Let’s talk about the elephant in the room for a moment, shall we? COVID-19 is sweeping through this country like a wildfire through dry brush, and while some people (you know who you are, and thank you), have attempted to defend those who were in prison, how many people have spoken up for the people who find themselves committed in California’s Department of Mental Health? (DSH) Specifically, for the guys in Coalinga State Hospital? (CSH)
Coalinga, in case you didn’t already know, is where people go once a court has determined that there’s “probable cause” to believe they’re a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) under California’s SVP Act. Now, for those who didn’t already know, “probable cause” basically means “is there a warm body?” If the answer is “yes,” then the person is sent off to CSH, after they’ve served their prison sentence, in full, to await a full trial to determine whether or not they’re a Sexually Violent Predator. If such a finding is made, then they’re kept there, indefinitely, year after year, until 2 things happen. First, the people at the DSH have to determine they no longer meet the definition of an SVP, which is an extremely high hurdle to overcome, and second, the District Attorney’s Office believes their own evaluators when they say this person no longer meets the criteria. (Seriously, I know of many, many people who were told by the evaluators at the DSH that they no longer met the criteria to be committed, but the DA’s Office refused to accept their evaluation and ended up fighting to keep them there.)
Anyway, I digress. The point here is that, contrary to popular opinion, the people in CSH are not the “worst of the worst.” They’re simply people who’ve made a mistake, paid their debt to society, and then had the misfortune of having an evaluator who had a quota to meet, after which time they’ve ended in in purgatory waiting for their trial. In fact, I know of some people who have been there for DECADES, just waiting to go to trial. Think about that, for a moment: you’re in there for DECADES just waiting to go to trial, but because you’ve already been tried and convicted of a sex offense, nobody gives a shit about you, even if you did just finish serving 2 decades in prison for the crimes for which you were convicted, but it’s all “legal,” because you aren’t being “punished,” although, for the life of me, I can’t see how being put in a setting such as this isn’t “punishment.”
Whatever… I’ve gotten off topic again, which is easy to do when discussing this particular subject, but to get back on topic, let me say this: there are far fewer people in CSH than at any other facility secured by CDCR, and yet, they not only have one of the highest rates of infection, they also have the highest overall percentage of people dying from COVID-19 infections. The latest numbers, which aren’t always accurate, courtesy of DSH using HIPPA to withhold their numbers, has the latest death toll at 13, so why isn’t anyone saying anything about them? Do we truly not care about what happens to them, just because they’ve been committed of a sex offense? Or is it a combination of this and the fact that we’re only talking about 1,300 people? Either way, right is right and wrong is wrong. Or, to put it another way, how many times have you heard the expression, “two wrongs don’t make a right” (but two Wrights make an airplane), or said that same expression to your children? By not taking a stand and doing the right thing, we’re sending the message that it’s okay to repay one wrong with another, and that’s not the message we need to be sending to our children. And keep in mind that every single one of these people have already paid their debt to society, in full. We’re not talking about releasing a sex offender from prison early because we’re afraid he might get a flu, we’re talking about releasing people who have already served their time in prison, and then some, many of which DSH themselves has stated are no longer a threat to society.
No matter how you choose to look at it, it’s wrong to just sit by and watch as people are dying. These might not be the people we’d invite to our house for Christmas dinner, let alone ask to watch our kids, but at the end of the day, they’re still people, and I know of no religion that doesn’t discuss the possibility of forgiveness. Now, I’m not saying they deserve your forgiveness, merely that they don’t deserve to die because of an inability to practice adequate social distancing. They all have to wear ankle monitors anyway, so it’s not as if they’re being set free on an unsuspecting society without anyone to keep an eye on them, and they’ll all be under some form of supervision, in most cases, parole, with mandatory treatment afterwards. Hell, if you ask, I’d be willing to bet that most, if not all, would be willing to participate in some form of house arrest, and it would certainly be a lot cheaper to put them up in a hotel room, put an ankle monitor on their leg and bring them their meals then it would be to put them up in a prison, oops, I meant “mental health facility,” which costs far more than it does to incarcerate someone in a regular prison (something like $200k per individual as opposed to $35k per individual). It’s a better use of time and resources, I say, and has the added advantage of saving lives as well.
Shawn L. Perrot
826 4th St.
Eureka, CA 95501
shawnLperrot@outlook.com
No comments:
Post a Comment