Hidden in plain sight

Los Angeles Times: The tragic case of Jaycee Lee Dugard, abducted at the age of 11 and allegedly held captive for 18 years in a backyard complex of tents and outbuildings at an Antioch home, has raised a newly relevant question: How could the alleged kidnappers and their victims have hidden in plain sight for so long? And does the apparent failure of parole agents to detect the ongoing crimes show that reforms to the state’s parole system are a bad idea?

Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, who have been charged with 29 counts of kidnapping and rape, were well known to law enforcement officials. ... A parole officer visited the Garridos’ home a few times a month but never saw anything suspicious and never went into the backyard.

Corrections budget

Faced with the necessity of cutting $1.2 billion from the ballooning corrections budget, the Assembly ... approved a bill that would, among other things, change the way California supervises parolees. As has been repeatedly documented in studies by panels and blue ribbon commissions since 1980, this state’s parole system is a train wreck of inefficiency that crowds prisons, overwhelms parole officers and produces the nation’s worst recidivism rate. The bill would help remedy that situation by reassessing parole status based on the risk an ex-convict poses to the public.

Does that mean dangerous sex offenders like Garrido would be left to their own devices? Hardly. Not only would they still be subject to monitoring, but their parole officers would have more time to focus on them.