One constant is a lack of space to house these dangers to society. Jails tend to fill up and governments have a hard time keeping pace with the demand - particularly when they're buying $40 MILLION buildings or theaters for the profitably challenged... but we digress.
Programs like the Community Custody Program were created to relieve the pressure on jails by putting these predators back in society - supposedly with careful monitoring and close supervision. To date judges have been setting the who and how of the CCP with input from jail officials.
One consequence of the county's CCP program was the recent release of a violent criminal Jamie Alderete. Records indicate that Alderete had been arrested no less than 32 times since 1990. Despite his violent history, Judge Albert "Pat" Murdoch decided that the best place for Alderete to be was back in society, back with a plentiful supply of victims.
On Tuesday, Alderete was charged with beating his pregnant girlfriend while wearing his ankle bracelet. According to a criminal complaint, the victim told officers that Alderete began punching her head, then rammed his knee into her stomach and punched her in the back.As you can tell, Mr. Alderete is a real gem and from the Journal's description of his criminal history his actions are hardly surprising. What's troubling is that Judge Murdoch despite previous run-ins with the criminal felt compelled to send him back out into society to continue his criminal career.
Alderete said he was going to make the victim lose her baby. She is two months pregnant, according to the complaint.
Conditions of Alderete's custody allowed him to be outside his home between 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. to attend school, MDC spokeswoman Heather Lough said.
Now the Legislature wants to stick their collective noses into the issue. It seems that some folks are upset about Judges releasing criminals like Alderete over their objections, so in their less than infinite wisdom they would like to transfer the decision making process over programs like the CCP from judges to jail officials.
Twin bills being discussed in state House and Senate committees would give jail administrators, rather than judges, final say in determining who gets placed on CCP.Like the argument over punishment or rehabilitation the argument over who chooses which criminals to release back into society misses the point. Prisons weren't created to punish or rehabilitate, they were created with the express purpose of keeping criminals away from the rest of us. Sure, taking away someone's freedom could be considered punishment and that punishment might cause some to rehabilitate, but those side benefits are nothing when compared to the very real benefit of protecting the general public from dangerous predators.
Jail director Ron Torres has said that the collaboration between the judges and jailers "always seems to be on thin ice," because some judges have reservations about the program, while others order it over the jail's objections.
Look, the problem is the program. We don't doubt that we have an overcrowding problem and if the program has to exist, we'd prefer a judge be calling the shots not some unelected bureaucrat. However, programs like the CCP put the concerns of prisons before the safety of people. Violent offenders like Alderete have no business being allowed access to general society. It's time to realize that the best place for them and for us is not in the community, but rather behind bars.
7 comments:
Every year the statics come out and every year the politician say crime is going down. Our tax dollars pay to build larger jails and every year crime is going down. Where are all the criminals coming from? These criminal statics are usually compiled by the Department of Justice. Can they be wrong? Can they fouled? It appears the agencies reporting the statics have figured out how to fix the numbers. Maybe we need a better system.
March 2, 2009 7:44:00 AM MST
.... Can they be wrong? Yes!
The problem here is that the state doesn’t always draw a distinction between the real criminals and a person going 5 miles over the speed limit. Cops are usually ready to pull you over regardless of a minor infraction. In order to make it appear they are doing good jobs (and for the record), they lean towards ticketing, bullying, incarcerating instead of using common courtesy or sense. The general public is told crime is going down, because the police want you to think they are arresting the hardened criminal types and that is why the prisons are full (job security). But really, watch the “ABQ Arrest Map” in the ABQ Journal to get an idea of what times of day or night our safety is being compromised, and who is getting arrested.
Because the executive, justice, and enforcement, agencies are constantly not on the same page, we the people don’t know what to think and are sometimes as confused as our leaders appear.
We can look at all of this as entertainment value anyway I suppose.
The US has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated of any country in the World, not only currently but historically. Its pretty clear that our system of law enforcement/crime prevention has failed. We literally incarcerate a higher percentage of our population than the Soviet Union did under Stalin.
Isn't Pat Murdoch the same judge who sentenced Clifton Bloomfield to house arrest? I'm starting to see a bad pattern here.
I’ve seen the ABQ Journal arrest map. It’s OK, you can find out who drove across town DWI and was arrested in your neighborhood.
What I’d like to see is an ABQ crime map. I want to know what type(s) of crimes are going on in my neighborhood and ABQ. There was one on the APD website then one day it disappeared. Makes a person wonder what APD or Marty are trying to hide?
As far as Murdock our NM justice system is totally broken. He used to make some good decisions. I wonder, what’s the scam, or is he just getting dementia?
Remember...in those other countries...they chop off their hands...stone them...or in Stalin's case....SHOOT THEM...only the low level political "criminals" were alive to work in Stalin's prisons in Siberia.
Maybe we should take some advice...use the north end of Alaska....and start losing some limbs. That would slow the criminals down. Harder to steal a car when you only have one hand....how are you going to hold your crack pipe and your lighter with only 5 fingers on your one hand??? I think we got it.
I thing we should be glad the federal government has been prosecuting our local politician. This way we don’t fill up our state prisons. Keep up the good work Feds. Get'er Done
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