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LA Passes Sentencing Reform, But It's Unlikely to Cut Incarceration Much

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:52:34 -0400

For the first time in a decade, a political consensus was emerging last year in Louisiana that it was time to cut the state's highest-in-the-nation incarceration rate, says the New Orleans Times-Picayune. In the past two decades, the state's prison population has more than doubled, with one of every 86 residents serving time. Weeks later, a state Sentencing Commission, revived by Gov. Bobby Jindal after years of dormancy, produced a package of bills aimed at tackling some of the key factors driving the increase, including long sentences for nonviolent crimes and large numbers of offenders being sent back to prison for violations of parole or probation.

The five bills would eventually pass and get signed by the governor, but only after the most important parts -- the ones that would have actually reduced prison sentences -- were removed under pressure from sheriffs and district attorneys. This year two of the commission's failed measures were revived and have progressed smoothly through the Legislature, with Jindal's backing. The measures are unlikely to have a substantial effect on the incarceration rate, and the cost savings will not be immediately apparent, but their passage provides a ray of hope for reformers. The balance has remained tilted toward law enforcement. "The three easiest votes for a legislator are against taxes, against gambling and to put someone in jail for the rest of their lives," said state Sen. Danny Martiny, a veteran policymaker who has led the judiciary committees in both the House and Senate.

CA's Brown Backtracks on Plan to Shut Down Youth Prison System

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:44:18 -0400

Responding to pressure from probation chiefs, district attorneys, and prison guards, California Gov. Jerry Brown has done an about-face on a revolutionary plan to shutter California's youth prison system that was once the nation's largest and arguably the most notorious, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Four months ago, a section buried in the governor's belt-tightening budget caused a massive stir in the juvenile justice world. With annual costs per inmate at about $200,000 and its population down 90 percent from peak years, the youth prison system should stop accepting serious and violent youthful offenders beginning next year, the governor said.

For prison reformers who have long battled 23-hour confinement, education in cages and endemic violence, Brown's Jan. 5 recommendation to shift young inmates to county facilities was a startling and welcome move. In a revision of the budget out this week, the governor upends his previous plan. The change came about after howls of protest from corrections officials, who flooded Sacramento budget hearings with demands that the Division of Juvenile Justice, or DJJ, remain open. Counties, already struggling with an influx of adult prisoners shifted to their watch under other state budget reforms, simply couldn't handle these most-difficult youths, they argued. Prosecutors warned that without state-run youth lockups, more juveniles would be sent to adult prisons. "Often the ones going to DJJ are the most significant risk to public safety," said Karen Pank of the Chief Probation Officers of California. The governor's latest plan "is good for California as a whole, not just for probation departments or for counties. You need to ensure that there are all of the tools available for dealing with this population."

Detroit Plan To Lure Police, Firefighters Via Housing Gets 6 Takers

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:12:08 -0400

More than a year after Detroit Mayor Dave Bing launched a campaign to lure police and firefighters back to the city by selling rehabbed homes on the cheap, the program has sold six houses, reports the Detroit News. City officials call that a start to a Project 14 program they're confident will be a success. Skeptics say it's a questionable use of $5 million in federal grant money that could be spent elsewhere, including on demolitions and home improvements for needy residents.

Taxpayers have spent $500,000 to rehab six homes, including $160,000 on one. Some in law enforcement say the effort may be well-intentioned, but officers won't return to the city in meaningful numbers as long as crime, high taxes, and school troubles persist. "I am surprised they actually have six," said Mark Diaz, an 18-year police veteran. "Police officers have a front-row seat to the fact that we are understaffed. Do we really want to put our own families at risk?" Those who live in neighborhoods served by the project said it could increase the tax base and attract more homeowners. The project gets its name from police code for "back to normal." Bing wants to reverse a decade-long exodus of public safety officers since the state outlawed residency requirements in 1999. About half the city's 2,700 officers live outside the city.

Opiate Surge: Large Percentages of Ohio Job Applicants Fail Drug Tests

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:54:24 -0400

Opiates are the new black, a pharmaceutical phenomenon fed by pill mills and pain, an epic addictive sickness that has become the leading cause of accidental death in Ohio, says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The disease threatens to infect JobsOhio, the workplace development initiative of Gov. John Kasich. State Rep. Timothy Derickson says a coal mine owner told him 100 people showed up for a job interview and 90 of them failed the drug test.

"I was shocked to hear the extent of this problem throughout the state," Derickson said. "I didn't hear that 90 percent figure again. What I heard more often was 40 percent to 50 percent." Nancy Shafer, president of Shafer Commercial & Industrial Services, figures about a third of job candidates for her firm flunk the drug test. "I don't know how else we fix this problem," Derickson said, "except to make sure the appropriate agencies have the funds to treat it."

Texas Parole Rates Reach New Highs In Effort To Increase Supervision

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:34:54 -0400

Texas' parole rate for convicted felons has reached new highs, with the approval rate topping 40 percent this spring after hovering in the high 20s for several years, reports the Austin American-Statesman. The parole rate for violent sex offenders reached nearly 60 percent in March. Officials say the higher parole rate is partly due to larger numbers of felons imprisoned in the past 20 years who are now reaching the end of their sentences, some dating from the three-strikes-and-you're-out era of tough-on-crime laws enacted during the 1990s.

