Senator Jim Nielsen. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Public Safety Deceit: CA Releasing Felons From Prison While Violent Crime Spikes in State
‘Violent felons are receiving good time credit for simply breathing,’ and other things that don’t make sense
By Katy Grimes, May 1, 2021 9:00 am
UPDATED BELOW: While California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be letting another 76,000 prisoners out of state prisons – on his own authority through Executive Order – violent crime is spiking in California’s cities.
The headlines today tell the story:
- AP: 76,000 California inmates now eligible for earlier releases
SJMN: Watch: Robbers trap cars, steal Asian women’s purses- FresBee: Fresno Police called to Fashion Fair after gun shown inside mall. Then other firearms were found
- FresBee: Fresno restaurant shooting: Man shot multiple times with other customers inside
- SacBee: ‘Nuisance crimes’ by homeless anger Sacramento business owners. Why little has been done
The Globe reported this week that the Sacramento Police Department March 2021 monthly report shows the number of victims shot is up by 333.33 %.
Shooting Reports in the Capitol city are up 121.4 %.
The Associated Press reported:
California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system.
More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.
In July 2020, the Globe reported on 18,000 prisoners released “due to COVID:”
While California is in another statewide lockdown of most businesses, and wearing masks is mandatory, Gov. Gavin Newsom is releasing convicted criminals from prisons and jails.
“Estimates of 8,000 inmates could be eligible for release by end of August, in addition to the state’s reduction of about 10,000 persons since the start of the pandemic,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz announced this week. However, instead of apologizing to law abiding Californians, Secretary Diaz wrote a letter of apology to the convicted criminals, for the “significant burden you and your families continue to bear.”
The corrections agency announcement also apologizes the “unnecessarily incarcerated:”
Friday afternoon, Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Red Bluff), former Chairman of the Board of Prison terms, weighed in on this latest prisoner release:
On a late Friday afternoon news dump, the Newsom Administration announced they are automatically giving “good time credit” to violent offenders and second and third strikers in an effort to release them early. These polices will go into effect within hours of the announcement – Saturday, May 1.
“As the former Chairman of the Board of Prison terms, I am intimately aware of these criminal justice regulations. This is ill-founded, ill-cited criminal justice policies. Violent felons are receiving good time credit for simply breathing, in lieu of demonstrated good behavior and rehabilitation.
“This is another ill-conceived policy of the Newsom Administration in its attempts to release convicted violent criminals back into our communities.
“We, the people, will pay the price for his continued follies.”
Sen. Nielsen provided a link to the emergency regulations.
Across the country and in California, the move to “de-police” is taking hold. In cities where police departments are being defunded or severely cut back, morale is at a low ebb, and police officers are resigning.
And, the Soros-funded District Attorneys – some are even former Public Defenders – are firing gang-units, reducing or removing bail for violent criminals, and releasing inmates on flimsy “COVID” medical requests, as Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón and the CDCR have been doing.
“They just want these people released,” a source at the Los Angeles DA’s office told the Globe in March.
Within weeks of being sworn in as Los Angeles County’s District Attorney, the Globe reported George Gascón, issued radical, unlawful “Special Directives,” commanding the deputy district attorneys of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to violate California’s constitution and laws:
- With respect to future cases, the Special Directives prohibit DDAs from charging mandatory criminal sentencing enhancements under the Three Strikes Law, which California enacted to protect its citizens from previously-convicted serious and violent felons; and
- With respect to pending cases, the Special Directives require DDAs to withdraw all pre-existing enhancement allegations for six different types of sentencing enhancements. These provisions are plainly illegal. DDAs cannot be commanded to violate the very sentencing enhancements that California law mandates.
The Globe has reported extensively on LA District Attorney George Gascón, who moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles to run for DA in 2020, and spent more than $2.5 million of billionaire oligarch George Soros’ money to win. But crime victims and law enforcement officials launched a recall campaign against Gascón in March.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a former public defender, is facing a recall as well, for outrageous decisions:
- the DA released a criminal who had previously been jailed and had killed two people,
- Boudin’s reluctance to prosecute criminals and his removal of many crime categories, leading to a rise in crime in San Francisco.
