More Evidence of Rising Crime Under Realignment

Category Archives: AB 109

More Evidence of Rising Crime Under Realignment

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By Michael Rushford

cuffsWith the recent FBI release of preliminary crime statistics for the first six months of 2012, and continuing reports on local crime from news organizations and police agencies across the state, it is becoming increasingly clear that something happened in California last year that caused a sharp increase in virtually every major category of crime.  The FBI report found a small increase nationally in violent and property crime driven by larger increases in the West.  Since the sweeping changes in sentencing under Governor Jerry Brown’s Public Safety Realignment law took effect in October 2011, the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has been monitoring criminal activity across the state to gauge the law’s effect on public safety.

 

While the reports we have collected from local law enforcement agencies over the past year and the recent preliminary report from the FBI are not proof of a trend, they do show a large and abrupt, across-the-board increase in California crime rates which is disturbing.

 

The Criminal Justice League Foundation noted that, in a January 28, 2013 report, researchers at the University of Minnesota identified a downward national trend in crime, citing better technology and changing social dynamics.  In December, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg boasted that his city’s declining incarceration rate and improved policing had caused a dramatic decrease in major felonies.

FBI Preliminary Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report

FBI Preliminary Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report

The recent FBI report tells a different story.  Over the first six months of 2012, violent crime in New York City increased by 3.9% and property crime climbed 6.1%.  But not all large states saw increases, Florida and Texas, both of which have reduced some incarceration rates but maintain tough-on-crime sentencing policies, saw only slight increases or declining rates.  States which have been more aggressive at reducing the incarceration of felons, particularly along the West Coast have reversed the trend of reduced crime in recent years and saw rising rates of both violent and property crimes.

 

California’s increase has been the most dramatic.  The FBI report for 2011 had crime dropping in all categories compared to the previous year.  The preliminary report for 2012 shows significant increases.  In a February 3, 2013 Pasadena Star-News story, the Police Chiefs of Pasadena, Glendale, and Covina expressed their concerns about rising crime caused by Realignment.  “This is a dangerous public policy,” Glendale Police Chief Brian De Pompa told reporters.  “Without strong state prison accountability, it’s hard to control crime.”

 

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon disagrees.  His city has embraced the evidence-based rehabilitation and probation approach to most felons, an approach praised by the ACLU.  In a January 19, 2013 Los Angeles Daily News story, Gascon said, “I know that we cannot incarcerate our way out of this problem.”  Unfortunately, according to a January Associated Press story, the homicide rate in San Francisco increased by 36% last year, and the trend is continuing.  On January 1, 2013, documented gang member David Morales, 19, allegedly killed two people while being pursued by police in San Francisco.  Morales is suspected of having driven through a housing complex and shooting at three men.  Police matched the description of the vehicle involved in the shooting to Morales’s car.  Officers then tried to pull him over.  In the ensuing high-speed chase, Morales rammed into a car at an intersection and sent it spinning into a pedestrian.  Both the passenger of the car, 29-year-old Silvia Tuncun, and the pedestrian, 26-year-old Francisco Gutierrez, were killed.  Morales’s most recent conviction was in April 2012 for gang activity which, under Realignment, left him free on probation at the time of the killings .

 

Something happened in California last year that has caused a major shift in crime rates. Excuses by supporters of the Governor’s Realignment are of little comfort to Californians who have lost friends or loved ones to so-called ‘low-level’ felons left in our communities because of this dangerous law.

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Dude, Where’s My Car?

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By Michael Rushford

California’s realignment program assures felons and potential felons that they will not go to state prison if they do not commit felonies classified as sex offenses, violent felonies, or felonies on a specific list unfortunately labeled “serious felonies”. The latter label is unfortunate because every crime properly designated a felony is serious.

Auto Theft Chart

One of the non-serious felonies is auto theft. It’s pretty serious to the victims, especially those of limited means who can’t afford comprehensive insurance and need their cars to get to work. Auto theft is a “regressive” crime. It falls harder on people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. But it is not on the “serious felony” list. So with a guarantee of no state prison by law, and with county jails overcrowded so only a fraction of sentences there are actually served, car thieves might get the impression that it is now open season on California’s cars.

 

The FBI released its preliminary data for the first half of 2012 recently. These data only include cities over 100,000 population, but nonetheless the 2012 v. 2011 comparison is interesting. Because realignment took effect on October 1, 2011, the comparative first-half data gives us a clear before-and-after comparison.

 

Auto theft increased by 1.7% nationally. In California, the increase was 12.8%. California’s greater increase works out to an additional 4,485 people’s cars stolen.

 

Michael Rushford is the President of the Sacramento, CA based Criminal Justice League Foundation

 

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FBI Report Shows California Crime Rose Sharply in 2012

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Libra Tatt2By Mike Rushford

 

Statistics from the FBI, documenting national and state crimes over the first six months of 2012, indicate that after years of declining crime rates, California is experiencing significant increases in every category of reported crime, including a 7.6% increase in homicide and double-digit increases in burglary and auto theft.  While the report only counted crimes in cities with populations of 100,000 or more, the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation cited the increases as evidence of a trend which many in law enforcement saw coming.