Officials are putting more of these convicts on parole to keep them under supervision and in treatment after they get out of prison, rather than have them walk out unsupervised. People familiar with the parole system said the gradual increase in rates in recent months highlights a trend: More convicts — especially those serving time for aggravated sex crimes — are being put in supervised treatment to ensure that they are not a threat to public safety after they get out. "Do you really want Uncle Creepy coming out after 20 years in prison with no supervision? No," said Michele Belanger, a former parole official who works as a legal assistant in parole law in Huntsville.

Seattle Police: Federal Reform Proposals Wildly Unrealistic, Expensive

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:03:04 -0400

The Seattle Police Department is objecting to reforms proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice as wildly unrealistic and expensive, reports the Associated Press. The Department of Justice presented a proposal to the city in March, after finding that Seattle police regularly used illegal force, often for minor offenses. AP reviewed a copy of the proposal, which shows the DOJ wants the city to change policies, add training for officers, and hire more sergeants to supervise patrol officers. The city would agree to the appointment of an outside monitor, at city expense.

A Seattle police analysis takes issue with the supposed $41 million annual cost of the changes, as well as four- to six-month timelines to implement many of them. "Plainly stated, the overwhelming majority of programs proposed by DOJ cannot be implemented in less than one to three years, if at all," the analysis says. "These timelines can only be described as impossible and prompt serious questions about the analytical thoroughness and organizational experience of those who proposed them." Mayor Mike McGinn and other city officials will submit a counterproposal this week.

Should the George Zimmerman Case File Remain Closed to the Public?

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:44:27 -0400

Prosecutors of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting have cited new video evidence, a long list of witnesses and experts, and hints of a trail of facts, forensic details, and witness observations that they hope will lead a jury to a second-degree murder conviction, says the Christian Science Monitor. The guts of the hefty case file remain secret. The prosecution wants to keep it that way, having asked Judge Kenneth Lester to waive Florida court transparency laws to keep some witness names secret.

The urge to keep the Zimmerman file under wraps is largely based on an atmosphere of threats and concerns about witness cooperation that both sides fear could undermine a trial. “When you think of Florida, it’s not short on crime and not short on spectacular, newsworthy crimes, but even despite all these high-profile trials through the years, this is the first instance in which I can see a judge seriously considering limiting access to a discovery file,” says Charles Davis, an expert on open records at the University of Missouri. “But therein lies the problem of closing the file,” he says. “Is there a real sense of some looming threat? And can it be tied to the release of more information in the discovery files? That’s a much tougher leap to make. The overall takeaway from discovery records is [they] tend to add context to a case, not take away from it.”

Nashville, High in Domestic Violence Homicides, Seeks More Prosecutors

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:43:00 -0400

Last year, there were 12,686 reported domestic violence crimes in Nashville's Davidson County, including nine homicides. Two domestic violence prosecutors handled most of those cases, each averaging about 250 cases every week, The Tennessean reports. Mayor Karl Dean says they need help. He is seeking two more domestic violence prosecutors, part of an ongoing top-to-bottom audit to identify how Nashville can improve the way it addresses domestic violence, from investigation and prosecution to victim services.

“We need to send a message that Nashville is a safe city for women and children,” Dean said. Tennessee has a deplorable reputation for domestic violence. Since 2001, it has ranked among the Top 10 states with the highest rates of women murdered by men. The state has been included on that list every year but 2009, says the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit Washington-based public safety research and advocacy organization. It has ranked in the Top 5 five times, including the past two years.

Texting While Walking Could Bring Danger, Ticket from Police

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:21:00 -0400

Officials fear that those who text and email while walking may be putting themselves in danger, says the Wilmington (DE) News-Journal. This spring, a woman walked off a pier and fell into an Indiana river while texting. While texting his boss that he'd be late, a California man nearly walked into a 400-pound black bear on a sidewalk last month. Fort Lee, N.J., officers began issuing $85 fines for "careless walking" this spring.

"When people are talking on cellphones, texting or even listening to music, unfortunately, they're not as aware of what's going on around them," said Newark Police Lt. Mark Farrall, whose department often investigates pedestrian collisions each year, including a fatality April 30. Studies show texting while walking can reduce one's gait and interfere with memory recall of one's destination, causing a pedestrian to veer off a straight path. Stories of distracted walkers tripping into shopping-mall fountains are good for a chuckle, but safety and police officials aren't as quick to laugh. Ohio State University researchers reported that cellphone use by pedestrians led to more than 1,000 emergency-room visits nationwide in 2008.

TX Execution Flap Called Textbook Example of Need for ID Reform

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:27:00 -0400

Legislative sponsors of a law tightening procedures for police lineups faulted Corpus Christi, Tx., police for allowing eyewitnesses in a 1983 convenience store robbery-murder to identify the suspect as he sat handcuffed in the back seat of a squad car, reports the Houston Chronicle. State Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Pete Gallego stopped short of claiming Texas wrongfully executed Carlos DeLuna for the murder of store clerk Wanda Lopez. Gallego said the way Corpus Christi police handled the suspect's identification was a "textbook example" of why the system needs to be reformed.

