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Sen. Nancy Skinner. (Photo: sd09.senate.ca.gov)

Commit a Crime, Take A Parenting Class?

Another proposed bill to make life easier for California’s criminals

By Katy Grimes, April 19, 2019 2:03 am

The unbelievable legislation coming out of the California State Legislature seeking to make life easier for criminals is disconcerting. Bills proposing to reduce parole supervision from one year to 180 days for serious felons, including sex offenders, a bill to allow criminal charges to be filed against police officers who use deadly force, and a bill to get rid of the cash bail system in California are just a few of the bills seeking to undermine police and public safety in California. 

The compassion of California Democrats for the criminal predators among us is flooding communities with career criminals.  They now work their trade without fear of arrest, jail, prison or even rehabilitation because the penalties have legislatively been reduced, minimized, or eliminated altogether.

Californians were already experiencing the effects of the state’s 2011 prison “realignment” –jail overcrowding and police turning blind eyes to much criminal activity simply because even if arrested, the perpetrators will be back on the streets quickly, often within hours. 

Then, in rapid succession,  Proposition 47 and Proposition 57 were sold to the voters with promises from Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrat legislators that these initiatives would not increase crime, and instead would increase rehabilitation and reduce recidivism. Everyone deserves a second chance. However, in California, in far too many cases that second chance has become a third, fourth and or even sixteenth chance.

On social media these days, particularly Nextdoor.com, the neighborhood social networking service, the constant stream of postings about aggressive street people, shoplifters and strung out heroin and meth addicts, stealing anything they can grab and sell for quick cash is astounding. Store owners and managers report that thievery is rampant, and they have no recourse.

For the current class of California Democrat Legislators, there is no such thing as being too soft on crime. To that end, State Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) has introduced a bill that would allow a criminal who has committed a misdemeanor or felony crime, to be placed in a pretrial diversion program instead of facing the consequences for committing the crime(s). Not only can they avoid a jury trial and jail or prison time but they don’t even have to admit they committed the crime in the first place. 

Sen. Skinner’s Senate Bill 394 would allow criminals to be “diverted” – no guilty plea, no conviction, no deportation, no gun confiscation, etc. – if that person is a parent and attests they provide a “significant portion” of the care and housing of a minor.  The criminals don’t even have to be the primary caregiver of the minor, but only reside at the home some of the time and pitch in on household expenses. Even if the person is arrested for crimes against children like human trafficking or child abuse they may still be eligible under this bill.

The only requirement is for the criminal to complete a term of supervision and a few classes on subjects like financial literacy, anger management, and proper parenting, while receiving housing assistance and job training. 

The bill specifies that the judge, district attorney and police department all may have to sign off on the diversion.  But it also specifies that the only exemptions are for serious crimes, a few violent crimes, and individuals the judge determines are a “danger to public safety” or to a child if he or she is in their custody.

Remember that in California, crimes once considered “serious or violent crimes” are no longer because of Propositions 47 and 57, including but not limited to: human trafficking, elder abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, battery, assault, or even possessing and distributing child pornography.

The 04/08/19- Senate Public Safety bill analysis reported the California District Attorneys Association opposition to SB 1184:

“In Los Angeles County alone, there were 284,433 misdemeanors filed in FY 2014-15. SB 394 would allow many of those defendants (plus a sizable cohort of 1170(h) felons) to make the case for diversion based on a claim that he or she is the primary caregiver, whether financially or through emotional support and care. In addition to the time this would take up front, because this is pre-plea diversion, the court would have to leave all of these cases open for up to two years while the defendant participates in the program.”

“This pre-plea diversion makes the case difficult and potentially impossible to prosecute years later, when witnesses move, lose interest, or suffer memory loss as the case ages with no movement toward resolution if the person fails the diversion program. In fact, the amount of time since the crime’s commission could actually be far greater than two years, given the amount of time it may take to get a defendant to court to answer for the crime, the amount of time it takes for the defendant to convict the court to grant the diversion, and the length of the diversion program.”

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7 thoughts on “Commit a Crime, Take A Parenting Class?

  1. There’s something seriously wrong with Skinner. She’s utterly deranged or she hopes to raise the crime rate so radically that Californians won’t care if the government confiscates everything that shoots. Another absurd leftist who should be locked up for excessive stupidity.

  2. I’m speechless. The 9th Court says that the Sanctuary law is .. legal.. when AZ tried to mirror federal law, the Supreme said you can’t interfere,
    , but the 9th says that California can make it owns immigration laws. Then we have the legislature as the article said, would have police tried on murder charges for using deadly force, Parole reduced to a few lousy months, even for serious criminals and Cashless Bail.
    Yet they keep voting the crazies back into office which then emboldens them, even more, to go TinFoil Hat crazy. It is time for the federal government to step in and take control of the legal system. I can’t call it a justice system longer as it serves no one but fringe grps.

  3. Sen. Skinner’s SB 394 sounds eerily like last year’s AB 1810, the “legalize murder and rape” shocker that was embedded into a budget trailer bill for maximum secrecy. Adding “parent” to it this time around is not very original but shows persistence, even if they are pretending for this attempt that violent crimes will be exempted:

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/07/stealth-bill-sneaks-in-radical-changes-to-californias-criminal-justice-system/

    AB 1810’s passage received almost NO main press coverage. Weirdly, a couple of big city newspapers published op-eds about it without having covered its passage in the first place. A few reporters and politicians noted it, KFI-AM’s John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou covered it extensively, LAADDA’S Michele Hanisee and Assembly candidate Bill Essayli energetically publicized it, and a handful of other D.A.s in the state tried, as a group, to argue Jerry Brown into fixing it.

    From there it appears that citizens did their best to publicize it and speak up against it and were successful. On the bright side in favor of citizen activism I understand that as a result the outraged opposition caused quite a ruckus up in Sacramento and at the very last minute a milder bill which negated the worst of AB 1810 was quietly passed and signed:
    https://twitter.com/Jimbealljr/status/1034868797675528192

  4. Sen. Nancy Skinner and the rest of the authoritarian, totalitarian, dictatorial Democrat socialists are intent on completely destroying the once great state of California.

  5. I think the day Senator Skinner is abused, raped, her family beaten to death, she’ll actually wise up and say something intelligent. Until then, her double standard attitude will only endanger the lives of the citizens she’s been sworn to protect. It’s time to remove Rome any and every official position anyone who does NOT go out if their way to protect all legal U.S. citizens, regardless of their political party!

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