Parole agents repeatedly lost track of Garrido, report says
Sam Stanton - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 11/5/09 Section: Real News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A blistering new report concludes that California state corrections officials failed repeatedly to properly supervise accused rapist and kidnapper Phillip Garrido for 10 years, missing numerous opportunities to discover that he had allegedly kept Jaycee Lee Dugard captive in his Antioch, Calif.-area back yard during the entire time California authorities were supposed to be keeping watch over him.
The report revealed a litany of mistakes and inaction by the six state parole agents who supervised Garrido from June 1999 to through August.
California Inspector General David R. Shaw found that out of 123 months, Garrido was properly supervised during only 12 of those. There were extensive periods - some as long as a year - during which an agent never visited the home, his report says.
Even after Garrido was placed on GPS supervision in April 2008, agents ignored repeated instances when he traveled outside a 25-mile radius that he was not supposed to leave or when the device simply stopped functioning.
In one period, the signal for the GPS device was lost 335 times, and 276 of those times, agents simply ignored the malfunctions. In 59 of those instances, agents acknowledged that the signal had been lost but took no action.
Corrections director Matthew Cate said many of the problems with Garrido's supervision stemmed from actions taken when he came under their supervision 10 years ago.
The original agent never read Garrido's federal parole file, which contained a diagram and description of the size of Garrido's large back yard where he allegedly hid Dugard and her children. Because the file had never been read, Garrido was classified as a low-level sex offender rather than a high-risk parolee who should have been monitored closely
The inspector general's report says state parole agents failed to investigate why there was a 12-year-old girl inside the home of a registered sex offender and why "clearly visible utility lines" were running from Garrido's home to a concealed compound where he allegedly kept Dugard.
The report revealed a litany of mistakes and inaction by the six state parole agents who supervised Garrido from June 1999 to through August.
California Inspector General David R. Shaw found that out of 123 months, Garrido was properly supervised during only 12 of those. There were extensive periods - some as long as a year - during which an agent never visited the home, his report says.
Even after Garrido was placed on GPS supervision in April 2008, agents ignored repeated instances when he traveled outside a 25-mile radius that he was not supposed to leave or when the device simply stopped functioning.
In one period, the signal for the GPS device was lost 335 times, and 276 of those times, agents simply ignored the malfunctions. In 59 of those instances, agents acknowledged that the signal had been lost but took no action.
Corrections director Matthew Cate said many of the problems with Garrido's supervision stemmed from actions taken when he came under their supervision 10 years ago.
The original agent never read Garrido's federal parole file, which contained a diagram and description of the size of Garrido's large back yard where he allegedly hid Dugard and her children. Because the file had never been read, Garrido was classified as a low-level sex offender rather than a high-risk parolee who should have been monitored closely
The inspector general's report says state parole agents failed to investigate why there was a 12-year-old girl inside the home of a registered sex offender and why "clearly visible utility lines" were running from Garrido's home to a concealed compound where he allegedly kept Dugard.
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