"What appears to be very faulty eyewitness identification was the main evidence used to reach a conviction in this case," Ellis said. "The chief witness appears to have gone back and forth on how certain he was that Mr. DeLuna was the culprit. You cannot have this level of uncertainty in death penalty cases." Accounts of the case were presented in a 400-page article in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Authors argue that the crime actually was committed by Carlos Hernandez, a DeLuna acquaintance with a history of convenience store robberies. Only car salesman Kevan Baker saw Lopez struggle with her assailant, the article says. Baker later told researchers he was only 70 percent sure of his identification.

TX Youth Detention Workers Blamed Violence on Rules Easing Discipline

Ted Gest — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:13:00 -0400

Last year, as beatings and fights engulfed the 300-bed Texas lockup for teen offenders near Giddings, staff members were not surprised. "The blood had been coming for more than a year," said one veteran employee told the Austin American-Statesman. "Everyone here knew the population was getting a lot tougher. We knew the programs didn't work right. We knew the gangs were out of control, (that) the place was getting out of control. Everyone knew the clock was ticking." Everyone, it seems, except officials at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, who said problems at lockups that surfaced publicly this year were overblown and that the new juvenile justice system created after a 2007 sex abuse scandal was beginning to blossom.

Despite years of reforms — from shifting two-thirds of the incarcerated youths into community-based programs to reducing the number of lockups from 14 to six to increasing oversight through special investigators and an ombudsman — one thing did not change: a management philosophy that stresses treatment and rehabilitation, oftentimes at the expense of security. Without exception, a dozen Giddings employees blame the spike in violence on a series of policy changes implemented under Executive Director Cherie Townsend in the past two years that removed consequences for youths' bad behavior — preventing officials from locking them in secure cells or removing credits for completing programs required before they are released.

Stopped, Frisked and Angry

Graham Kates — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:35:00 -0400

An earlier version of this story was originally published on FoxNews.com.

Baltimore native Chris Bilal was returning home from the laundromat in his adopted Brooklyn neighborhood when he was stopped by a police officer. The NYPD officer peppered the 24-year-old with questions about where he lived, requested Bilal’s ID, and rummaged through his bag.

“(He asked me) ‘Let me see your ID. Where are you from? Do you live around here?’” Bilal recalled.

The search of Bilal’s bag of freshly cleaned and folded laundry was just as methodical. The search produced nothing, and the officer sent Bilal on his way.

“They were searching for drugs,” said Bilal. “The funny thing was that it was a mesh laundry bag. I’m not sure what I could hide.”

The not-so-funny thing: it wasn’t the first time. Bilal, an African American who moved to New York a year ago to pursue a career as an artist, says he is repeatedly stopped, questioned—and on occasion, frisked---by New York City police.

“I feel guilty all the time,” he said. “I feel like I’m being watched and targeted all the time.”

Bilal is just one of the faces hidden behind the statistics of the New York Police Department (NYPD) controversial Stop, Question and Frisk policy, in which officers can make random stops if they have reason to suspect an individual possesses weapons, drugs or contraband---or may have been guilty of a crime.

In 2011, the NYPD stopped 685,724 people---of whom an overwhelming 88 percent were deemed innocent.

Deterring Crime

Supporters of the policy say it is an effective tool for deterring crime, and for proof they point to the city’s steep drop in criminal activity over the past decade—one of the steepest in the nation.

Skeptics, however, including prominent criminologists, argue the Stop, Question and Frisk policy, first launched in the mid 1990s by the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, .was only one of many factors in the city’s crime decline—and was most effective when it was linked to aggressive strategies that targeted specific known high-crime areas and individuals.

“[NYPD] Commissioner Kelly says he believes that the large number of Stop and Frisks prevents crime, but the data really doesn’t support that,” said Prof. Delores Jones-Brown, director of the Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College in New York.

“The overwhelming problem with Stop and Frisk is that many of the people stopped are innocent.”

Jones-Brown co-authored a 2010 report on the NYPD’s Stop, Question and Frisk policy.

The findings of “Stop, Question and Frisk policing practices in New York City: A primer,” concluded that the number of stops tripled between 2003 and 2009, and a majority of the people stopped were either black or Hispanic.

Nevertheless, police and city officials say the practice has been especially effective at getting guns off the streets.

However, while statistics do show a steady decline in gun violence stretching back several years, an updated version of Jones-Brown’s study expected to be released soon shows that in 2011 only 0.4 percent of all arrests during Stop and Frisk were for gun possession.

A majority of the arrests concerned possession of contraband items, such as drugs and drug paraphernalia.

A separate detailed report released by the New York Civil Liberties Union last week shows that of 56 percent of the stops that resulted in a search, only 1.9 percent were found with a weapon.

Racial Impact

The study also concludes that while young black and Latino men account for only 4.7 percent of New York City’s population, they accounted for more than 40 percent of all stops in the city.

While they were more likely to be frisked than young white males, the study also shows they were less likely to be found with a weapon.

Jones-Brown believes complaints have only made the NYPD more stubborn in its embrace of the policy.

