A Redding man is back behind bars after being arrested twice in one day, for two separate crimes. Officers arrested Nolan Telles early yesterday morning for burglarizing a truck behind the Oxford Suites on Hilltop Drive. He was taken to jail and quickly released.
Police say Telles then stole a car from the parking lot of the YMCA on Court Street.
Officers pulled Telles over near Cypress Avenue and Bechelli Lane last night after spotting him driving the stolen car.
He was arrested again and is being held in the Shasta County Jail with bail set at $35,000.
Cases like this shed light on the problems currently facing law enforcement. Because of overcrowding, repeat offenders are often released to offend again. Nolan Telles is not the first and he won’t be the last to immediately re-offend after being released from jail. The truth is, this has always been a problem, it has just been exaggerated by prison realignment.
Though it seems like it, the front doors of the Shasta County Jail are not revolving.
“The Sheriff has a matrix for how they decide who gets released, it’s not an arbitrary process and what they are trying to determine is who poses the greatest danger to the community,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Popkes.
The jail keeps high level offenders and violent criminals behind bars. But that means there's no room for car thieves, burglars or other property offenders.
“I think it is frustrating for everyone, yeah there is no question about that. At the same time, when you have someone that has re-offended and has picked up a new offense, it is more likely that that person is going to be held,” said Popkey.
Commander of the jail, Captain Anthony Bertain, says reopening the third floor of the jail will help, but only for a while.
“That level of the jail is going to be at capacity sooner rather than later and we are still going to be faced with that same issue of who is going to be released,” said Bertain.
The criminals are the problem, they know the jail is full and re-offend, knowing there will be no consequence.
“They know potentially that they could be here from 30 minutes to 3 hours to 8 hours or maybe even 3 days and they probably have their fingers crossed hoping that they are going to get out,” said Bertain.
Despite how troubling this is to law enforcement, Bertain says keep committing crimes and eventually, you'll stay in jail.
“If you keep committing it, you are going to keep coming back here and at some point, you are going to stay, you are going to go to court and they may not get out,” said Bertain.
Action News spoke with Chief Paoletti of the Redding Police Department Tuesday afternoon. He says that since January 1st, 153 people have been arrested multiple times. Some were arrested 2 times, others 9 times. He says prison realignment has sent the property offenders back to the counties and if there is no ramification for those crimes, people will continue to offend.
