JUDGE DENIES DEPUTY UNION REQUEST TO STOP RELEASES FROM OC JAIL
Okay, Superior Court Judge Steven Perk has declined to buckle under to the OC Deputies’ union’s law suit asking for a temporary restraining order to keep the OC sheriff from letting any more inmates out from the jail early in response the the state’s corrections reform law that kicked in Jan 1. But the judge said he would revisit the thoroughly bollixed up issue in mid March. For her part, the OC Sheriff has been applying the law retroactively, even though anybody with a grasp of logic who read the law could see that this was not its intention—as California Attorney General Jerry Brown has stated with admirable succinctness.
As should be evident by now, I’m for the parole revisions and the new provisions that allow prisoners—both in prison and in jails—to earn a few days or weeks off their sentences by engaging in productive and rehabilitative programs. Such programs are statistically likely to decrease inmates likelihood of reoffending,. And, by the way, the amount shaved off their sentences is comparatively minimal.
But I do not see any reason why we have to start dumping people out of jails by the hundreds, freaking everyone out, when the law says to do no such thing. If for no other reason, its a lousy PR move.
Here’s what Jerry wrote on the retroactivity issue.. It’s a little long to paste the best of it here, so you’ll have to click through.
To make matters more bizarre, some of the crafters of the law are saying that they never meant it to apply to jails. (Well, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, if you didn’t want your law—good ol’ SB 3X 18 —to apply to jails, then it might have been wiser not to have written into it the words, “This bill would also revise the time credits for certain prisoners confined or committed to a county jail or other specified facilities, as provided.”
The Wave has an informative take on the quarrel.
And the LA Times Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton have more of the details on the judge’s decision:
A judge on Thursday denied a request by the union representing Orange County deputies to end the early release of jail inmates but signaled that the decision would not be the last word on the issue, setting a hearing for further arguments next month.
In turning down the bid to temporarily block the releases, Superior Court Judge Steven Perk noted that Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has the final say in choosing how to address the new state law that went into effect Jan. 25.
The judge set a hearing for March 12 on arguments for a preliminary injunction.
The law reformulated good behavior credits for state prison inmates, accelerating their release. But it also has caused confusion among local law enforcement officials, many of whom have been advised by county counsels to release inmates early, an interpretation that was backed up this week by Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.
SPEAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION: THE SUPREMES WILL HEAR A 2ND AMENDMENT HAND GUN BAN CASE NEXT MONTH
The Wall Street Journal has this in Friday’s paper about the upcomng case the Supreme court will hear regarding the ban on handguns in Chicago and Oark Park, Ills.
The WSJ reports that the case has brought together a surprising mix of allies on the left and the right. Not a bad thing.
(Now if we could just have a similar left/right collaboration in Congress Over something. Anything.)
NATIONAL ENQUIRER OFFICIALLY IN THE RUNNING FOR PULITZER
As well they should be. Yes, there are ethical issues caused by their policy of paying sources. But they should still be in the running for their reporting on John Edwards. Speaking personally, I don’t think they deserve to win. But I do believe they should be shortlisted.
The Huffington Post (which is getting WAY too celebrity driven of late) has the story:
The Pulitzer Prize Board has officially accepted The National Enquirer’s submissions for breaking the John Edwards scandal, according to sources close to the Board. In a historic move, the Pulitzer Board conceded that the self-proclaimed tabloid is qualified to compete with mainstream news outlets for journalism’s most prestigious prize. The Enquirer is in the running for the Pulitzer in two categories: “Investigative Reporting” and “National News Reporting” for The National Enquirer staff.
[SNIP]
Before The Enquirer submitted its nomination, the Pulitzer’s long-time administrator Sig Gissler attempted to pre-empt this campaign by telling reporters that the tabloid is not eligible due to various technicalities. Gissler, however, showed great humility and fairness by reading The Enquirer’s submission and admitting that the paper is eligible to compete. Gissler has given The National Enquirer the legitimacy it long deserved for breaking a political scandal of national significance.
The National Enquirer single-handedly broke the stories about Edwards’ affair with a campaign staffer, their out-of-wedlock child, the expensive cover-up and the federal grand jury investigation of possible misappropriation of campaign funds. During the 2008 presidential campaign, the other reporters covering Edwards’ campaign did little if anything to follow up on the published stories in The Enquirer.
I’ve long felt that the “Code of Ethics” adopted by modern journalists is pretty silly. Most journalists (our host not included) are way down on the bottom of my list of desirable people. Modern journalists, armed by the fantasy that they are “ethical” and “objective,” have participated in immense frauds against the American people, while at the same time showing remarkable ignorance about important topics.
For example, if you want to know about the current events in the Global Warming, err Climate Change debate, you have to go to the British papers. If you wanted to know about Edwards, you needed the NE (which, last time I checked, was also the largest circulation paper in the country).
I have been involved in more than my share of controversial events (the Swift Boat controversy especially), and it has been my observation that the more “reputable” a journalistic organization was, the more likely it was to lie and cover up the truth. In the last election, the MSM was nothing but a shill for Obama – no serious investigations (contrast that to the frenzy over Bush’s National Guard records in 2004).
No, I think NE are a fine outfit. We need more of them. We need fewer LA Times or NY Times or Boston Globe. The good news is that this is coming to pass. About 40 years past due!