Dugard-inspired bill would keep ‘dangerous’ prisoners locked up
By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times
Two months after Phillip and Nancy Garrido were sentenced for the kidnap and rape of Jaycee Lee Dugard, a group of Northern California legislators introduced a bill to reform the state parole system and keep “dangerous, life-term prisoners” behind bars.
“Although we can’t undo the mistakes of the past, we can make systemic improvements so that all Californians are safer and that victims know government is working to protect them,” said Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, who introduced the bill Wednesday. “Senate Bill 391 is for those Californians who will never become victims because society’s most dangerous criminals are kept where they should be — behind bars.”
Phillip Garrido was on federal parole for a 1976 kidnap and rape when he and his wife abducted Dugard as the then-11-year-old was walking to the school bus in her South Lake Tahoe neighborhood. They held her for 18 years in a ramshackle compound in Antioch, where she gave birth to two daughters after being raped repeatedly by Garrido.
There are plenty of laws already. If the law enforcment and probation folks had done their jobs correctly, Garrido would never had seen the light of day. I certainly do not want any legislators deciding who is a “dangerous criminal” and who is not. Mr. Gaines’ statement that the “government is working to protect them” is scary. Anyone who knows the words: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” knows that THIS is dangerous.