“The requests from the communities where these stops occur have caused (NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly) and his supporters to stand behind it more and more. I think it says something bad about police and community relations,” said Jones-Brown.

Local reports also surfaced last week that commanders from every precinct have been ordered by top officials to carefully review all stop, question, and frisk reports to ensure that proper protocol is being used by officers.

The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment on this story. But the policy has plenty of support from the rank-and-file.

“Stop and Frisks are a necessary evil,” said Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, an NYPD union. “A lot of times it’s hard for the general public to understand.”

He said subjects targeted for stops are not victims of racial profiling.

“I understand how people may feel the way they do about Stop and Frisk, but what’s always left out of the equation is that we target those that fit a description,” Mullins said. “Our role of stopping someone is based on an incident report from someone in that particular neighborhood.”

Still, Mullins recognizes the policy can have a negative effect on community relations, especially if it is overused.

“The issue shouldn’t be people being stopped,” Mullins said. “It should be the frequency (with) which it happens.”

City-Wide Coalition

Nearly 30 advocacy groups within the city’s five boroughs formed Communities United for Police Reform, with the goal of ending what they consider discriminatory practices by the NYPD.

“It’s not ‘Stop and Frisk’ that’s happening, and it’s not in that order,” said Jose Lopez, who works as a community outreach leader for Make the Road NY, a Brooklyn-based community advocacy group that is part of the coalition.

“We are not getting stopped, questioned and frisked,” Lopez said. “We are getting searched. There’s a difference.”

“Every time I get stopped, I’m not getting questioned first. I’m usually stopped, then searched. I’m usually questioned after they find nothing,” he added.

Lopez, a youth worker, says that young people who are stopped are most concerned that it gives them an undeserved reputation in their neighborhoods as suspected criminals—a stigma that never quite goes away.

“That looms in the head of all the community members watching, wondering, if these kids did something,” he said. “So when that’s not addressed at that moment, it’s left up to an individual to decide on their own without enough information.”

Another member of Communities United is City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who has been vocal about changing Stop/Frisk policies since he experienced it firsthand while attending the annual West Indian Labor Day Parade in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, last September. “Stop and Frisk is a good police tool that should be used for the purposes that it was intended,” said Williams, who represents the 45th District in Brooklyn. “What I think is happening now is that it’s being abused in specific communities, specifically black and Latino communities.”

“If there is some sort of probable cause, there is reason to stop someone,” Williams added. “But being black or Latino is not a probable cause. “

Regulating Stop and Frisk

In February, Williams introduced three bills before the City Council to try to regulate the rampant use of Stop, Question and Frisk, by increasing police accountability and reducing racial profiling.

The bills propose:

Barring police officers from using race, gender, ethnicity or sexual identity as a just cause to stop someone on the street.
Requiring police to inform every individual stopped that he or she can refuse to be searched..
Requiring all officers not on undercover assignments to give their personal business cards to anyone stopped under the policy..

A council vote on the bills is pending.

Getting guns off the street and saving lives trumps many of the concerns of the policy’s critics, said City Councilman Peter Vallone.

“I think Commissioner Kelly summed it up best at our last committee hearing. (He said) ‘What alternative do you propose?,” commented Vallone, who represents Astoria, Queens, and also serves as the chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee.

“No one has an alternative on how to get guns off our streets. What do we do? Wait until a shooting happens or do we try to prevent it?

“We had 800 guns removed from the streets last year. Do you know how many lives that saves?”

The councilman conceded that a disproportionate number of black males are being stopped compared to whites, but he argued police should base their decisions on professional observation, and not worry about statistical comparisons.

“Doing so would necessitate quotas to make sure everyone was getting stopped at the same rate,” said Vallone, who also co-sponsored a law that banned racial profiling by law enforcement in New York. “What the stops should be compared to is civil observations.” Vallone also dismisses claims that the relatively low arrest rate of 12 percent proves Stop, Question and Frisk is ineffective.

“That rate makes absolute sense when it comes to stop and frisk.” He said. “The stops are based on reasonable suspicion, not probable cause. It would be impossible to get higher numbers based on this.”

Other Cities Reconsider

While the debate in New York continues, many other American cities have dropped or modified their stop, question and frisk techniques.

In 2011, Philadelphia settled a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), agreeing to collect more data on Stop and Frisk incidents and to ease up on the practice, refraining from questionable methods.

In 2008, Baltimore settled a suit brought by the NAACP on similar terms. In the consent decree, the Baltimore Police Department agreed to end its policy of Zero Tolerance Policing and to require officers to provide their names and badge numbers to those who make a request while stopped.

The proposed measures are similar to Williams’ bill in New York City.

Cincinnati has also agreed to terms for a similar decree filed in Ohio.

In California, the cities of San Diego and East Palo Alto have done away with Stop, Question and Frisk entirely, focusing on more direct engagement with the community and focusing on suspects with probable cause.

While lawyers wrangle in New York over whether Stop and Frisk curtails civil liberties, Bilal, and countless otherss like him, must think twice every time they see a police officer approaching them on the street: are they going to be treated as innocent civilians or potential lawbreakers?

“It kind of sucks,” said Bilal.

Bilal admired police officers while growing up in Baltimore. But the feeling of always being under suspicion has left him disillusioned about the Big Apple.

