The Morongo Basin Sheriff’s station captain, and chief of police for Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms, was the guest on the Z107.7 Up Close show Friday (February 26). Captain Luke Niles addressed many questions from the public regarding the Sheriff’s Department throughout the show. Reporter Andrew Dieleman says that Niles addressed the misconception that the Sheriff’s Department dumps out-of-area parolees and sex offenders into the Morongo Basin Community…
According to Sheriff’s Captain Luke Niles, not only are there fewer parolees on average due to prison reform change, but the Sheriff’s department does not release them into other communities.
“Individuals who are arrested and released on a term of parole return to the areas where they live. They’re from here, or certainly have a strong tie to this community, and this is where they will live with family members. They do not randomly get dumped throughout the state by different law enforcement entities or the correction system.”
Niles also stated that in rare cases when a proposal does arise to release a potentially dangerous parolee or sex offender into a different community, there is a judicial system in place to inform the community and allow them to take action against it.
“We always house our own sexually-violent predators here when they’re released back to the community if they started from here, and the same is the obligation of any other county in the state.”
