Yes, crime has gradually come down over the years nationally and locally. This is a good thing. San Bernardino alone sees a 14.8% drop in violent crimes alone. This is wonderful news. The Daily Bulletin has a great article with more detail here.
If you haven't heard already, Supreme Court orders California prisoner release. This has been happening for many years already. California already releases between 9,000 and 11,000 prisoners per month, but it returns over two-thirds of these on parole on violations, at a rate over twice the national average. I believe 7 out of 10 prisoners released will return to prison within the year.
Now you add a bad economy and no jobs even for normal citizens, what is there to do but survive? Many gangs are lying dormant, and thank god for gang injunctions. The old guys are getting out and with no options, it's time to revive the dormancy for drug sale and territory control.
It wouldn't surprise me if there are those 'private' for profit prisons behind this, because what will happen is crime will flourish to the point our governement cannot handle it (they can't already)? Therefore, the privately owned prison investors will be drooling like wolves for the taxpayers money. These prisons are even more horrible than governement run. Because PROFIT is the key, not safety.
Brace yourselves and hope this isn't the case. Many incarcerations are due to drug use or even possession or other minor things (people do make mistakes).
But I personally see almost on a daily basis prisoners exiting the greyhound station in Claremont. You can clearly tell who they are, with their plastic clear belonging bags, pants with no belts, tattooed up & down with a lost look as they walk down Indian Hill.
As a moderate, the liberal side of me says, "What's to help them do better on the outside? Perhaps a revamp of the parole violations, I mean, come on, for having a beer?"
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