Arnold Keeps Forgetting that he added "Rehabilitation" to Dept. of Corrections

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

On Sunday, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has responsibility for emergency orders in the 9th Circuit, blocked the release of a convicted murderer last night. Arnold declares victory over the forces of evil, and he can call himself ToughOnCrime^TM. Everybody wins, right?

The problem is that about three years ago, the department was renamed to include "Rehabilitation."  Apparently, that only matters when nobody is paying attention. But when a junkie who did an extremely stupid thing under the influence of drugs recovers, drops the drugs, and reforms his life, then it doesn't matter.  

In 2002, the parole board ordered Fred McCullough released because he had actually been rehabilitated, and was exhibiting model behavior in prison.  Gray Davis, our radically moderate governor, couldn't have one of those Willie Horton things chasing him around for the rest of his political career, so he denied the parole.  Schwarzenegger did the same thing when the parole board again recommended his release in 2004. The Ninth Circuit ordered McCullough's release, but Kennedy's order blocked the release pending further review. More over the flip
Jerry Brown mentioned the massive growth in the prison population in his speech at the CDP convention. We are not any safer than we were in 1980, but we spend vast sums of money housing vast sections of our population behind bars. About that Brown has been clear, but Brown himself became pretty ToughOnCrime^TM while Mayor of Oakland.

Few leaders have the courage to address the systemic problems that cause crime. Instead we just lock up more and more (mostly minority) prisoners. We can never really fix our prison system, or our budget, until we rediscover the R in the CDCR.