First, I don’t care whose chief of LA after Bratton, I don’t work for L.A. Secondly, I’m for a chief that’s selected on merit, not political standing or skin color.

Secondly, it’s not the pay and benefits of prison guards that caused the state to be in the hole it’s in, what simplistic and ridiculous liberal rhetoric. It’s the Legislators Gone Wild spending spree in Sacremento. The Dems are the last people anyone should allow with a state checkbook.

Lastly, there are 75 crimes they want reduced to misdemeanors, 75. They want to make grand theft that currently is anything above $400 to anything above $2500. This si insane, along with many of their other ideas. The bottom line is that we will have more idiots on the street whose only way to make a living is crime due to their lack of education, desire and even because of the job market taht will be able to commit so many more crimes because we have legislators who have had their heads up their asses for years.

More victims of all types of crimes will be the result. Thanks a lot Dems.

Apparently some juvenile detention facilities are also under capacity and could be consolidated.

But I think the hysteria whipped up by the right, from talkradio to Weber’s “new” PPL-prison guard union clone, that the streets will be overrun by violent criminals if any are released, is just that, hysteria, to get the public to resist any cuts to police or prison guard pensions or benefits. Even as they resist adding the cops their Chief, the Mayor, Jack Weiss and common sense have said are needed. (In general I think the rank and file is “worth every penny” in salary but it’s the pensions for all unions that are killing this city and state. You’ve got those like Parks and Zine who was just a Sergeant, and Smith, with their huge pensions, unsustainable for future hires. The prison guards’ union with their bullying tactics are even worse and a bad model to follow. Baca is so beholden to them, he refuses to make any cuts to his huge County Sheriff’s budget, angering even the Republican supervisors.) This is a cynical game they’re playing with a naive public.

However, in fact I don’t want to get bogged down into your arguments about alleged historical police/ prison guard union etc. support for liberals over the decades and across the state, and how that’s somehow responsible for the “fiscal thing” we have today and this issue of prisoner releases. Still less how that somehow mandates that the PPL should now be a Republican-supporting organ (something you admit it’s become), like the state prison guards union – which thinks Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t Republican enough and wanted to recall him for trying to cut some of their pensions even as he tried to do the Republican thing and avoid raising taxes. You do concede my point that the PPL has become such under Weber (who took over last December), and not coincidentally, since he hired the former head of the prison guard union Don Lovey (I think I have it spelled right) to be his political “consultant” in charge of throwing their weight around. His first order of business was to go against “liberal” Bratton and back the Zine/ Trutanich/ Cooley etc. Republican team. Besides these people being all wrong for what L A really needs now, and contributing to a hostile atmosphere for Bratton that I think is a huge loss for L A, the PPL like the prison guards union has an adverse affect on our budget problems and public safety. Weber, copying the state prison guards’ union with “advice” from their Lovey, is adamantly opposing adding the 1000 cops the Mayor’s team has promised (and raised trash fees and the phone tax for) as he plays hardball in opposing “shared sacrifice” for existing cops. So him and you blaming the budget problems on some “liberal love affair with criminals” is just myopic.

Bratton says he needs a min. of 10,000 cops and really, 12,000, to keep from having to shuttle them around like chess pieces to hot spots — angering homeowner groups on the westside and west valley which have become very organized. L A is very underpoliced compared to New York, and Bratton’s done an incredible job with limited resources – such a great job, some councilmembers both left (Rosendahl) and right want to foolishly reduce the force for budgetary reasons. Seems to me all cops would benefit by not being stretched so thin, and as it is, the PPL’s been unsuccessful in achieving its aims by fighting the Mayor and pushing out his allies Weiss and Bratton, leaving the rank & file angry with how almost $800,000 was thrown to elect the wrong guy, and it’s just created a dysfunction and distraction as we look for a new chief who’s even close to Bratton’s stature and ability. This person will have to work well with the Mayor, or it’ll be Gates-Bradley, yet withstand the ambitious Republican clique which openly wants a Republican mayor who will then install Zine as his Chief.

You say the prison guards steeply increased salaries and pensions that are the main contributing factor to the budget crisis (even according to conservative ranter Doug McIntyre) are “worth every penny” but then blame the overcrowding that necessitates releasing some non-violent offenders on the liberals’ love affair with criminals.

The third strike issue, and whether declassifying some offenss from felonies to misdemeanors is a good thing, is an argument you can and have taken up with Celeste, who’s got strong opinions and research there. I heard Jon & Ken riling up the masses about the fact that one proposal was to reduce thefts of cars valued at under $2500 from felony to misdemeanors, and they were exclaiming that a criminal would be able to steal dozens of cars and still just be booked for misdemeanors if the cars were all under that amount. If that’s true it doesn’t seem appropriate, and the bill needs to be tweaked accordingly — but Celeste’s point (I think) is that mandatory sentencing as it stands sends people away for long periods if the third strike is stealing a ketchup bottle from a restaurant. There needs to be more discretion returned to the sentencing and parole review process.

