Tag: early release

First there was the accidental release (sans medication) of a convicted butcher-knife killer who'd racked up 124 major misconducts in prison.

Seven days later we learned that the Democratic administration accidentally released 62 convicted sex offenders... rapists, pedophiles... nice people.

Now, the very next day, we learn the folks at Granholm and Cherry's Department of Corrections ignored for a month an arrest warrant to pick up a parole violator named William Dunlap who'd allegedly beaten and robbed his girlfriend, Fran Wolf.  According to the Ivory Tower, this "mistake" was much more costly than the previous two may have been.  

At 3:30 a.m. on June 14 -- only 20 minutes after the last bartender left - Wolf was in the bar's office when Dunlap approached her from behind and bludgeoned her with a sledgehammer before stabbing her multiple times in the chest in front of a security camera, police said. Dunlap fled with a few thousand dollars, police said. Police found him four days later, hiding in a crack house in Detroit.

If Dunlap had been apprehended on the warrant before the murder, he would have been detained pending a special hearing to determine whether he violated parole. A guilty finding most likely would have returned him to prison, Marlan said.

"The state could have prevented this murder," said Deila Ruiz, a longtime friend of Dunlap. "He should have been locked up."

According to good old Russ Marlan it is "not uncommon for investigators with busy caseloads to take a month or more to track down parole absconders."

And by "parole absconders" he means convicted criminals who wind up taking sledge hammers and knives to the girlfriends they'd just gotten done abusing while the administration twiddled it's thumbs for a month.

Think about this, kids... Dunlap was initially released through all of the proper channels.  He was out on parole.  Now the Granholm-Cherry administration wants to set loose early THOUSANDS of additional violent convicted criminals. Dunlap was the low hanging fruit.  He was one of those they ALREADY thought was safe to release.  

The thousands of additional cons they want to release now (as they make room to import Californian prisoners) have NOT been paroled yet.  In some cases that means they're literally considered MORE dangerous than Dunlap.

So let's say we cut them loose.  Say we turn out another 2,000 or 3,000 violent felons and they violate their parole.  Are we supposed to believe the administration will be willing and able to track them down and execute the warrants to lock them back up again?

They had a warrant here and still let Dunlap live in the same apartment with the woman he'd just pummeled.  That "mistake" cost her her life.

And how do Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry respond to the tragic news?  They don't. They ignore their administration's mistakes and hope we'll forget. That trouble will simply go away.

Which is sort of tough... when they patently refuse to put the criminals away.

A second major malfunction at the Michigan Department of Corrections has come to light this week, following almost immediately on the heels of the accidental release of a convicted murderer with 124 "major misconducts" under his belt.  

Sure, they mistakenly cut that psychopathic butcher-knife killer loose without giving him his meds, endangering his family members and everyone else in the neighborhood, but that's tidily-winks compared to today's admitted screw-up. The Granholm-Cherry administration's DOC will see that one murderer and raise us 62 accidentally released sex offenders.

62.  Convicted.  Sex.  Offenders.

"The issue has been rectified," Marlan told the Associated Press on Wednesday, but not until some bureaucratic goof in the system set loose 62 of the most dangerous, reviled and clinically ill men in the corrections system.

And no, this wasn't a move to clear room for those Californian killers the Democratic administration is hoping to import.  This was just a pure, unadulterated bungle.  Another one.  This week.

See, the reason they build prisons is to house the nut jobs, the pedophiles and the rapists specifically so they don't have interaction with innocent, unsuspecting potential and future victims.  Releasing them "accidentally" sort of defeats the purpose.  And while a far-too-late round-up might put the monsters back in their cages it won't put the genie back in the bottle, especially if any of the convicts took advantage of their time on the outside and returned to old habits.

These aren't minor mistakes.  These are life-changing, potentially life-losing mistakes.  Lives, quite literally, hang in the balance.  Things are bad enough when we're simply talking "early release."  When Matthew Macon was intentionally cut loose by the administration six years into a ten year sentence he went on a rape and killing spree that racked up a half-dozen victims.  And he was one of the guys DOC thought they'd rehabilitated.

The 62 sex offenders?  Not so much.  By the Granholm-Cherry administration's standards and actions, they believe them to be MORE dangerous than Matthew Macon was.  And still they wound up roaming the streets.

Now I'm not blaming Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry directly.  It isn't like the Governor called up the prison, named off half-a-hundred names and John Cherry drove the bus that dropped them off at their homes.  But on the flip side, we have seen ZERO consequences or even hints of consequences come from these "mistakes," sending the unmistakable signal up and down the bureaucratic ladder that incompetence won't only be tolerated... it will be defended.

It is well past time to clean house at MDOC.  Tragically, it looks more and more like someone's going to have to get killed... again... before anyone is held accountable.

Or this one... Michigan Democrats' concept of "solutions" is counterproductive these days, when it isn't outright dangerous

OK, so that first sentence might be a bit more universally embraced, by both Republicans and Democrats, but if the Dems' latest round of "answers" to Michigan's economic woes get around the state there isn't much doubt the second will be gaining a heck of a lot of traction, and soon.

From Michigan Democrats in Congress to their representatives in the state legislature and the Governor's mansion all the way down to local county government, there are ideas being floated today that might not just kill Michigan's economy, they might wind up killing some of us while they're at it.

You know things are getting dangerous when Macomb County Democrats' scheme to increase taxes on local moms and dads by $10 million a year is the least devastating thing on the board.  A $10 million tax hike to fill a $10 million budget deficit.  In spite of the fact that Macomb County currently has $30 million in its rainy-day fund!  (Hint: Its raining cats and freaking dogs outside, boys and girls.)  The Detroit News reports:

Dennis Cusik wanted an explanation of the county's retirement plan which has, until recently, allowed workers to retire at 50 years old with 20 years of experience.

"I'd just like to ask ... how can you justify giving retirement at 50 years old?" he said. "We're in dire straits here."

Good question.  They can't.  See, these sorts of things, these decisions, they have consequences.  The News reports that since 1980, when County government had five employees for every retiree, they now have 1.2 employees for each.

That leads to some awfully funny math.  And speaking of funny math, there's no place where numbers mean less these days, especially with dollar signs supposedly in front of them, than in the halls of the overwhelmingly Democratic controlled Congress.  

(Now THAT'S what I call a segue.)

Read on...