California Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to send nonviolent prisoners back to county jail under a new law AB-109 known as “Realignment” is like using gingerbread to build our next prison.
The court order to reduce California’s overcrowded prisons by 33,000 prisoners over the next two years has begun. We should begin to see the real ugly face of this new California law as early as next year.
With public safety in mind, lawmakers have created an unsafe and unfair law. AB-109 signed by Gov. Brown attempts to meet a federal court order to reduce California’s prison population. However, it appears to benefit a Wall Street type criminal while leaving a less serious offender to rot in prison.
Before AB-109 became law, the situation with current California prisoners Michael James a black inmate and Michael Schneider a white inmate was this:
1994 case: Michael James is serving a 25 to life sentence under “Three Strikes” for passing a bad check at an Alpha Beta store for $94.00.
2008 case: Michael Schneider is serving a 28 year 4 month sentence for “Running a fraudulent real estate investments scam/Ponzi schemes for over 14 years; wherein he stole over $43,000,000 from over 57 investors, many of whom were elderly and lost their lifesaving.” He pleaded no contest to 173 felony counts (including residential burglary, builder financial abuse, embezzlement, grand theft and forgery).
In the case of Michael James, he has to serve 25 years before he can be considered for parole under California law “Three Strikes.”
In the case of Michael Schneider, he would have been eligible for parole after serving 85% (23 years) of his sentence including credit for good behavior under California law. But wait!
Now that AB-109 is the new law of California, Michael Schneider who stole $43 million is a nonviolent inmate and a first time offender, which now makes him eligible for release from state prison. Unbelievably, he could be home by Christmas this year. The earliest Michael James could come home for the holidays would be Christmas 2019.
“Matt Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, called Brown’s plan to send thousands of inmates to local jails instead of state prisons the cornerstone of the state’s solution to meeting the court order” according to a June 8 SF Chronicle article by Marisa Lagos, a Chronicle Staff Writer.
Calling AB-109 the “Cornerstone of Brown’s solution”, would tell me Cate is, more interested in keeping his job then releasing the wrong person from prison. Therefore, we should not be surprised if this politician already has the blame of AB-109 ready for what seems to be inevitable, releasing the wrong person.
Prison officials are working around the clock with teams of mental heath, rehabilitation, probation and other agencies of the state, to find those most suited for release to county control.
The state has added the tool of AB-109 to assist with a computer program assessment it already uses to releasing violent and the least deserving inmates. Meanwhile, California’s Three Strikes law is holding more than 8000 truly nonviolent inmates not eligible for early release because they are labeled “Career criminals.”
We should release some qualified prisoners back to the street because of the 33,000 sent to county jails from state prison, not all need monitoring.
In the meantime, we should demand that Governor Jerry Brown, the California legislature and prison Secretary Matthew Cate, explain why a white man who schemed $43 million is being considered for early release over a black man who stole $94.00.