Humboldt Last Week

With what many call the “revolving door” at the jail comes majority support from the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors for an initiative called the “Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act.” “Serial property theft would mean a year in jail rather than probation -- that’s a big one,” said Lost Coast Outpost reporter Ryan Burns. The measure which is still in the signature gathering phase aims to make serial theft a felony, reduce early release numbers for violent prisoners, increase penalties for parole violations, and allow DNA collection in more cases among other things. It sounds great on paper if you’re not a criminal. In an unexpected turn of events at a ‘Supervisors meeting last week retiring Chief Probation Officer Bill Damiano broke with many of his law enforcement peers as a skeptic of the initiative saying it could bog down already overcrowded jails and take money away from rehabbing the 95 percent of inmates that will inevitably be released. That the good the initiative does can be achie