- Burglaries alone went up by 46% in the city in 2020 despite a pandemic keeping many indoors.
- Robberies have also gone up considerably, with a high-profile robbery of a KPIX TV reporter being robbed of a camera at gunpoint recently.
None of this adds up unless the goal is to thoroughly destabilize California: letting felons out of prison, “de-policing,” corrupt DAs refusing to prosecute violent criminals and/or releasing them, refusing to prosecute under “Three Strikes” law, ignoring special enhancements… Sen. Nielsen said it best: “This is ill-founded, ill-cited criminal justice policies. Violent felons are receiving good time credit for simply breathing.”
UPDATE: Saturday afternoon the Globe received this email from Vicky Waters, Special Advisor and Assistant Secretary of Communications at the CDCR:
This is not an early release program, and these changes do not result in the automatic release of any incarcerated individual. Under existing California statute, incarcerated individuals are able to receive credits for good behavior and participation in rehabilitation program. This has been the case since before Proposition 57. Proposition 57, which voters overwhelmingly approved in 2016 and upheld in November, gave the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation the authority to submit regulations to provide additional opportunities for incarcerated people to receive these Good Conduct Credits.
CDCR submitted these regulations to increase the rate at which incarcerated people can receive Good Conduct Credits which ensures the opportunity for public comment. The regulations are still subject to final approval, and again, the regulatory process allows for public input.
This effort incentivizes incarcerated individuals to have sustained good behavior and encourages them to participate in rehabilitative and educational programs, which can help reduce recidivism to make our communities safer. Our department’s focus is on a person’s rehabilitation and accountability in a manner that is consistent with public safety.
However, the word salad in her email confirms exactly that the CDCR is expanding “good time credits” without criteria to justify early release of dangerous inmates.
This is the Major Cities Chiefs Association Crime Report showing the increase in homicides and violent crimes:
MCCA-Violent-Crime-Report-2020-and-2019-Year-End-Final
- California, New York, and Illinois Experienced Largest Domestic Population Losses 2023 and 2024 - December 20, 2024
- Suspicious Minds: Gov. Newsom’s Fishy ‘Bird Flu’ State of Emergency - December 19, 2024
- Gov. Gavin Newsom and AG Rob Bonta are Playing Political Theater with Illegal Immigration - December 19, 2024
Leftists are racists and promote CRIME. The cities with the highest reported anti-Asian hate crimes are liberal-run, Democrat controlled cities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles.
Raymond you left out Oakland.
…and Portland, and Seattle, and Detroit, and Chicago, and Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and Minneapolis, and St. Louis, etc., 🙂
Newsom turns out to be even more cruel, sadistic, and vengeful than any of us imagined, and that is really saying something. The blood will be running in the streets. Does Newsom care? No. Gray Davis as Gov looks like a damn HERO and his time in office a golden era by comparison; at least he had some law and order instincts.
What does Newsom hope to accomplish with this hellish move — on top of the others for which he is responsible? Does he hope to be mass-producing more Dem voters (and jurors) from this? Does he hope to stir up more societal chaos than already exists? Increase the supply of sociopathic henchmen at his disposal to tamp down the growing threat (to him) of sensible, law-abiding, tax-paying Recall voters? Play to the “schools not prisons” teacher bumper-sticker crowd? Any other ideas of what he could possibly want from this incredibly stupid and reckless move?
@Showandtell, you are correct. Newsome is cruel. I think Newsome wants to wreak havoc on civil society. He wants thugs in the street to commit more crimes to break our society. Why else would anyone want to unilaterally decide to release violent felons. Please consider reading this article that provide more information.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-plans-early-release-for-76000-prison-inmates-including-violent-felons
Thanks so much for the link, Owed Nothing. I have more of a response to this outrage, but I’m out of time! Hope to check back in tomorrow.