“ “I kind of aspired to always come here; and when I did, I was like, ‘Yes! I’ve finally come here. I can be free,’” he said.

“It really hasn’t turned out that way.”

Perry Chiaramonte is a reporter for Fox News.com, and a 2012 John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Reporting Fellow. This article was written as part of the HF Guggenheim Fellowship program operated by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College in New York. He welcomes comments from readers.

PA Lacks Criminal Justice Policy, Contends Corrections Secretary Wetzel

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:33:32 -0400

Fix inefficiencies in Pennsylvania's corrections department that keep prisoners behind bars for months after they’ve been paroled and that cost taxpayers millions every year. Fix Community Corrections Centers that have been shown to make the inmates who go through them more likely to commit another crime. Start evaluating criminals’ risk of reoffending before the judge passes sentence to make sure the right punishments are applied to the right people.

Support problem-solving courts such as drug court, mental health court and veterans’ courts that have been proved to reduce crime without sending people to prison. Do it all soon. Those are among to deal with Pennsylvania’s prison crisis offered yesterday by ex-Gov. George Leader and a bipartisan coalition led by the Commonwealth Foundation, reports the Harrisburg Patriot-News. The prison system costs taxpayers nearly $2 billion a year, with less than stellar results. “You can’t call what we have today criminal justice policy because ‘policy’ assumes a conscious decision has been made, and we haven’t,” said Corrections Secretary John Wetzel. Support for the agenda comes from an unlikely collection of interests including the conservative Pennsylvania Family Institute, the generally liberal Prison Society, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, and others.

Private Prisons Don't Offer "Improved Experience" for Inmates, Staff: NCCD

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:15:13 -0400

"Private prisons do not provide a consistently improved experience for inmates or staff compared to public facilities, and, in many cases, the
experience can be worse," the National Council on Crime and Delinquency contends in a new report. NCCD said its report on private prisons, which hold about 8 percent of the nation's correctional population, was based on conversations with several experts, a review of the academic and legal literature on private prisons, and a media review of newspaper and radio stories. The report was funded by the Public Welfare Foundation.

Do private prisons save money? NCCD said research has produced varied, and that "the verdict is, at best, a draw." Arizona requires the regular and intensive assessment of private prison performance. The state's most recent study found that private prisons resulted in higher costs to the
state compared to public facilities. Other studies have found that privatizing facilities resulted in minimal or no savings. Some studies, including
those by groups affiliated with prison companies or their proponents, found that privatization can yield modest savings.

FBI Says 72 Officers Feloniously Killed Last Year, up 16 from 2010

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:00:22 -0400

A preliminary FBI count shows that 72 U.S. law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year, up 16 from 2010. Of last year's felonious deaths, 19 officers were killed during ambushes (14 during unprovoked attacks and five due to entrapment/premeditation situations); five while investigating suspicious persons or circumstances; 11 during traffic pursuits/stops; five of the fallen officers interrupted robberies in progress or were pursuing robbery suspects; and four died while responding to disturbance calls, including one domestic disturbance.

Offenders used firearms in 63 of the 72 felonious deaths; 50 officers were killed with handguns; seven with rifles; and six with shotguns. Criminals used vehicles to kill six officers; weapons such as hands, fists, and feet to kill two officers; and a knife or cutting instrument to kill one officer. In other deaths, 50 officers were killed in accidents, down 22 from 2010.

High Court Close to Deciding Whether to Hear WA Taser Case

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:30:01 -0400

Next week, the Supreme Court may decide whether to hear an appeal from three Seattle police officers who say they are worried about the future of Tasers--what they call “a useful pain technique,” says the New York Times. The case involves Malaika Brooks, who was seven months pregnant and driving her 11-year-old son to school in Seattle when she was pulled over for speeding. The police say she was going 32 miles per hour in a school zone; the speed limit was 20.

Brooks refused to sign a ticket and eventually was Tased three times, causing intense pain and permanent scars, she says. The officers won a split decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. The majority said the officers had used excessive force but nonetheless could not be sued because the law on the question was not clear in 2004, when the incident took place. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski dissented, saying Brooks had been “defiant” and “deaf to reason” and so had brought the incident upon herself.

Seattle Mayor: DOJ Police Plan Could Cost $41 Million; Figure Disputed

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:04:03 -0400

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says it could cost up to $41 million a year to pay for the U.S. Justice Department's proposed remedies to curtail excessive force in the city's police department, but an influential City Council member and a federal official challenged the figure, calling it inflated, the Seattle Times reports. "So this number is frankly, shocking," McGinn said of the $41 million figure during a morning interview on KUOW radio.

The city's confidential memorandum acknowledged the financial numbers were an estimate produced by the Police Department that had not been verified by city budget analysts. Among the costliest items would be the promotion of 54 officers to sergeant to satisfy Justice Department concerns over adequate supervision. Councilmember Tim Burgess cautioned that the $41 million estimate had not been vetted by the council or the city budget office. "Some of these numbers are scare numbers," said Burgess, the former chairman of the council's public-safety committee.

