Last week I saw headlines about a guy charged with killing two people at a South Jersey birthday party. I ignored those headlines!

Then I saw a Burlington County Times headline that blared “Prosecutor criticizes early release of inmate now charged with double homicide.” I stopped ignoring the headlines and read in the Burlington County Times article:

In the wake of a court hearing Wednesday, Prosecutor Scott Coffina criticized a policy that allowed Paden to be released early as a pandemic precaution.

The policy allows sentences to be shortened when an inmate has less than a year remaining to be served.

Paden was released from a sentence, imposed in June 2018, for aggravated assault and a weapons offense, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Coffina said the policy allows inmates to be freed "without any individualized consideration of the crime for which they were convicted or the risk that they will resume their criminal activities."

He said a risk assessment "should be done for people who actually have been convicted of a crime, especially a violent crime."

Coffina said what many of us were thinking back in October 2020 when Governor Phil Murphy triumphantly signed the bill to release inmates in the name of COVID-19.

You may recall, Murphy and his allies made sure the “first wave” of inmates were released after the election. From NJ.com:

Gov. Phil Murphy signed a first-in-the nation bill Monday reducing sentences in a prison system with the highest coronavirus death rate in the country — a move that will release at least 2,000 inmates beginning next month.

The law (S2519) takes effect in 16 days, meaning the first wave of releases will happen the day after Election Day. About 2,088 people are expected to be freed Nov. 4, according to an estimate from the governor’s office. Around 1,000 more will also be released ahead of schedule in the following weeks through January, sources previously told NJ Advance Media.

While many of us complained this was a bad idea, state Senator Michael Testa reminded us in a press release last week that he and others warned Murphy this was a bad idea. From Testa’s release:

“The Governor has blood on his hands again,” said Testa (R-1). “Murphy’s handling of the COVID era has been an unmitigated sham. We warned the administration last year that releasing massive amounts of prisoners during a global pandemic would endanger the safety of New Jersey residents. Sadly, this tragic killing proves our point.

“The killer should have remained locked up where he couldn’t hurt anybody, but Murphy chose to open up the cells and let criminals go free,” continued Testa. “It was a recipe for disaster, and everybody knew it except the Governor and his team.

Apparently, Murphy and his people chose to ignore those warnings. More from the above mentioned NJ.com story:

More than 800 of those set to be released the day after Election Day will be on parole, including more than 240 who do not have a safe place to live, according to Murphy’s office.

“We’ve been working closely with our department of corrections and the state parole board, as well as nonprofits and advocacy groups to ensure that inmates will have access to housing and social services,” Murphy lawyer Parimal Garg said Monday during the governor’s coronavirus press briefing in Trenton.

Murphy added that housing was one part of a broader effort to help people reenter society.

“You cut down dramatically on recidivism, you cut down dramatically on life’s challenges if you’ve got a plan that’s wholistic, including where somebody’s gonna live,” Murphy said. “Recidivism” is when somebody convicted of a crime breaks the law again.

But the NJ.com piece ends by showing there was no real plan to ensure those released had a place to live:

The majority of people set to be released Nov. 4 will not be under state supervision, meaning more could be at risk of homelessness. Reentry organization, churches and other groups have been preparing for weeks to help.

Testa is right! Murphy choosing to let criminals go free was a recipe for disaster.

I’ll go a step further and say anybody with half a brain knew it was a recipe for disaster!

But, here’s the thing, Murphy isn’t the first Democrat governor in our nation’s history to just let dangerous criminals walk the streets. Former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis also thought it was a good idea – until he didn’t after 175 stories ran in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune about the Massachusetts furlough program.

Just for background, Massachusetts passed a weekend furlough program for jail inmates in 1972, the program excluded first-degree murders. Some idiot complained and eventually the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided first-degree murders had to be granted furloughs because the law did not specifically exclude them. The state legislature fixed that by passing a law that excluded first-degree murders, then Dukakis vetoed the new law because it “cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation.”

Those of us who are old enough to remember know the Massachusetts furlough program became an issue in the 1988 presidential campaign.

Shockingly, the issue was first raised by a Democrat running in the primaries against Dukakis. Then-Senator Al Gore used the weekend furlough issue in a debate before the New York primary.

After Dukakis won the nomination Republicans were happy to finish what Gore started. Thus, the country was introduced to Willie Horton, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole was let out of prison for the Massachusetts weekend furlough program. Horton decided not to return from his furlough and went to Maryland where he committed assault, armed robbery and rape. Maryland Judge Vincent J. Femia sentenced Horton to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years and refused to return Horton to Massachusetts saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again.”

While Massachusetts only allowed prisoners to go free on weekends and Murphy threw caution to the wind and just let prisoners go free, both Dukakis and Murphy were both warned releasing dangerous criminals was a bad idea – Dukakis by a newspaper and Murphy by elected Republicans – neither listened and the end result was disaster.

So, it is more than fair to ask if Ronny Paden, Jr., the alleged shooter in the recent Edgewater Park murders, who was released from prison in November 2020 under Murphy’s policy to stop the spread of COVID-19 among prison inmates is Phil Murphy’s Willie Horton.

Or put another way, will Republicans make Ronny Paden, Jr. Phil Murphy’s Willie Horton?