The 2017 Montana State Legislature is attempting to pass House Bill 133. This bill is intended to combat overcrowding in jails and prisons. Governor Bullock recently signed into effect a package of bills attempting to combat overcrowding in jails and prisons. In 2015, Senate Bill 224 created the Montana Commission on Sentencing to combat overcrowding in jails and prisons. Probation and Parole Bureau Chief Ron Alsbury has left a legacy burdened with suffering, crowded jails and prisons and a huge cost to taxpayers. ( Reigned as Bureau Chief from 2003 – 2015)
Ron Alsbury is a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Days Saints (the Mormons). Central to their religion is a “sacred” text called the Book of Mormon. Within the pages of the Book of Mormon are the beliefs and commandments that members of the church strictly adhere to.
Ron Alsbury and I studied the same Book of Mormon. This is what we were taught (the scripture included is from the Book of Mormon): In the “Book of Mormon” dark skin is a sign of God’s curse, while white skin is a sign of his blessing. The book tells of a conflict between two lost tribes of Israel, the Lamanites ( dark skin, text added) and the Nephites (white skin, text added), who journeyed to the New World and made their home in Mesoamerica. The Lamanites sinned against God, and “because of their iniquity…the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them” (2 Nephi 5:21). According to Church doctrine the Lamanites are the forefather of the Native American Indians. Church Apostle Spencer Kimble, in a general conference meeting, said that Native Americans who converted to Mormonism were gradually becoming lighter skinned.
The Book of Mormon tells of a great war between the Lamanites and the Nephites in approximately 400 AD and the Lamanites (dark skin) killed all the Nephites (white skin). 2 Nephi 5:24 “And because of their cursing…they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey. Enos 1:20 “The Lamanites…were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness, feeding upon beasts; dwelling in tents and wandering about in the wilderness with a short girdle about their loins and their heads shaven, and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us.” Alma 17:13-14 “And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of the harvest, for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken. And assuredly it was great, for they had undertaken to preach the word of God to a wild and a hardened and a ferocious people; a people who delighted in murdering the Nephites and robbing and plundering them; and their hearts were set upon riches or upon gold and silver, and precious stones; yet they sought to obtain these things by murdering and plundering, that they might not labor for them with their own hands.” This is what Ron Alsbury learned about the Lamanites aka the Native Americans. This is from a sacred text strictly adhered to by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Let’s look at Ron Alsbury’s statisics while he was Probation and Parole Bureau Chief. Ron Alsbury was Bureau Chief of Montana Probation and Parole from 2003 – 2015. Let’s look at his statistics: From FY2009-2015 the raw increase of Parole violations was 241%. The American Indian population accounts for an astounding 27% of the 241% increase. (see Montana Dept of Justice Arrest Data, FY2009-FY2015) In 2003, the year Alsbury took reign, there was an immediate increase of 8% male return rate to prison (from 39% to 47%) and an astounding 11% increase of recidivism rate (from 38% to 49%). This is one year!! ( see Montana Commission on Sentencing, March 2016)
I find it preposterous to believe that Ron Alsbury’s staunch belief and strict adherence to the sacred text of the Book of Mormon has anything to do with the astounding recidivism rate and probation and parole violations of the Native American population.
Montana need look no further than the statistics of Ron Alsbury. Perhaps we need to take another look at Homeland Terrorism.