So sentencing policy et al is taking a back seat to the chick flick written by the brilliant and gorgeous niece.

LOS ANGELES — A panel of federal judges ordered the California prison system on Tuesday to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 — roughly 27 percent — within two years. Below is a few paragraphs from an article regarding the reasoning for the reduction.

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The judges said that reducing prison crowding in California was the only way to change what they called an unconstitutional prison health care system that causes one unnecessary death a week.

In a scathing 184-page order, the judges said state officials had failed to comply with previous orders to fix the prison health care system and reduce crowding.

The response by Jerry Brown

Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he intended to appeal the ruling. “Eventually, we’re going to have to go to the Supreme Court because I think the California prisons are spending about $14,000 per year per inmate,” Mr. Brown said, adding that the changes the judges ordered would cost more money, which the state does not have.

*******

I’ve read where it’s actually closer to $17,000 a year, more than most families spend without a doubt so the whole premise these idiot justices came up with is ridiculous.

The idiot governor’s plan was laughable and I’ll give Karen Bass some credit on rejecting portions of it. Some in her own party don’t agree with her but no matter which way you slice and dice it we’re going to be releasing thousands of prisoners.

I can’t believe that people are so naive as to think this will have anything but a negative impact on the state. I’m going to investigate this further and post on it more but having arrested people all the way into their 70’s for violent crimes doesn’t make me think releasing older prisoners makes this an easier pill to swallow.

Oh, by the way Celeste, the sentencing reform is total b.s.! I saw where the governor wanted to reduce GTA, among other crimes to a misdemeanor so as to avoid prison terms. I was run over by one of these clowns in a stolen vehicle and the proposal is based on anything but public safety.

The number that’s being talked about for “early release”—meaning at most, a few months early and then, instead of just dumped into the community, being put on electronic monitoring et al—is around 6300. Then another 8,500 or so are the undocumented prisoners who have not committed serious felonies that, under this proposal will be handed over to the Feds.

Most of the rest of the numbers come from a combination of sentencing reform and some parole strategies, all of which are aimed at not having so many people recycle back into prison repeatedly.

Hey, object to the plan all you want. But object to the actual proposal, not what certain of my idiotic colleagues in the press have falsely reported because they won’t bother to fact check.

There’s PORAC (the Peace Officers Research Association of California), which was traditionally the “Democratic” law enforcement group before all the other public safety unions also took on that role. In addition to endorsing Marty Simonoff, PORAC is also endorsing:

* Phil “Soak The Rich” Angelides (D) for Governor
* John Garamendi (D) for Lt. Governor
* Joe Dunn (D) and Abel Maldonado (R) in their respective Controller primaries.
* Cruz Bustamante (D) for Insurance Commissioner
* Deborah Ortiz (D) and Bruce McPherson (R) in their respective Secretary of State primaries
* Jack O’Connell (D) for Superintendent of Public Instruction
* Bill Lockyer (D) for Treasurer
* Jerry Brown (D) for Attorney General

PORAC is the largest statewide law enforcement group in the country. Like other large labor groups they tend to support Democratic candidates who will give them money. Davis was a very liberal Democrat who gave a very whopping raise to prison guards.

Far as I’m concerned every penny was deserved just like many of you are ok with the countless millions given to ridiculous gang intervention programs that don’t work.

I don’t make allegations, I post facts as I know them to be but you go ahead and prove me wrong WBC. You won’t do it by shooting off your mouth and saying you’re right you’ll do it by posting facts.

As for my being a “foaming in the mouth liberal” who doesn’t understand “the fiscal thing,” I heard another foaming at the mouth liberal on his talk show this morning, Doug McIntyre, ranting about the detrimental effect the Prison Guards Union is having on the state prison budget, and about how if they hadn’t persuaded Gray Davis to give them a 37% increase in pay and benefits in exchange for their endorsement (now, THERE’s an endorsement of a liberal, but you can blame the Union for its opportunism), we wouldn’t be in this mess and having to release so many prisoners early.

Whether or not Doug’s figures are correct, and how much of a contributing cause the guards’ salaries and pensions are in having to release so many non-violent offenders early, it’s absurd to call McIntyre a liberal. Yes, this is “a fiscal thing.” (It certanly isn’t a “liberals having a love affair with criminals” thing, as the PPL release strongly implies.)