Governor says no more Arkansas parolees

[The Northerner]

Source: KING 5 TV

SEATTLE - A major announcement comes from Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire in the bitter clash between Arkansas and the state of Washington over the handling of the Maurice Clemmons case.

Gregoire anounced beginning today, Washington state will no longer accept convicted criminals on parole from the state of Arkansas.

Gregoire says she is extremely troubled by emails that surfaced Tuesday. The emails showed Arkansas officials didn't want to keep a warrant in effect which would have kept Clemmons in Pierce County Jail. The emails also showed how desperately officials in Washington – prosecutors, a sheriff’s deputy, the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Corrections – were trying to get Arkansas to work with them to keep Clemmons in jail, but it appears Arkansas wasn’t willing to help.

“I am so troubled that today I've asked (DOC Secretary Eldon Vail) to discontinue, under interstate compact, accepting any individuals from Arkansas until we can have a further review of not only the interstate compact system and whether it's really living up to its responsibilities, but whether Arkansas is living up to its responsibilities and I have a major questions in my head about that," said Gregoire. "And until I am confident they are, I've asked the secretary not to accept any interstate compact (inmates) from Arkansas.”

Read more: http://www.king5.com/news/Governor-says-no-more-Arkansas-prisoners-78341957.html

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Let's see who'll be faulted first in the upcoming blame game.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Why were we doing it in the first place?

:shrug:

[Flaneur]

2. There's something called the Interstate Compact...

...that allows people paroled in one state to serve their parole in another.

Why do we do it? Say you live in New Jersey, but get busted and go to prison in Nebraska. You get out on parole. You have no reason to stay in Nebraska and Nebraska had no reason to want you there, so they allow you to parole to where you are from.

This will mean Maurice Clemmons can't get out of prison in Arkansas and go shoot cops in Washington. It will also mean that that guy from Seattle who got busted in Arkansas won't be able to go home until he's off parole.

[nyc 4 Biden]

4. If someone is arrested and convicted in state court,

they can be sent to a prison in a different state??

[Flaneur]

12. No, well, actually, yes, but mainly no.

People convictd in state court are sent to prisons in the state where they were sentenced--unless that state's prisons are full and it is paying another state to take its prisoners.

And actually, people imprisoned in one state can apply to be transferred to their home state.

But that isn't what this is about. It's about ending cooperation with Arkansas on the Interstate Compact governing parolees from there going to Washington.

[FarCenter]

16. Parolees should always go to a state not their own state

In fact, they should be required to serve parole at least two states away.

That would remove them from the circle of acquaintences where they got in trouble.

[Flaneur]

20. That would be counterproductive.

Not only would it remove them from their "circle of acquaintances," it would remove them from their families and the world they know. And it would be unnecessarily cruel.

[FarCenter]

21. Often it is their families and the "world that they know" that got them into trouble

in the first place. As to "cruelty", if they don't want to comply with the terms of parole, they can stay in jail.

[Flaneur]

22. So let me get this straight:

You want someone who grew up in Nebraska, committed a crime in Nebraska, and went to prison in Nebraska to have to do his parole in North Carolina?

Typically, when prisoners get out of prison, they have few resources. The state usually gives them something like $50, a bus ticket home and a set of clothes. If they are returning to their community, they have a social network that can support their successful re-entry into society. If they are paroled in a different state, they know no one and have no support network, making their successful re-entry less likely. Is that what you really want?

And by the way, those parolees you would like to see stay in prison cost taxpayers about $30,000 a year each.

But you're not about successful re-entry, are you? You're all about punishment. Frankly, I think America goes way overboard on the punishment stuff, which is why we're the world's leading incarcerator.

[FarCenter]

23. Prison is pointless if you simply turn the prisoners back to the same social situation

Sure, it might cost more to support them in getting a new start in a new community. But they would have a better chance at getting their life together and not simply winding up back in prison.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. I'm fine with that. Good job Gregoire.

