Earlier this month Senator Brian W. Jones (R-Santee) sent two letters to the Director of the Department of State Hospitals protesting the planned parole placement of two sexually violent predators (SVPs) in a Mt. Helix residential neighborhood.
“Neither Douglas Badger or Merle Wakefield are suitable to be released from secure state facilities, let alone dumping them in a residential neighborhood in Mt. Helix,” stated Senator Brian W. Jones. "Both are dangerous sexually violent predators who have repeatedly targeted and attacked children. Rather than renting a spacious home to serve as a boarding house for these people, Governor Newsom ought to follow the lead of former governors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian. Both of these Governors got creative and ordered that dangerous parolees be housed in trailers at state correctional facilities.”
In 1994, state officials tried to parole convicted serial rapist Melvin Carter into several Bay Area communities. Wilson overruled his own staff and ordered that Carter be sent to spend his parole in a trailer at the Devil’s Garden Fire Conservation Camp in Modoc County.
In 1987, the state tried to parole sadistic torturer-rapist Lawrence Singleton to several Bay Area communities. Deukmejian ordered that Singleton serve out his parole in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin Prison.
Jones has yet to receive a response back from his letters to the Newsom Administration so he is encouraging concerned residents to email or call the San Diego County Superior Court that is holding a hearing on Douglas Badger’s placement on Tuesday, April 20 and the placement of Merle Wakefield on Monday, May 10. Jones also has authored Senate Bill 445, which would prevent convicted rapists and other violent sex offenders from getting out of prison early.