 

“We have been following news stories reporting on crime across the state since March 2012 to determine the impact that Realignment (AB109), which lowered the consequences for thousands of felons, is having on public safety,” said Foundation President Michael Rushford.  “Although it seemed clear our state was experiencing increases in crime throughout last year, the state officials and academics who had encouraged the sentencing alternatives kept telling us that Realignment was working and that those reporting increased crime were fearmongers,” he added.

 

The FBI report indicates that between January and June 2012, the national rate of violent crime rose by 1.9%, compared to the first six months of 2011.  Property crime over the same period increased by 1.5%.  Violent crime in California increased at more than twice the national rate, rising 4% while the rise in property crime was six times higher at 9%.  The report showed the highest crime increases in the West, driven by significant rises for most or all crimes in California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada, while Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Texas experienced either minor increases or reductions in most categories.

 

While comparisons between states can be simplistic, there are inferences that can be taken by narrowing the criteria.  A comparison with Florida and Texas (which, like California, have large diverse populations, dynamic economies and long national borders) shows the increase in the rate of violent crime in the Golden State was two and a half times higher than Texas and seven times higher than Florida.  While both Florida and Texas have been experimenting with alternative sentencing for juveniles and some drug offenders, both have significantly higher incarceration rates than California, and neither has implemented the sweeping sentencing reforms required under California’s Realignment, which took effect in October 2011.  New York and Washington State, on the other hand, have been engaged in large-scale alternative sentencing for several years.  Both experienced a spike in violent crime similar to California’s along with increases in nearly all categories of property crime.

 

“This report tends to confirm what police chiefs, sheriffs, parole officers, and even some judges have been warning us about over the past year.  Crime in California is increasing under Realignment,” said Rushford.  “With the enthusiastic support of the Legislature, Governor Jerry Brown has traded the safety of law-abiding Californians for some mostly illusory, short-term savings.  Until major changes are made to Realignment, we can expect excuses and rhetoric from the Administration and even greater increases in crime with each successive report,” he added.

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Realignment Continues to Drive up Crime in California (Part 1)

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Perceptions of crime are changing in California. The very real threats that we experienced leading up to the mid 1990’s have been replaced by complacency in the early 2010’s. Society seems to have forgotten that the threat of crime diminishes our social structure, creates fear in our neighborhoods, leaves victims of property crimes feeling vulnerable and victims of violence broken or dead. That, and concerns about runaway budgets, financial mismanagement, and the role of government have created a climate in which our elected leaders believe, and people support, the notion that it is better to release criminals back into society rather than the build the prisons necessary to house convicted criminals.

 

On November 6, California voters will choose whether or not to modify California’s Three-Strikes-and-You’re Out law when we vote on Proposition 36. Thousands of three-strike prisoners, individuals who have at least two prior serious or violent felony convictions on their rap-sheet may be eligible for re-sentencing hearings that can put them back onto our streets.

 

If passed in November, Proposition 34 will retroactively overturn California’s death penalty in favor of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). Prop 34 proponents say that this will guarantee, among other things, that remorseless baby killers, cop killers, serial killers, and mass murderers will die in prison. What they fail to mention is that on September 30, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 9, which can overturn LWOP sentences for 309 remorseless killers currently housed in our prison system.

 

October represents the one-year anniversary of Assembly Bill 109, Governor Brown’s Prison Realignment Program. Realignment is supposedly the most benign of the measures being promoted in the current trend towards prison reform, because under Realignment, inmates who are classified as non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual offenders are sent to local jails instead of California state prisons or put under community supervision. However, these Post-Release Community Supervision inmates (PRCS) could have prior convictions for murder or sexual offenses as long as their most recent conviction was for a non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual crime.

 

The Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has been tracking the impact of Governor Brown’s Realignment Law (AB109) since it took effect in October 2011. Here are some of their findings.

 

According to the minutes of a recent Los Angeles county meeting on Realignment, “Thus far, over 7000 inmates released. 4227 (about half of those released) have been screened. Of the 4227, 2692 showed at the assessment center for a full AOD assessment (63.6%). Of those assessed, 1176 (43.7%) were referred to treatment and of those 545 (46.3%) have shown to treatment. So, looking at the overall numbers, of the more than 7000 released, 545 have entered treatment for AOD (less than 8%).” This means that less than half of the offenders referred to programs are even showing up.

 

LAPD Sgt. Jeff Nuttall states, “Some of the people who are on this program are absolutely dangerous career criminals.”

 

In San Francisco, there are 306 inmates who were released under PRCS. On average, each of them has been previously convicted of eight felonies, and more than half convicted of violent, sexual, or weapons-related offenses. San Francisco Adult Probation Chief Stills said, “the population is high-risk with high needs.”