The only thing I wanted to add was that there are some people, now in prison, who should forever be under lock and key and kept away from the public. Over at PressCalifornia.com a very scary interview with one such lost cause was recently posted. If it has dropped off the page and you would like to hear it, type “vampire” into the search feature and it will pop up at the top. This particular sub-human hunter went in search of people and attacked them in order to drink their blood. This was his only goal. That they were terrified at the time of his attack only added to his zeal. He was eventually caught, charged, prosecuted, and convicted of 2nd(?) degree murder and received a sentence of 23 years to life. From that sentence I infer he would be eligible for parole on his 23rd year.
When you hear this modern-day “vampire” you will realize that no rehabilitation can touch him, no medication, no psychiatric intervention; thus he should NEVER be paroled. Unlikely he will have a come-to-Jesus moment, either. He LIKES who he is and what he does. In other words, he wants what he wants and will pursue what he wants until the day he dies. I think we can all agree that, to protect the public, if for no other reason, he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life. Why he is not on death row (such as it is) is anyone’s guess. But under these new rules, it looks like he would be among those eligible for early release.
In a civilized society we simply can’t have this state of affairs. No one voted for this, as Jim Nielsen said, not directly nor through a representative. In fact, Californians have consistently voted for the opposite. It’s not even “carrot-and-stick,” which would at least make SOME sense, as Niellsen noted. It’s just “a giveaway,” as Nielsen said. And it’s another in the constant bombardment of dozens of executive orders, issued under phony and needless “emergency powers,” imposed on us by Gov Newsom. Add this latest horror to all of the other havoc Newsom has spent his time wreaking on the public. With any luck he will be recalled before this newest nightmare can make serious inroads on the well-being of the population, not only in California, but in the rest of the country, too.
P.S. http://www.recallgeorgegascon.com/
Sign up to be kept abreast of developments if you live in L.A. County.
Petitions coming soon.
Also for San Franciscans:
https://recallchesaboudin.org/
Sign up to be a part of the resistance campaign against these odious, malevolent people.
Katy Grimes put the links to the D.A. recalls up within her article but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to post them here too.
Another thing Newsom is doing is signing every gun control bill that comes to his desk. And as any sensible person knows these laws do nothing to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals but just effect law abiding citizens. 76,000 violent criminals is a lot, so ” keep your powder dry” and don’t shoot all your ammo at the gun range as there is an ammo shortage. Let us hope the recall is not rigged like the November election.
RIGHT, John. Gun sales are through the roof; driven mainly by first-time owners purchasing firearms for self protection.
Every time I interact with my health care professionals, as all of us do, I get the myriad of questions about exposure to COVID, travel out of state, etc. etc. But now the final question is, do you own a gun? To which I answer, what is that your business and what does it have to do with my colonoscopy pre-op or my plantar fasciitis? If I was being treated for depression, suicial ideation, I would understand the question. Since when does my doctor care if I own a gun or not? Electronic medical records must be progressing in a direction beyond healthcare. Pretty soon United Airlines will be denying tickets to US gun owners. Which is fine with me, I refuse to fly with an airline who chooses to lessen standards versus care about customer/employee safety. Sorry, I kind of got off topic. HeHe, Thanks for letting me release some steam! Recall Gavin 2021!!!!!
Stacy, I am shocked (but maybe not surprised?) to hear there is a question about gun ownership attached to all that other stuff we’ve become used to hearing from the doctor’s office and the hospital. You’re so right — this is their business because…..? The implications are downright scary. Thanks for posting about it.
Suppose the national security state was planning an extended blackout as a way to take out the banking system and rejigger the economy in preparation for the rollout of global cryptocurrencies to replace the US Dollar….
Well, a blackout would create a problem for prisons, so what do they do? They create an excuse in advance of their psyop to minimize the problems of prisons during an extended blackout.
Another reason to vote him out of office!
If you can please support the effort with a donation. Go to http://www.recallgavin2020.com
I guess he is calling in the ANTIFA reserves for the summer season?!
SMH????????♀️
Leftists are conducting an actual war against law abiding citizens. Wake up and take back our country. God is on the side of the law abiding.
Governor Newsom is a wonderful governor I am glad he is giving people a second chance at life of living in the open public some are not violent crimes some are but everybody needs a second chance A+ for governor newsome.
