child, and there is a certain degree of risk in how a child may testify." "Okay, so you spare the child." "Also to prepare 18 charges is a major amount of time and energy; prosecutors try to save that effort what are deemed important cases. Also, juries sometimes have problems with a long list of charges; it is hard to sort out all the deliberations associated with multiple charges; juries can be a wild card." "Anything else?" "In this particular case the prosecutor pretty much understood what the sentence would be in any case." Sam responded. "So everyone was served by this particular plea bargain." "Depending on the locale "I did a little data mining. In and the particular district attorney any charges against a Tehama County felony arrests defendant can be a real stretch. increased from 678 in 2000 to 1170 in 2009 accordFor example, should ing to the Attorney the district attorney General's website; the charge a person with number of attorneys shoplifting or robin the prosecutor's bery? Robbery, of office actually course, involves the decreased from nine use or threat of force to eight. At one time or harm to the victim; during that period in some jurisdictions a Tehama County had shoplifting suspect has the second highest been charged with ratio of state felony robbery and then pled imprisonments per guilty to petty theft. capita. I am not sure There was no overly Joe why, but I hope to expensive trial, and the find out." presumably guilty "How does our party receives a consecounty's increase quence for his crime. compare with the If that suspect will not take a deal and wants to go to state as a whole?" "While our felony arrests trial for robbery, the district attorney risks losing his/her grew by 72.5 percent in Tehama case and may tarnish the image County, statewide growth was of the office; in a recent area only 14.4 percent." I continued, "One prosecutor trial that happened. So settling on the charge instead of a trial told me some cases are imporcan be both a time saving and tant enough to try, that is, they still provide a consequence for are important enough to put in the time and energy necessary to the actions of the defendant." "Okay, so plea bargaining try. Those cases can be high procannot be used recklessly or the file cases or cases that make an district attorney will look like a important public policy statement. In other words, if the prosgrandstander." "If you mean that seriously ecutor is going to invest time overcharging defendants can wisely, he/she has to pick and backfire, you are right. Plus, the choose cases to bring to trial." Sam cleared his throat and Supreme Court said you can't hammer a defendant with plea said, "Clearly the prosecutors bargaining to the point where are not giving in when they plea that defendant cannot make bargain; they are, for the most part, recognizing reality." good decisions. " "For the most part," I I continued, "Prosecutors will tell you they have a volume replied. Next week I will be writing problem; there is no way they could bring all defendants to the first of two commentaries trial, even if they wanted to. on AB 109 and its impact on us. Plea bargaining helps solve that Joe Harrop is a retired problem; those same prosecutors will tell you plea bargain- educator with more than 30 years of service to the North ing is a necessary evil." "Why is that a problem in State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Tehama County?" Harrop