Calif. Assemblyman On Sex Offender Record Change

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And Tuesday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state corrections officials to keep parole files for sex offenders. It was routine practice to burn or shred most parole files one year after the end of the criminal's parole. John Gardner was no exception to that rule. When San Diego assemblyman Nathan Fletcher asked to see Gardner's file, he was told there was nothing to see because it had been destroyed. Assemblyman Fletcher joins us now. And I gather, after that you learned that there was something left of the file of John Gardner.

Assemblyman NATHAN FLETCHER (Republican, San Diego): Well, it's been a little bit of a maze trying to figure out from corrections what they have and what they don't have. You know, we asked out of the gate for the file. Corrections initially delayed. They gave us the dates where he had stayed, but didn't provide any real information. We pushed harder. Then they came back with a definitive statement that said, we have destroyed his file in its entirety, therefore there's nothing to give you. There are two things wrong with that. First off, that's the dumbest policy I've ever heard of in my life. When you have a convicted sexual predator who targeted a child, that a psychologist has said...

SIEGEL: Mm-hmm.

Assemblyman FLETCHER: ...they will re-offend, I don't know why you would ever destroy their records. Second, since that time, now corrections has come back and said, well, parts of his parole record were added to his time from prison, and so we'll have to go through and find. So it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

SIEGEL: But he had completed his parole. If there had been more information, a full file that had been kept, how would that have prevented him - given what his sentence had been and the fact that he'd served it, how would that have prevented these crimes?

Assemblyman FLETCHER: Well, there's nothing we can do to bring Chelsea King back. There's nothing we can do to bring Amber Dubois back. But there is an obligation moving forward to figure out how to fix the system to make sure that no family has to go through what Brent and Kelly King are going through right now. It's difficult to identify where the system broke down if corrections is burning and destroying records.

SIEGEL: But corrections says, in California, that they have 10,000 parolees cycling through every month and to process and maintain that much paperwork is somewhere between very costly and impossible.

Assemblyman FLETCHER: And I just reject that on its premise. I mean, only a bureaucrat in Sacramento will tell you that a country that 40 years ago put a man on the moon is not capable of protecting children from sexually violent predators because they don't have enough file cabinets. You can store thousands of documents on a thumb drive in your pocket. Corrections needs to come into the modern era and figure out a way to do this. When you have a case like John Gardner, where you were warned he is a danger, he is callous, he has no remorse, he will re-offend - A, I don't know why he gets let out to begin with. And, B, why that's not given the highest priority and the maintenance of those records and the attention of that case given the highest priority is shocking to every parent and every person in San Diego.

SIEGEL: And to this point we should say that he has not been convicted of either of these offenses. So, we I should just state that very clearly. I want to ask you about sex offenders. Obviously when there is recidivism among violent sex offenders, it's the most horrible kind of crime imaginable and it commands a great deal of publicity. On the other hand, I've read data which showed that sex offenders, broadly speaking, are no more likely to re-offend than others. One could narrow the field substantially to those who might be more likely to re-offend and that indeed many sex offenders serve out their sentences, go on parole, and they're listed for life on a sex registry somewhere, but they don't necessarily commit further offenses.

Assemblyman FLETCHER: Well, the focus of our efforts, and what we're doing with the King family and what we're looking to do legislatively moving forward is focused on those sexually violent predators who prey on children. And I don't believe for those criminals that rape and murder and stab children, I don't believe you can rehabilitate them.

SIEGEL: We do have a principle, though, that at some point no matter what you've been convicted of, after you serve your sentence and after you're finished with parole we have a concept of paying one's debt to society. Wouldn't the solution be at the sentencing end to say that the sentences for such offenses should be much greater, so that you then don't enter this area of what to do with somebody who is no longer serving a sentence and is living in society?

Assemblyman FLETCHER: No, and I agree with that and, I mean, I would like to see a system where people like John Gardner serve the rest of their life in prison because I don't think that you can rehabilitate those. For some of the lesser offenses that are going to get out, I think we need to do a better job tracking and monitoring. And we need to - as a whole, we need to prioritize the whole of the system so that the resources and focus and attention is on those most dangerous and those most likely to re-offend.

SIEGEL: Assemblyman Fletcher, thank you very much for talking with us today.

Assemblyman FLETCHER: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

SIEGEL: That's California State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, Republican of San Diego.

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