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4A Daily News – Saturday, June 8, 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. Good news Editor: Yes, it's time for a feel good story. I recently was walking from town and had a minor heat stroke and collapsed. Instead of looking the other way two boys, my neighbors, went and got an adult and in very short time an ambulance was dispatched. When I was able to get up and OK the boys made sure to come check on me and make sure I was alright. They were so excited to know that they had done something to save another human being and they've been checking on me every day since. I'm 50 years old and I have a seizure condition. Thanks to the quick actions of these wonderful young men everything was fantastic and it didn't come to a hospital visit and I'm very proud of them. Thank you Camron Ruiz and Jacob Thornton and Adam Pryatel, who just finished his first responders. Jeanette Stark, Red Bluff Corning crime Editor: Property theft has become too common, and I suppose the government entitlement mentality has much to do with the explosion of theft. Since purchasing our Corning home in 1993 we have had about $4,000 in theft over five occasions. Our airport car, used for our mid 1990s weekend flying commute from Fremont employment to Corning, suffered a side window bash and theft of the speakers, radio, battery and wiper motors on a very cheap $150 clunker. Another theft was of a billfold with $300 at a local hardware the third year someone has store, followed by the $2,500 stolen the planters located at value emptying of our remote the end of the driveway, the only sunny spot in Corning home garage, our second home's while we slept. Your yard. Other local theft Most of our rural included all of our Corning area outdoor hoses plus a friends have had new lawnmower and many thousands of wheelbarrow used by our granddaughter to cut our dollars in theft with no lawn. The latest Corning arrests. We can expect theft to home theft was a home entry dramatically increase with the through a screen and about release of thieves from overcrowded prisons, and from the $500 in vandalism. Of course none of these government actions in claimincidents resulted in an arrest, ing that what is yours is realsince most thieves are every ly theirs. Property thieves eliminate caught. Thieves do need to buy their marijuana.and other the government middle man in stealing what we have worked drugs. . Last weeks $250 theft of a so hard to acquire. At least we large rollaway planter, loaded can deduct government theft with tomato and pepper from our tax claims; Property plants, and the theft of two theft is neither deductible or circular tomato planters recoverable. Joseph Neff, Corning prompted this letter. This is Turn 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 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 When do you throw away the keys? When I was interviewing local law enforcement officials about AB 109 and how they were working with it, I brought up examples of people I knew from my time in education and who appear in and out of the criminal justice system. I have been able to keep track of them by reading the crime blotter on page three of the Daily News. A question I asked each official was, "when do you give up on people?" I was asking if there was some point where you stopped giving "second chances" and threw the book at people, possibility locking them up for extended periods, just to get them out of society, making us all safer. Everyone agreed that was a tough question; even those in probation said the repeat rate was far too high; indeed, high recidivism was a contributing factor to overcrowded prisons. No one felt comfortable with a simple answer. I'd like to think that hesitancy reflected their hope for people to reform. Two recent Red Bluff murder cases illustrate this conundrum. In the most recent case a 22 year old man was arrested in connection to the battering murder of a baby. The accused had accumulated multiple DUI's and was wearing a GPS device on his ankle so law enforcement could keep track of him; his driver's license was suspended. He was left alone with his girlfriend's infant son while she was at work; he reportedly was sleeping when his girlfriend came home and found her lifeless battered infant son in his crib in a separate room. That man and is now being held for the battering death of that baby on $1 million bail. The other brutal murder received more notoriety and was allegedly committed by a person in his early 40s who has been in and out of the criminal system since he was 18. (His records before that time are not available on the Tehama County Court website.) The alleged murderer was clearly living on the margins of society and most likely not contributing to the betterment of our community. The other night at dinner we were discussing the problems of jail capacity, the number of low level crimes, and the number of fail to appear citations we read about in the paper. We also discussed the issue of the number of felons who are caught in possession of a firearm. One of our guests asked, "Where is our Australia?" She was referring to the former practice in England of shipping criminals to the other side of the world in Australia where they couldn't bother society any more. Over an 80-year period 165,000 convicts were shipped to Australia, primarily to alleviate the pressure on their penal facilities. For California and Red Bluff there is no Australia. We cannot just ship proven undesirables out of the area, throw up a fence, and hope they do not sneak back. So what can we do? Any solutions will take many resources and much effort. We could start with young children before they become lawbreakers. However, such draconian measures as removing children from "unfit" parents at an early age are simplistic at best, and hint of society playing God. Not only that, but it is hard to predict how a child will turn out, although there are some good indications. Let me cite some examples. For those of us who spent many years in education, some of the names on the crime blot- criminals for their full senter come as no surprise; some of tences. It is difficult for many of us to support more those non surprises prisons when we hear came from terrible tales of the inmate family situations, had a health care system rough upbringing, and that far exceeds health serious self control care available to problems from an early many of us, when we age. Those students hear about "prisoners' were constantly in rights", and high trouble. All efforts at recidivism rates. Seecounseling, logical ing the accused murconsequences, and derer of the high careful monitoring school girl never were over ridden by Joe looking so good at his their conditions at last court hearing home and in the comreinforces our feeling munity. However, other of how well prisoners students came from are treated. similarly difficult backThe locally accused murdergrounds and were good citizens and turned out to be good adults er of the high school student is in part a product of the prison as well. One name that recently has system. Could the time in prison appeared in the paper is the been more correctional and child of a family where the hus- rehabilitative? Given the gang band physically and verbally run nature of prisons and the abused his wife. The child crowding, that is not probable. We seem to be working on appeared to be okay, but he has recently been charged with the problem of prison crowding rather than solutions to crime physical abuse of a cohabitant. In another case a child came prevention, mental health from a home of a drug involved issues, and turning lost lives single mother and had wit- around. In speaking to our Disnessed several troubling events; trict Attorney and a friend who he was able to be a good stu- is a retired law enforcement vetdent, earn his own spending eran, I wonder if we are not money, and go to a good col- emphasizing the deterrent aspect of punishment. Of lege. It's too late to do something course, that would require we to prevent what our 22-year-old face these problems with the apparent alcoholic and marginal seriousness they deserve, and 40-year-old have done. The dif- not rearrange the deck chairs of ficult question is "What do we our Titanic, the overcrowded do with the next apparently prison system. Clearly there is a lot to think alcoholic 22-year-old, or a marginal 40-year-old? Do we wait about. I hope to share my until they kill someone, or do thoughts about these issues as I we develop other plans to pun- do more research. ish them and deter them before Joe Harrop is a retired they reach that point? From my point of view in educator with more than 30 California we have avoided the years of service to the North costs necessary to provide ade- State. He can be reached at quate facilities to incarcerate DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Harrop