You’re kidding, right? Either that or you are a bought-and-paid-for employee who has a stake in Newsom’s continuation as governor. That’s what it smells like, anyway.
@ShowandTell, thanks for the additional information on the Vampire killer, truly horrific indeed.
It is beyond me that anyone could support this action or Newsom as Governor at this point.
Let’s also remember, many criminals with these life sentences committed more than the one crime prior to serving. It is like a drunk driver who has finally been caught after a horrific fatal accident, he/she most likely are repeat offenders, who before the fatality were never caught! I personally know of someone like that.
For those that think this is a humanitarian gesture and everyone deserves a second chance, you obviously have never been the victim of crime! How about multiple chances were likely given.
My compassion sides with the victims not the PERPETRATORS! To think otherwise is pure insanity!
EXCELLENT point, Cali Girl, about previous crimes committed before the perpetrator is ever caught — which common sense and bit of life experience tells us is likely more the rule than the exception. Ditto to your point about misplaced compassion and that many chances have already no doubt been given —- especially in today’s environment of an ever-weakening justice system that favors the criminal, not the victim.
Check out Katy Grimes’ update in the article above posted yesterday. Sounds like the Dept of Corrections’ PIO is George Gascon doing double-duty as someone named “Vicky Waters.” And the nerve of “Ms. Waters” to bring up Prop 57! At least, with the help of outlets such as The Globe, everyone who has the slightest interest is now onto the con job that is Prop 57.
Ha, now I have an image of George/Vicki the communications director at her keyboard defending this absurd policy.
Yes, the metrics must be quite interesting…
i.e. … prisoner #1 smiled at the guard today 10 points, we added extra points because he also put his plate away after breakfast. His total “atta boy” points were 15! He will qualify for release is very short order.
Regarding prop 57 as well as prop 47, the voters were sold a bill of goods. Prop 57 was entitled as: Proposition 57 “The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016”. Voters in the future need to get pass the misleading titles that headline the propositions and read the bill in it’s entirety.
Data reveals that crimes have increased in following years as the above chart describes.
Cali Girl you are too funny with your Do-Bee prisoner point system. Made me laugh.
Shawn Sanchez, violent criminals have forfeited their right to freedom by harming others. As a society, we formed a judicial system is meant to replace vigilante justice. Newsome is unilaterally early releasing violent criminals and repeat offenders. I consider Newsome’s act as hostile to a civil society. You only have sympathy for the offenders. Take a moment to think of a victim who pursed justice to only to be violated again by Newsome. Take another moment to think of a future victim that will have to contemplate a life changing crime that should have never been allowed to occur…
Such great points. Victims and their families have horrific stories to tell that will make the average person weep to hear them. None of them had to have happened as you say.
An easy A huh?
I am a harsh grader, he gets an F on all subjects.
He has yet to earn a C+ in any area whether it be the Covid response, fire prevention, safety of all residents, water management, education and fiscal responsibility.
Agree wholeheartedly, Cali Girl. Very well said.
Anyone needing a refresher about Newsom and his terrible reign as governor should consult (and share) the Katy Grimes series on this. Mind-boggling to think it has been only slightly more than a mere 2 years:
https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/voters-remember-ca-gov-gavin-newsoms-troubles-began-before-covic-lockdown-part-iv/
Parts I, II, and III are linked there.
Oh Comrades
Fear the streets…..no comrade would send out a loved one alone shopping or doing simple errands….
Especially in Shawn Sanchez’s neighborhood…
Really. Ha.
The POINT of early release or allow prisoners of “lessor” or plea bargain crime out is to cause disharmony in society. The spike in crime they feel is the OPENING TO FEDERAL CONTROL OF POLICING where the people scream for GOV’T to HELP (when it was them who caused it).
They are doing it with crime spikes and targeted racism within departments. They are in the midst of the DESTABILIZATION and going forth into the CRISIS stage using the the-four-stages-of-ideological-subversion.
@Yuri you are 100% correct!
With you Yuri — I don’t doubt that this is what is going on. Unfortunately.