Tag: Russ Marlan

A second major malfunction at the Michigan Department of Corrections has come to light this week, following almost immediately on the heels of the accidental release of a convicted murderer with 124 "major misconducts" under his belt.  

Sure, they mistakenly cut that psychopathic butcher-knife killer loose without giving him his meds, endangering his family members and everyone else in the neighborhood, but that's tidily-winks compared to today's admitted screw-up. The Granholm-Cherry administration's DOC will see that one murderer and raise us 62 accidentally released sex offenders.

62.  Convicted.  Sex.  Offenders.

"The issue has been rectified," Marlan told the Associated Press on Wednesday, but not until some bureaucratic goof in the system set loose 62 of the most dangerous, reviled and clinically ill men in the corrections system.

And no, this wasn't a move to clear room for those Californian killers the Democratic administration is hoping to import.  This was just a pure, unadulterated bungle.  Another one.  This week.

See, the reason they build prisons is to house the nut jobs, the pedophiles and the rapists specifically so they don't have interaction with innocent, unsuspecting potential and future victims.  Releasing them "accidentally" sort of defeats the purpose.  And while a far-too-late round-up might put the monsters back in their cages it won't put the genie back in the bottle, especially if any of the convicts took advantage of their time on the outside and returned to old habits.

These aren't minor mistakes.  These are life-changing, potentially life-losing mistakes.  Lives, quite literally, hang in the balance.  Things are bad enough when we're simply talking "early release."  When Matthew Macon was intentionally cut loose by the administration six years into a ten year sentence he went on a rape and killing spree that racked up a half-dozen victims.  And he was one of the guys DOC thought they'd rehabilitated.

The 62 sex offenders?  Not so much.  By the Granholm-Cherry administration's standards and actions, they believe them to be MORE dangerous than Matthew Macon was.  And still they wound up roaming the streets.

Now I'm not blaming Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry directly.  It isn't like the Governor called up the prison, named off half-a-hundred names and John Cherry drove the bus that dropped them off at their homes.  But on the flip side, we have seen ZERO consequences or even hints of consequences come from these "mistakes," sending the unmistakable signal up and down the bureaucratic ladder that incompetence won't only be tolerated... it will be defended.

It is well past time to clean house at MDOC.  Tragically, it looks more and more like someone's going to have to get killed... again... before anyone is held accountable.