Manson follower Van Houten denied parole .. again

As I've read, California law requires all prisoners with life sentences to also be approved by the governor even after the parole board clears them. Because no governor wants to be responsible for the final decision in letting a potentially dangerous person out, something like 75 percent of the very few approved paroles for lifers have been turned down under the Governator and something like 95 percent were turned down by his predecessor.

I believe there was a recent episode of This American Life that chronicled a part of that issue.

 

How weird would it be for someone if they did get out after 40 years of confinement?

 

I'd imagine it would be impossible to squeeze as much as a drop without say-so.

 

Even Sirhan Sirhan gets a shot in front of the parole board in California every five years. He'll never get out, of course, but it is a 20 second story we in TV tend to run when it happens.

Yet Arthur Bremer (the guy who shot George Wallace in '72) got out after 30 years.

 

Very well done. Of course some birds weren't mean to be caged.

And I read Helter Skelter about once every 18 months. It's still fascinating every time.

 

An interesting book I read in college was Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" a fictional story, although I'm sure there are parts that were true, about a guy who was in Stalin's inner-circle, but got caught up in some of the purges and was jailed a couple of times.

One story from the book was a fellow prisoner who had been in jail for 20 years, essentially in solitary confinement, who another prisoner nicknamed Rip Van Winkle. The guy had been in jail on some treason charge, then released in an amnesty. He ended up arrested again a week later because the Soviets thought he was being treasonous again, either by asking for names of comrades who were no longer in favor, or putting flowers on an undesirable's grave. Guy ended up going insane, and was shot.

Still, can't imagine being out of the world for 20 years, or 40 years, and suddenly getting released.

 

How long was Nelson Mandela imprisoned?

 

27 years. 1964-1991.

 

Leslie Van Houten + murder + Charles Manson association = life behind bars. No way she ever gets out. None.

 

Very probably true.

Although, to me, Van Houten and the late Susan Atkins seemed to be about the least likely criminals to repeat their past as there is around.

 

The real question in all of this is what's more important: paying for what you did or whether or not you're a danger to society. The answer to that question is the answer to this debate.

 

Leslie Van Houten: Out and loving it.

Former Manson family member Leslie Van Houten released from California prison, official says | CNN