Keep Bailing

Captain Melvin Riley, 83, who worked for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and spent nearly thirty years in law enforcement before retiring in 1978, died last Wednesday after a long illness.  Family, friends and colleagues held a memorial service in his honor at the Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose.

Captain Riley was a local hero who demonstrated time and again how much he cared for those who were down on their luck.  He created both a work furlough program and a chaplaincy program for county inmates.  He also played a large role in establishing Friends Outside, another county program started in 1955 to aid prisoners’ families.

Melvin Riley was born in Salem Ore., but grew up in Bakersfield.  He attended San Jose State University.  Riley served his country twice — first in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, and later, as an MP during the Korean War.  He eventually moved to Elmwood, where he spent nine years on the “Farm.”  This was his nickname for the Elmwood Jail, which offered an agricultural rehabilitation program for inmates.  Riley helped design both the man jail and the Elmwood facility.

Over the years he was promoted several times, including a stint as head of the detective division, but he chose to devote most of his career to the detention side of law enforcement.  By doing so, Riley cultivated his own soft spot for helping prisoners, their families and the homeless.

Every Christmas the Captain offered a prisoner’s family food, presents and, if necessary, shelter in his San Jose home.  “He felt deeply about the homeless,” said his daughter, Maureen Riley-Behlen.  “He really got to know them.  When winter came around, he’d be concerned about them and put them in jail so they had a place to sleep.”

“He was a real straight-arrow guy,” agreed Glenda Parmentier, who worked for Riley at Elmwood and also knew him well from church.  “He always seemed to know the right thing to do.”

Captain Melvin Riley, you will be sorely missed.