Thousands of Car Thieves, Dope Dealers and the like get little or no jail time due to overcrowding. This is because of what law enforcement call a “fed-kick”, meaning a get out of jail free card for a convict due to the State’s refusal to build Prisons.
And so, faced with a pile of drugs and a mountain evidence, Zamudio confessed to drug trafficking. A judge sentenced him to 3 years behind bars.
One day later, on June 28, Zamudio walked out of the Riverside jail a free man. The jail was too full, so he got to go home. Forty-two other inmates were also let go early that same day – including five more drug dealers, four car thieves, three burglars, three fraudsters, a domestic abuser who a violated his probation and a bookkeeper who had embezzled more than $65,000 from a construction company.
So what has Sheriff Sniff done about this disturbing situation?
Mass Layoffs and hyperbole in an attempt to get his own way in a budget fight? In 2011, he issued 800 Pink Slips and left 500 Prison Beds Vacant in order to try and gain leverage in a budget fight.
Earlier in 2011, after much debate about the location of a new jail (which is still under construction and being argued about), a little gem popped out near the end of the article:
Ironically, the county recently completed an $80 million upgrade of the Larry Smith Regional Detention Facility in Banning, ten miles west of the Whitewater site. The expansion added 582 beds to the Banning jail. County Sheriff Stan Sniff announced this month he would be closing 500 of those new beds due to budget cuts.
Ouch.
Currently in 2017, the Sheriff ran a huge deficit even after getting another $18 Million from the County.
Worse, the Sheriff said he is going to leave the brand new jail empty. Does he care at all about the “Fed-Kick” problem? Or does the desire to assert his authoritah over the Riverside County Board of Supervisors govern his actions?
The jail is being counted on to add capacity to the county’s overcrowded five-jail system. To free up space, the county is expected to release almost 6,000 inmates early this year to comply with a federal court order to relieve overcrowding, according to sheriff’s officials. That problem will worsen, Sniff said, when the existing Indio jail is demolished and the new one stays vacant.
Sniff “needs to stay vigilant,” Jeffries said. “But he also needs to look internally and start moving sworn deputies out of administrative desk jobs and back into the field.”
“With our budget projections, he has to meet us halfway. We need the new jail opened and staffed. We need more deputies on patrol,” the supervisor added.
“Just like the Board of Supervisors, the sheriff is also at a crossroads. We either all find new ways to cut costs while still providing essential services or we all go bankrupt arguing about whose fault it is.”
So not only is Sniff ignoring legitimate and helpful advice, those that actually are working in the jail are having issues. Check out this story in the local media about sexual harassment. Please note the off-the-record sources I am talking to have told me tons of stories about Captains, Lieutenants and the like having sexual relationships with subordinates and it severely affecting the delivery of law enforcement services. The culture under Sheriff Stan Sniff is rampant:
The civil lawsuit claims that one recent supervisor – Sgt. Aaron Martin – began flirting with Smoak after initially offering a chance for possible promotion by mentoring her.
Smoak admitted to flirting back, but said that Martin told her he just wanted to have sex. When she refused, Smoak said, Martin allegedly began verbally abusing her and cutting back her overtime, a financially devastating development for the single mother of two.
“That put a strain upon her financially because she wasn’t able to make ends meet,” said Manuel Corrales Gilleon, Smoak’s attorney.
See the pattern? We’ve written a lot about retaliation, intimidation and shattered morale under Stan Sniff’s reign of terror. It is pervasive and everywhere. Note: PSB, the internal affairs department of the Sheriff’s Department fired Smoak for talking to your intrepid blogger. (That is the conclusion I have drawn and I defy them to prove otherwise)
The results? Monster increases in crime. IT is time to hold Stan Sniff accountable and retire him at the ballot box.
PSB, are the most unethical, dishonest people in the Department. They do not investigate to find evidence of the truth. They investigate to find or try and create evidence to support their assumptions.
They are led by Mark Bostrom, a real Asshole. His famous catch phrase was,”Investigate to Terminate.” Sounds like a real unbiased investigator motto. This is how PSB operates.
If you are the public reading this blog, these are the same people who investigate Officer involved shootings. If they are willing to compromise their investigations to fit their tunnel vision. How could you expect transparency? These people are the definition of corruption.