[Flaneur]

13. I think it is an overly broad response that will hurt some Washington families.

This means the guy from Seattle who got busted with pot in Arkansas will not be able to return home to do his parole.

Gregoire could have/should have limited this to violent offenders.

[DeSwiss]

An interstate compact....

...is an agreement between two or more states of the United States of America. Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides that "no state shall enter into an agreement or compact with another state" without the consent of Congress. Frequently, these agreements create a new governmental agency which is responsible for administering or improving some shared resource such as a seaport or public transportation infrastructure. In some cases, a compact serves simply as a coordination mechanism between independent authorities in the member states. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_compact">link)

- In this instance the compact covers the http://www.interstatecompact.org/">Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision

[Buzz Clik]

3. That should be easy to enforce.

:eyes:

[winyanstaz]

5. as far as I knew...people were paroled in the state they committed the crime in.

It is normally very difficult for a parolee to move to a different state.
Myself, I have a hard time understanding how ANY violent offender ever gets back out...and why non-violent drug offenders stay in prison in the first place while murderers and child rapists go home.

[formercia]

7. Non-voilent inmates are money makers for the Prison Industrial Complex

Hard-core prisoners can never earn their keep, thus the street.

[winyanstaz]

9. exactly...and it thereby insures even more reason for gun control etc...

when they turn violent people lose.
And in the meantime...slavery is alive and well and behind big cement walls where the public cant see it.

[Better Today]

8. So rather than recognize Washington State's recklessness with his parole and

his subsequent arrest a few weeks ago, she's blaming Arkansas? Too much.

[foxfeet]

11. AFAIK, she has not suggested that Arkansas is solely responsible

for Clemmons' release from the criminal justice system. Nor has she "refused to recognize Washington's 'recklessness' with his parole and his subsequent arrest a few weeks ago." Washington State will investigate its own role in the situation and will certainly take steps to avoid future such occurrences. Refusing to accept parolees from Arkansas is the first, most public step in that process. Whatever the nature of Washington's failures, Arkansas failed catastrophically in its obligations.

[Better Today]

17. So you think that it was okay for a 16yo to be sentenced to 99 years for burglary?

Unbelievable and truly sad.

[foxfeet]

19. So you're fond of putting words in other people's mouths?

Dishonest and truly cheap.

[superconnected]

15. WA has a problem too but granting clemency to everyone isn't one of them.

Our jails/prisons are underfunded which is the only reason prisoners get out - to let more in.

We've been way underfunded since President bush cut the federal funding for all states back in 2001. I was working at the City of Seattle court and jail when the email came out that they had no more money and could only afford lock up offenders that were immediately violent threats. They also shut down the parole office because of lack of funding. It(the parole office) ended up being run by cops in a make shift operation in the police dept and only for the worst criminals.

This was around the time Oregon was threatening to let all of it's sex offenders loose due to lack of funding. Both states routinely have let out sex offenders that normally would stay in over the last 9 years - because of the lack of funding.

[KT2000]

10. Gregoire does her best

work when she is angry and this is a good starting point for this mess.
Arkansas and their goofball ex-governor failed miserably in this instance.

[superconnected]

14. And the blame is now back in Arkansas' court. Good job Gregoire.

Huckabee certainly tried to blame it on Washington.

[old mark]

18. PA Gov. Rendell froze all State paroles in '08 when it was found

that a Philadelphia police officer was murdered by bank robbers who had just been paroled for violent felonys. All 4 had gun violation charges dropped in plea bargains - one was just released and supposedly on his way to a halfway house, decided to rob a Philly bank instead using more stolen guns.
ALL 4 individuals would still have been in prison at the time of the robbery if they had not been paroled, and the cop would still be alive.

I understand that parole for violent convicts just began again on December 1, and I am trying to find what changes were made to our evidently defective system

Prisons jammed with drug buyers while murderers are paroled-great idea.......


mark