 

In fact, one prisoner who was segregated in a secure housing unit in Pelican Bay, where the state’s worst criminals are incarcerated, was put on probation through California’s Realignment.

 

Carl Landry, a San Bernardino Probation Department supervisor, said that there is an increased number of high-level or leading gang members which have been released as a result of AB109.

 

In Lancaster, more than 300 offenders were released under partial supervision to Los Angeles probation officers since Realignment began. Nearly 200 of these offenders have been rearrested for new crimes or charges.

 

From October 2011 to July 2012, 3054 offenders were released into PRCS in San Bernardino. Of that number, 606 of them have been rearrested for new offenses, consisting of 489 felonies and 117 misdemeanors. Another 5 percent were re-incarcerated for technical probation violations.

 

Hesperia Capt. Steve Higgins said, “Of the 88 burglaries committed since 2011,…49 of them were committed by four people — two of whom were PRCS probationers. And of those 49, he said nearly 30 burglaries can be linked back to one PRCS probationer.”

 

 

Sex Offender Scott Herman

Scott Herman, a sex offender from Santa Rosa, violated the terms of his parole within two weeks of being released under AB109. He was found by his parole officer following young girls around and behaving suggestively in a Walmart. He has been convicted of indecent exposure and molesting children six times (including parole violations) since 1996. Rather than serving his full one-year sentence in a California prison, he served only two and a half months in the Sonoma County Jail.

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AB 109: California’s Felon Dump

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As a result of a lawsuit brought by inmates of California State prisons, the United States Supreme Court ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates over a three-year period of time. In response the California State Legislature passed The Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 (AB 109). The goal of AB 109 was to transfer responsibility for incarceration and supervision of certain non-violent, low-risk offenders from the State to its 58 counties. This month marks the one-year anniversary of the implementation of AB 109, but it is nothing to celebrate.

Lisa Gilvary’s daughter Katie Lung

Up and down the state, the release of so-called  non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual, “low-risk” inmates has been marked by dozens of reports of murders, rapes, attempted murder, kidnapping, stabbing and other crimes committed by inmates released early at the county levels as a result of AB 109.

 

Accused killer Michael Cockrell

On Monday, September 10, 2012, 26-year-old Michael Cockrell repeatedly stabbed Lisa Gilvary, 46, and her roommate, Jennifer Gonzalez, 20, during the course of a home invasion burglary. He then laid in wait and viscously attacked Fresno police officer Jonathan Linzey, 32, when he came to their aid. Ms. Gilvary died at the scene and Cockrell is now facing a possible death sentence. In March 2012, Cockrell was released from prison after serving only six-months of a three-year sentence under AB 109.

 

The state says that AB 109 only applies to ‘low risk” offenders, so it’s okay, but Michael Cockrell was considered a “low risk” offender! I can assure you that the State and I have very different definitions of “low risk.” It’s no wonder AB 109 has been called an abysmal failure, a disaster, and a deception that is dumping dangerous felons at our doorsteps.

 

In Lancaster, more than 300 offenders were released under partial supervision to Los Angeles probation officers since Realignment began.  Nearly 200 of these offenders have been rearrested for new crimes or charges.

 

Redding Police Chief Robert Paoletti “expressed frustration with the lack of jail space, which has resulted in early releases and created the perception of a revolving door at the jail.  Failure to appear warrants totaled 4,569 in the first six months of the year, a 32 percent increase from last year, when there were 3,453.” 

 

The California legislature needs to repeal AB 109.  The State needs to drastically reduce the type of offenders it allows to be shifted to the county level.  The state must take an inmates or parolees criminal history into consideration when determining who is eligible for AB 109. County jails are simply not equipped to handle many of the dangerous, repeat offenders AB 109 has sent them. Nor should we, as parents, have to worry about these same dangerous criminals being released early from overcrowded jails into our neighborhoods.

 

Crime exacts a heavy toll: on government, on society as a whole, but especially on victims. The cost of crime has three dimensions: a dollar amount calculated by adding up property losses, productivity losses, and medical bills. An amount less easily quantifiable includes the forms of pain, emotional trauma, and risk of death from victimization. And finally a dimension that cannot be quantified – the loss of life, and the trickle-down effect of extreme trauma or even death on the families of victims, their friends and communities held hostage by the threat of fear.

 

In 1996 the National Institute of Justice calculated the cost of crime. A single murder costs society $2,940,000, a rape at $86,500, and a robbery with injury at $19,000.  Make no mistake: this is a crime tax that we all pay into one way or another.

 

A fundamental duty of government is to protect society, to ensure that we walk safe streets and that the weak among us are not threatened by fear, intimidation and violence. Every time that a ‘so called’ nonviolent felon who has been released onto the streets commits an act of violence government has failed in that duty. When our government turns its back on the fundamental duty to protect innocent citizens, its skewed priorities must be revealed and it must be held accountable for its actions.

 

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