Editorial: Free Colter White

Boulder Creek resident and Cabrillo College student Colter White was sent to San Quentin State Prison after a man in his Narcotics Anonymous group claimed Colter assaulted him in the Live Oak area last week.
While the incident may have happened as the accuser said — Colter cut him off or lunged at him while the man was riding his bike — the man did not fall off the bike and was not physically injured.
Needless to say, the sheriff’s office was called, and Colter, who was two months short of completing parole, was sent to San Quentin, where he will remain until the California Parole Board determines his fate on Monday, Oct. 5. If it decides he violated his parole, Colter could remain in prison while awaiting additional hearings.
Colter has a criminal history of drugs and fighting. However, based on accounts from his family, classmates and professors, Colter’s record has been spotless the past two years.
Even after a difficult past, we believe that Colter is truly on the path to recovery and that his actions up to this incident prove it. When a school, including students, professors and the president, get behind a student the way Cabrillo College has, it’s impossible not to realize this guy was doing life the right way.
As the parole board members examine this case, we urge them to take into consideration Colter’s work as an honors society president and student at the college.
California’s prison system is overcrowded, and taxpayer money is being spent each day incarcerating violent criminals. It would be shameful if the legal system turned a blind eye to the circumstances surrounding Colter’s situation and ruled that extending his jail time is the answer in his situation.