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By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: July 08, 2010
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The decision last week by the California Legislature to approve a settlement for Jaycee Lee Dugard is costing way more than $20 million, according to an opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee.
Kidnapped near her Tahoe-area home in 1991, authorities say that Dugard, then 11 years old, was imprisoned in the Antioch home of Phillip and Nancy Garrido for nearly two decades. Phillip Garrido confessed to kidnapping and raping Dugard, although both Garridos have pleaded not guilty to numerous charges.
The money, lawmakers said, will be for services such as therapy and educational expenses for Jaycee and the two children she bore after being raped by Garrido. The mediator in the decision said the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to do an adequate job of oversight, but as a result of the settlement, the state does not have to admit precisely what it failed to do, who exactly failed to do it, and what exactly the state is doing about it.
The article expresses concerns that not only will California taxpayers ever get answers to what went wrong with Garrido's supervision, but what precedent does this new settlement set for other botched probation cases.
“Without a trial, those questions will remain unanswered, but maybe that's the point. Nobody at the state level wants us to hear those answers. We are left without assurances that Corrections will be corrected,” concluded Bruce Maiman.
To read the article, click here.
For more information on how supervision of ex-offenders can be improved, visit Justice Fellowship’s Probation and Parole resource page. |