As for Smoak, PSB just made her civil suit payout much larger. Talk about more evidence of retaliation. If the county tries to settle with Smoak, before a jury trial she should decline and take it to the jury. Nothing make change happen like a fat old settlement.
They (Bostrom and PSB) don’t care because it’s not their money, and they have no fear of being held accountable because the second floor decides how the PERS will read and the conclusions. And if it goes to arbitration and they lose, the staff at PSB still don’t care because they will still be rewarded for “following orders” as the staff member that was done wrong and fought them will be denied promotion and special assignments because of the “how dare he challenge us” attitude of the second floor. The rank and file have had enough of the Sheriff and his dennof thrives that run the Department, and will vote for Bianco come Noverber. They should all be prosecuted.
Good morning everyone!!!
Blogger’s Note: Whazzup!? Got Nothing here ‘cept that ass.
Would rather lose with the truth, than Win with lies…My job WAS to serve and protect.
Nough said.
P.S. Good morning indeed! Darkman
Most government, military, and business organizations have some type of fraternization policy that applies to superior-subordinate sex. The purposes of such policies include concerns that such relationships may be the product of subtle or not-so-subtle coercion, may lead to favoritism for the subordinate, may undermine other employees’ morale, may undermine the organization’s reputation for fairness, may lead to retaliation suits, may embarrass the entity in public and may, in other ways, impair the effective, non-biased functioning of the organization.
It’s like prison guards having sex with inmates, same thing. This activity is rampant at RSD. The problem when a subordinate has sex with a superior is, he/she in their mind, assumes the rank of the superior and acts like they can do no wrong. The subordinate also becomes privy to things the superior should not disclose. I always had much respect for employees who frowned upon dating people behind RSD walls. The rank structure conceals issues some superiors have. Some are on their forth or fifth wife and/or relationship. Hello, what ever fucked up fetish or mental issues you have, don’t use your rank to entice a subordinate into a relationship with you. Yeah I’m talking to you, you mentally disturbed fucking creep. If someone has multiple divorces beware. Or if they complain their wife won’t have sex with them, red flag. You to you fucking loser, look in the mirror. RSD is a cesspool thanks to S/Sniff and his band of weak followers.
“But he also needs to look internally and start moving sworn deputies out of administrative desk jobs and back into the field.”
Seems like there is one candidate in this race advocating this very thing yet Jeffries speaks with a forked tongue and endorsed Sniff. Maybe RSA needs to looks at replacing him next time he is on the ballot.
Oh yeah I forgot, S/Sniff rot slowly
Oh yeah I forgot, S/Sniff rot slowly and take the scumbags who did your dirt with you. Unethical liars who added to the corruption stink staining RSD.
Fuck you Riverside County Sheriffs department, fuck you Stan Sniff, and fuck any of those in a powerful position within that department that has allowed for the mistreatment and abuse of my mom. I have been reading the department’s code of ethics and values for a school paper and I am so disgusted at what they claim to uphold. This first one had me in tears:
” I. INTEGRITY
We are dedicated to honesty and integrity in all our actions and will uphold our ethical beliefs regardless of the consequences. Our actions must be above reproach. We will:
Promote and recognize ethical behavior and actions.
Demand honesty and loyalty.
Prevent abuse of the laws and violation of civil rights.
Report and confront employees who violate laws and the basic values of the organization.”
My mother was not promoted or recognized for reporting those that did not uphold these values in the correctional facility, she was confronted and retaliated against for reporting the employees who violated the laws and basic values of the organization. As an officer she was obligated to hold not only herself but her coworkers to a higher standard as these code of ethics so clearly state over and over. Yet when she reported being sexually harassed, she was blackballed the rest of her career, and the man that did this to her was let go on retirement. Are you fucking kidding me?! When she was physically assaulted by a sergeant and went to report it, she was asked “what do you want us to do about it?” Typical victim blaming that this line of work is supposed to prevent! These are just a few of the mistreatments my mom has suffered at the hands of this county’s sheriff. This piece of shit is supposed to be upholding THESE values and yet no one is actually held to this standard. And those that do, people LIKE MY MOM, are punished, blackballed, abused, and fired.
Please register to vote for November, and get rid of this disgusting, inexcusable department’s leaders. Vote Chad Bianco and make some real local change. Perhaps then we will see these ethics and values held to the highest standard and those that do uphold them will actually be rewarded and recognized as they are supposed to, not retaliated against and punished.