State Failed to Properly Monitor Sex Offender
California Authorities Criticized for Supervision of Phillip Garrido
Nov 7, 2009
In November 2009, the Office of the Inspector General of the State of California issued a scathing report on how the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation utterly failed to properly supervise registered sex offender, Phillip Garrido.
Phillip Garrido
Garrido, now 58, was convicted in 1977 of rape and kidnapping. He repeatedly assaulted and raped a 25-year-old woman after taking her across state lines. Garrido was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment on the federal kidnapping charge and from 5 years to life for forcible rape by a Nevada court.
In 1988, Garrido was paroled by the federal government and returned to Nevada to serve that state’s sentence. Later that same year, the sex offender was paroled by Nevada and once released, was supervised by federal parole authorities.
While on parole, Garrido resided in his mother’s home in Antioch California. In March 1999, the state of California assumed responsibility to monitor Garrido while he was on parole.
The Kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard
On June 10, 1991, the stepfather of Jaycee Dugard watched the 11-year-old as she walked up a hill to catch her school bus. As she stood waiting a car containing a man and a woman slowed down and stopped in front of her. At first, stepfather Carl Probyn thought that the couple in the car were friends of the family. Suddenly one of the car doors flew open and a screaming Jaycee was forced inside. Probyn and the rest of Jaycee Dugard’s family would not see her again for more than 18 years.
Jaycee’s Captivity
On August 26, 2009, Garrido and his second wife Nancy, 54, were arrested and charged with 29 felonies including rape, kidnapping and false imprisonment in relation to Jaycee’s abduction. The now 29-year-old was freed and returned to her family It is alleged that Garrido used the young girl as a sex slave and she bore him two daughters; now aged 11 and 15. Dugard and her children were forced to live in squalor in a series of tents and shacks that were constructed in the back of Garrido’s property in Antioch.
After the Garridos were arrested, Phillip told the media that they would be impressed with the way that everything turned out. During the later years of her captivity, Jaycee, who went under the name of “Alyssa”, worked for her abductor’s printing business where she dealt with customers and had access to telephones and the Internet. It is believed that the kidnapped girl was suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome.
The Report
For a period of more than 10 years between 1999 and the day he was arrested, the State of California was responsible for the supervision of the registered sex offender. During all of this time Jaycee was being held captive. Parole agents visited Garrido’s home on at least 60 occasions in that period of time and failed to observe the people living in the back of the property. One parole officer saw, but failed to question a 12-year-old girl in the sex offender’s home who, from known information, was not living there. As a result of missing the fact that Jaycee and her daughters were on the property without being observed for over 10 years, the Inspector General of California conducted an investigation in how the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation supervised Phillip Garrido. The report found that the Department:
- wrongly assessed Garrido as a low risk to reoffend
- failed to adequately supervise Garrido
- failed to use GPS monitoring properly
- failed to have Garrido undergo a mental health assessment
- failed to train agents to properly conduct home visits
- failed to notice the living structures on the property failed to speak with neighbours and local public safety officials
- ignored opportunities to determine that Garrido had violated his parole.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation agreed that their parole system needs to be improved.
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