GAO: Most Byrne JAG Aid to Police, Prosecution, Little to Defense

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:41:47 -0400

Almost none of the money that the federal government provides to state and local governments for justice system improvements goes to helping to defend poor people, says a Government Accountability Office study quoted by The Constitution Project. The organization says the report bears out claims that supporters of indigent defense have made for years that there is an enormous disparity between governmental financial support for prosecutors and defenders.

The GAO report says almost half the money block granted to the states under the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne JAG) goes to fund law enforcement and prosecution activities, with less than 1 percent being used for public defenders or other private lawyers appointed to assist those who cannot afford legal representation on their own. "Despite repeated calls from the legal community for improved funding for indigent defense, and even though Attorney General Holder himself has declared a 'crisis' in the right to counsel for the poor, this study shows that state and local governments continue to give justice for the needy short shrift when they divide up the federal dollars they receive," said Virginia Sloan, president of The Constitution Project.

Baltimore Ex-Cons Work To Prevent Violence in "Safe Streets"

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:06:52 -0400

A program called Safe Streets enlists former convicts to battle neighborhood violence. Such programs are winning plaudits from police, mayors and the Justice Department, reports USA Today. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says the Baltimore program gets some of the credit for a 56 percent reduction in homicides in the Cherry Hill neighborhood in 2009 and 2010. The programs are modeled after CeaseFire in Chicago.

Staffers scope out potential violence by being observant and keeping up with gossip. When they learn about a conflict brewing, they approach the people involved, get them talking, and steer them toward turnaround opportunities such as school or jobs. "The reason we have the ability to do what we do is we have the respect of the people on the streets," says Gardnel Carter, 50, director of Safe Streets East, one of two Safe Streets branches in Baltimore. "The police department thinks Safe Streets works," says the department's Anthony Guglielmi. Last year, gun-related homicides in Baltimore were down 13 percent from 2000.

DOJ: We Don't Know How Many Execs Convicted of Financial Crimes

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:53:31 -0400

The U.S. Justice Department says it doesn't know how many executives have been convicted of wrongdoing in the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the Wall Street Journal reports. That is because the department doesn't keep count of the numbers of board-level prosecutions, it told Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

Commentators say it shouldn't be difficult to gt the numbers. "It's not a big number to count, that's for sure," said Chris Swecker, who ran the FBI's criminal division from 2004 to 2006. William Black, a former bank regulator, notes that the Government Accountability Office produced such numbers in a 1993 report on the savings-and-loan crisis of a generation ago. "I can tell you why you wouldn't keep the data" now, he said. "Because it would be really embarrassing." The full article is available only to paid subscribers.

States Protest Secure Communities; IL: Many Non-Convicts Deported

David Krajicek — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:41:00 -0400

Lawmakers and law-enforcement officials in several states are turning against a mandatory federal program that is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's immigration policy, says the Wall Street Journal. Secure Communities is designed to spot and deport illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. Under the program, fingerprints of people booked into a jail are transmitted to a database reviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. If found to be in the U.S. illegally, they can face deportation.

Recently, such states as Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and California have raised objections to the program's real-world effects: Although designed to remove criminals from the U.S., it has led to the deportation of thousands of people without criminal records. Critics of this approach in Democratic-leaning states say it inhibits immigrants from reporting crimes, undermining public safety, and needlessly breaks up families. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn informed ICE that his state had decided to quit altogether. Secure Communities was "supposed to facilitate the removal of individuals convicted of the most serious of crimes who are residing in this country illegally," the governor's office said. Quinn said "more than a third" of those deported from the state through the program had never been convicted of a crime.

Did Texas Execute the Wrong "Carlos" For 1983 Murder?

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:13:00 -0400

The Columbia University Human Rights Law Review published a 400-page article asserting that Texas executed in an innocent man in the 1983 Corpus Christi killing of Wanda Lopez, bypassing a potential suspect who had bragged of killing her. The Houston Chronicle calls the critique the latest in which death penalty opponents seek to prove that Texas, with 482 executions since 1982, killed an innocent man. Steve Schiwetz, lead prosecutor at the executed man's trial, disputed the authors' conclusions. "These guys are crusaders," he said. "What can I say?"

The journal article presents the stories of Carlos DeLuna and Carlos Hernandez, who shared darkly handsome looks and a history of substance abuse and violence against women. DeLuna, 27, executed for Lopez's murder in 1989, was "childlike" and a "follower," acquaintances told researchers. Hernandez bragged of killing Lopez and laughed about DeLuna taking the fall. He died in prison in 1999 at 45. The journal article grew out of a 2003 student project to examine Texas capital cases in which a single eyewitness account was key to conviction. "This case changed my whole view," said Columbia Law professor James Liebman. "I had thought the problem cases were ones where you have an out-of-town defendant, a scary person who commits a really bad crime that grabs the whole community. The police are under so much pressure to find someone that something goes wrong. Now, I think the worst cases are those that likely happen every day in which no one cares that much about the defendant or the victim."

Obama, Biden Honor 34 "Top Cops" in White House Ceremony

Ted Gest — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:17:00 -0400

President Obama and Vice President Biden honored 34 law enforcement officers chosen as the year’s "Top Cops" over the weekend in the White House Rose Garden. "Some of them will tell you they don’t deserve to be called heroes. They’re entitled to their opinion. I disagree with them," the President said, according to the New York Times.

