LOS ANGELES -- Tens of thousands of criminals in California would walk free if lawmakers decide it’s too costly to keep them behind bars.
But Meg Whitman says public safety can’t be sacrificed to fix the state’s budget mess.
While education and rehabilitation are crucial parts of the reform process, California lives depend upon tougher sentencing, and a working parole system, Whitman says. And it’s time to crack down on criminals and spend smarter to keep people safe.
“Unfortunately, while politicians have been raising spending, raising taxes, and raising doubts about their ability to lead, they also have started to jeopardize the first duty of government -- and that is public safety,” Whitman said Friday to a crowd of more than 100 at the 27th annual meeting of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Los Angeles.
“It’s an act of supreme negligence that lawmakers have mismanaged the budget to the point that it threatens public safety. We need to safeguard our law enforcement resources and keep prisoners behind bars until they finish their time.”
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation is dedicated to restoring a balance between the rights of crime victims and the criminally accused. President and CEO Michael Rushford said the nonprofit is looking to all of the gubernatorial candidates to see whose ideas align best with the organization’s.
Whitman’s interest in helping law enforcement was a “breath of fresh air,” he said, especially for this group of advocates who have, for too long, seen a broken criminal justice system.
“I think she had some good, solid ideas about what to do,” Rushford said. “We don’t think it’s just lip service with Meg, and that’s important.”
Whitman told the group that spending in California has been brought to the brink of insolvency, causing job loss and businesses to leave the state. But it has also created a domino effect that now has public leaders proposing early releases from prisons, police layoffs and raids on local budgets earmarked for law enforcement. She fears lawmakers are seeking short-term savings over long-term safety.
“This is not only fiscal irresponsibility, it’s dangerous policy and just simply poor leadership,” Whitman said.
As governor, Whitman said she would find at least $15 billion in savings and efficiencies within four years and reduce the state’s payroll by at least 30,000 positions.
When it comes to public safety, Whitman said she would make spending a top priority, while still casting a discriminating eye as to how those dollars are spent.
“More money alone isn’t the answer to improving education in our state, and it isn’t the answer to improving the fight against crime either,” Whitman said. “We need an independent cost-benefit analysis of how our corrections and rehabilitation dollars are being spent.”
Whitman advocated for a more effective parole system that prevents convicted felons from committing crimes again. In March, Lovelle Mixon shot and killed four Oakland police officers while on parole for two previous firearm-related crimes. It’s a story that has haunted Californians, and Whitman says it’s a result of an underfunded parole system.
Whitman also supports tough sentencing -- in particular California’s three-strikes law which significantly increases the length of time repeat offenders with felony convictions remain in prison. The third felony strike means a mandatory 25-years to life in prison.
And for offenders who have committed the most egregious and violent of crimes, Whitman supports the death penalty and wants to see it more swiftly enforced.
“I support the death penalty because it is just, and because I believe it is a deterrent to the calculated, malignant act of murder,” she said. “We may not know precisely which lives are saved when justice is done, but we know innocent people are alive today who wouldn’t be if capital punishment was not the law.”
Rod Pacheco, district attorney for Riverside County, said it would be difficult to find a candidate better suited than Whitman to reform the criminal justice system.
“She touched heavily on substantive matters dealing with the death penalty and public safety but she also dealt with it morally and ethically for society,” he said. “It wasn’t just an academic discussion -- she was leading, and that’s what we need in California right now.”
“She’s going to get the job done. The public safety system in the state needs to be completely overhauled and recast and we need somebody with the strength to do that and some commitment and some ideologies, and she’s got all of those. She’s going to make a difference -- when she becomes the governor, she will make a huge difference in that area of the state bureaucracy.”
