Buy a Gun, Get a Dog and Install an Alarm

Two major disastrous events will soon jeopardize our personal safety: 

1. Gov. Jerry Brown and liberal Democrat legislators' plan to “realign” public safety in California, and; 

2. The U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the release of up to 46,000 inmates from California’s prisons.

Under the guise of “realignment," the Governor signed into law Assembly Bill 109 transferring certain “non-violent” state prison inmates to county jails, thereby providing an early release for many of them into our neighborhoods.

Several legislators and I are staunchly opposed to this insanity.  The list of “non-violent” crimes includes:

• “Cruel or inhuman child abuse resulting in a traumatic condition.”
• “Sale of a controlled substance to a minor under 14 years old in a public park.”
• “Exploding a destructive device or committing arson near a church, school or health care facility.”
• “Cross burning, or defacing property with a swastika.”
• “Knowingly selling firearms to criminal street gang members.”

Clearly, people who commit these types of crimes should not get out of prison early.

But, even ignoring the lunacy of setting convicted felons free to terrorize innocent citizens, the funding for this plan is also fatally flawed.  

Recently, the Governor’s own finance representatives admitted that his “realignment” involves a lot more than transferring state prisoners.  They acknowledged that it will also close down local city-owned and private correctional facilities and send those prisoners to county jails too.

And, there's something really fishy about the Governor's plan – the Department of Finance figures starkly contradict his assertion that it will save California money.  

According to the Department, housing a prisoner in a city or privately owned correction facility averages $44 per day, while the county jail and state prison cost closer to $68 per day. So how does moving prisoners from $44 beds to $68 beds save money?  Here in the real world where people can add and subtract, the Governor's plan is seen for what it is, a sham.

Obviously, there must be something else behind this because the Governor's representatives had no answer to the clear contradiction.  Nonetheless, they are foolishly moving ahead with the plan anyway.

The second threat to our personal safety comes from the U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 ruling in the case of Brown v. Plata.  Basically, it orders California to release up to 46,000 state prisoners because prison overcrowding violates the “rights” of prisoners.

For the record, these inmates put themselves into prison by preying on innocent victims, oftentimes in a violent manner.  Who is making sure that victims’ rights weren’t violated? Obviously, not the five Supreme Court Justices who voted to set these prisoners free.  How reprehensible and irresponsible.  This is nothing more than a federally-sponsored jailbreak.  I agree with dissenting Justice Scalia who said, “terrible things will happen as a consequence of this outrageous order.”

We must continue to fight against the early prisoner release policies of Governor Brown and the Supreme Court.  Please send me an email (senator.anderson@sen.ca.gov) and I will make sure your views are known.

In the meantime, the best advice I can give to any law-abiding Californian wanting to protect their family and home would be to buy a gun, get a dog and install an alarm.