Biden was especially effusive, crediting Obama with fighting to win $1 billion for the federal Community Oriented Policing Service program that Biden as a senator helped create in 1994. Alluding to Republican governors who have tangled with public-sector unions, Biden drew big applause when he said, “It also takes leadership, the type demonstrated by the president, to stand up for folks who want to take away your collective bargaining rights." The National Association of Police Organizations has picked Top Cops annually since 1994. This year’s winners included men and women, whites, blacks and Latinos, and officers from New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago as well as from small towns like Copley, Oh., Paramus, N.J., and Woburn, Ma. Nearly half were from Detroit — 15 police officers who were attacked in their precinct station by a gunman; four were wounded.

The Minimal Coverage of Corporate Safety Crimes

Graham Kates — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:54:00 -0400

If I told you that there was a pending criminal case involving an alleged conspiracy that led to the deaths of 29 people, you’d think it would be front page news, right?

Well, there is such a case. But it’s gotten barely any coverage at all.

On April 5, 2010, an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine owned by Massey Energy killed 29 workers. This disaster was widely covered at the time, by local media, national journalists and the international press.

But, as often happens, soon after the tragedy at the Upper Big Branch mine, articles on it were pushed off the front page—that’s if the media wrote about it at all.

In the months and years following the incident, occasional articles would appear when key events in the subsequent investigation occurred.

For example, when an independent team led by J. Davitt McAteer, a former federal mine safety chief, released its report on the disaster on May 19, 2011, many media outlets covered the event.

Coverage spiked again when Alpha Natural Resources, which had bought Massey after the explosion, agreed to settle the mine safety violations filed against Massey by paying a record $209 million in fines and compensation to two injured miners and the families of the deceased miners.

For most workplace safety incidents—even ones with multiple fatalities—the process would’ve ended with this settlement. But Massey’s conduct was so egregious that many, including the United Mine Workers of America, felt that criminal charges were warranted.

For example, the McAteer report concluded that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine.

And the New York Times reported that, according to federal investigators, Massey misled government inspectors by keeping accounts of hazardous conditions out of official record books where inspectors would see them. It only recorded safety problems and efforts to fix them in a separate, internal set of books.

As a result, federal prosecutors charged Gary May, a mine superintendent, with conspiracy to hide the safety violations that ultimately led to the explosion. On March 29, 2012, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is cooperating with the authorities.

It’s expected that prosecutors will now pursue criminal charges against other individuals in the company, possibly even former Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

The criminal case hasn’t gotten the amount of media coverage you’d expect for a crime involving this number of victims and a conspiracy.

Although it has been covered by the media in West Virginia where the mine is located and in workplace safety publications, the general press has largely ignored it or provided only minimal coverage.

For instance, although the explosion itself may have been front page news, coverage of May’s guilty plea was typically a paragraph or two buried in the paper.

In contrast, if someone, say, gunned down 29 people in a mall or blew up 29 people in an act of terrorism, there would be tons of press surrounding both the crime itself and the progress of the resulting criminal charges.

Just look at the Trayvon Martin case. The media has covered every step of the case, from Martin’s shooting on Feb. 26, 2012 to the resulting protests to the arrest of George Zimmerman.

Even Zimmerman’s bail hearing was front page news.

But corporate crimes, even the ones involving the deaths of workers, don’t seem to be treated like “real” crimes.

Workplace safety incidents, such as the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, are generally handled in regulatory processes and typically result in fines. Criminal charges are rare.

So when criminal charges were filed in the Upper Big Branch case, it should have raised some eyebrows—and it should have been big news.

Given the current climate of anger and resentment toward Wall Street and big business, you’d think the public would rally against an employer believed to have wantonly endangered its workforce to benefit the bottom line.

Maybe the public would have protested—if they were more aware of Massey’s conduct.

After all, according to the McAteer report, “The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris. A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coal fields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk taking.”

I can’t help but wonder if extensive press coverage of this mining tragedy and the corporate negligence that led to it would have resulted in some sort of public uproar, maybe even pressure on the government to improve its enforcement of mine safety regulations.

The sad fact is that there’s too much crime for crime reporters to cover everything. I understand and appreciate that they and their editors must prioritize. And corporate crimes often aren’t very “sexy” stories—and so get underreported.

But the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and similar tragedies aren’t paper crimes that resulted only in financial harm—29 men died. And they deserve justice—and to be remembered—as much as any crime victim.

Robin L. Barton, a legal journalist based in Brooklyn, NY, is a former assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and a regular blogger for The Crime Report. She welcomes readers’ comments.

Money Oils $182M Machinery of 'World's Prison Capital' of Louisiana

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:09:23 -0400

Louisiana is the world's prison capital, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The state imprisons more of its people per capita than any of its U.S. counterparts, and first among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran's, seven times China's and 10 times Germany's. The hidden engine behind the state's well-oiled prison machine is money. A majority of Louisiana inmates are housed in for-profit facilities, which must be supplied with a constant influx of human beings or a $182 million industry will go bankrupt.

