4-12-2009 California:
Against the will of the city, state officials have decided to convert a local prison reception center into a long-term facility for sex offenders, ex-gang members and the like.
Despite strong opposition from the city of Lancaster, state officials have decided to move forward with plans to convert a local prison reception center into a long-term facility to house hundreds of "sensitive needs" inmates, including sex offenders and former gang members.
Scott Kernan, undersecretary of operations for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said his agency had given "thoughtful consideration" to the city's concerns. But the need to provide permanent and safe housing for a statewide backlog of 1,500 sensitive needs prisoners must take precedent, he said.
Beginning next month, the state will move inmates deemed at-risk living among the general prison population into the new accommodations, equipped to provide ongoing rehabilitative services.
Lancaster officials argue that the Antelope Valley is already home to some of the highest per-capita concentrations of parolees and juvenile probationers. They fear that establishing a long-term facility for inmates considered "the worst of the worst" would only attract their associates to the area.
They also worry that it could hurt the city's efforts to curb crime, which last year saw an overall 10% drop.
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said he was disappointed but not surprised by the state's decision to put the welfare of inmates ahead of the community's concerns.
"The Antelope Valley has been raped by the corrections department since the prison was built," Parris said. ..News Source.. by Ann M. Simmons
April 12, 2009
CA- Lancaster to house 'sensitive needs' inmates
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1 comment:
Now this makes sense! State Officials in California going against the will of the people.
You may ask why it makes sense, I'll tell you.
The media and politician's have lied for so long about sex offenders, that the general public has been lead to believe all SO's are dangerous and monster's.
The continued lies have made society believe that all SO's cannot be trusted and therefore should not be allowed to live in their community.
This kind of thinking is (and has been flawed) from the beginning.
For state officials to house "Special Needs" inmates, shows that they are thinking of these peoples, "and the communities" future.
I have said it before and it bears repeating: If you treat an offender, affirm him/her while in therapy and support them after incarceration as well as integrate them back into society...you will realize a lower crime rate.
Normally people respond to kindness. It's free and we should all practice it. If for no other reason than to see that it really produces the result it has in the past. It did then, and it can now.
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