And in a uniquely Louisiana twist, most prison entrepreneurs are rural sheriffs, who hold tremendous sway in remote parishes. A good portion of Louisiana law enforcement is financed with dollars legally skimmed off the top of prison operations. If the inmate count dips, sheriffs bleed money. Their constituents lose jobs. The prison lobby ensures this does not happen by thwarting nearly every reform that could result in fewer people behind bars. In the past two decades, Louisiana's prison population has doubled, costing taxpayers billions while New Orleans continues to lead the nation in homicides. One in 86 adult Louisianians is doing time, nearly double the national average. Among black men from New Orleans, one in 14 is behind bars; one in seven is either in prison, on parole or on probation.

Report: Federal Pardons Office Failed Inmate Who Deserved Release

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:09:15 -0400

ProPublica tells the story of Clarence Aaron, who seemed to be especially deserving of a federal commutation, an immediate release from prison granted by the president of the United States. At 24, he was sentenced to three life terms for his role in a cocaine deal, even though it was his first criminal offense and he was not the buyer, seller or supplier of the drugs. Of all those convicted in the case, Aaron received the stiffest sentence.

His case was championed by lawmakers and civil rights activists, and taken up by the media, from PBS to Fox News. Ultimately, the prosecutor's office and the sentencing judge supported an immediate commutation for Aaron. Yet the George W. Bush administration, in its final year in office, never knew the full extent of their views, which were compiled in a confidential Justice Department review, and Aaron's application was denied. Aaron joined the long line of rejected applicants subjected to the extraordinary, secretive powers wielded by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the branch of the Justice Department that reviews commutation requests.

SD, VA Among Latest States to Toughen Anti-Choking Laws

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:09:05 -0400

As a result of a campaign by anti-domestic violence groups, South Dakota this year joined a growing list of states that have made non-fatal choking a felony crime, reports the Associated Press. The new laws are intended not only to secure tough prison sentences for domestic abusers but also to promote awareness of a crime advocates say often precedes homicide yet is chronically under-prosecuted.

Attempted strangulation cases have long vexed police and prosecutors seeking stiff penalties for attacks. The act can leave victims close to death, but unlike blows that produce a black eye or broken nose, it often leaves few, if any, external signs of injury needed to prove a felony assault charge. Suffocation cases have historically been handled as misdemeanors that don't reflect the act's severity or carry meaningful punishment. About 30 states have passed laws, most in the past decade, making it a felony under certain conditions to knowingly impede someone's breathing. Leading the campaign is the National Family Justice Center Alliance, a San Diego anti-domestic violence group that has received a $400,000 U.S. Justice Department grant to fund a strangulation training institute.

New Jersey Initiative Targets Gun Violence; 29 Indictments Cited

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:08:39 -0400

New Jersey has begun a campaign to aggressively target gun violence, reports NewJerseyNewsroom.com. Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa says authorities are focused on seizing weapons in violent areas, disrupting the supply of weapons trafficking into those areas, and aggressively prosecuting criminals involved in the illegal sale and possession of weapons. In the past three weeks, the Criminal Justice Division has obtained 21 state grand jury indictments charging 29 people with the unlawful possession or sale of 52 guns.

The indictments list offenses ranging from unlawful possession of handguns and assault weapons to leading a weapons trafficking network, and also include charges of unlawful transportation of weapons into the state, unlawful possession of defaced weapons, unlawful possession of weapons during commission of narcotics offenses, unlawful possession of body armor piercing bullets, and unlawful possession of weapons by convicted felons. Most of the accused are subject to the strict penalties applicable to Graves Act gun convictions, requiring mandatory periods of parole ineligibility of up to five years. Chiesa said the indictments represent the first wave of prosecutions under the initiative.

Early in 2012, NYPD on Record Pace for Controversial 'Stop-and-Frisks'

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:13 -0400

Police officers stopped people on New York City’s streets more than 200,000 times during the first three months of 2012, a record pace for street stops, reports the New York Times. Data on the 203,500 street stops from January through March — up from 183,326 during the same quarter a year earlier — was sent to the City Council from 1 Police Plaza late on Friday. On Saturday, the department disclosed the information to reporters and credited the controversial topic known as “Stop, Question, Frisk” as one of several policies of engagement whose effectiveness was vindicated by a decline in homicides in New York.

So far this year, 129 people have been murdered in New York through Friday, a number that put the city on track for a new low in annual homicides. The 471 murders logged by the Police Department in 2009 was the lowest annual tally for any previous 12-month period since reliable numbers were kept in the early 1960s. Still, the new street-stop numbers got a fresh round of criticism after a week that saw civil libertarians and prospective mayoral candidates debating the crime-suppression value of such stops and blaming the tactics for tearing at the fabric of city life, particularly in minority neighborhoods, during a period of historically low violence.

Florida Woman Stood Her Ground Against Spouse--and Got 20 Years

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:13 -0400

As Florida reviews its “stand your ground” law in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing, Marissa Alexander on Friday received a 20-year sentence for firing a shot in what she claims was self-defense and her backers say was a case of her standing her ground, reports the News Service of Florida. Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of three, was sentenced in Jacksonville under a mandatory minimum law for firing one shot in the direction of a spouse with a record of domestic violence in a 2010 dispute.

A judge had rejected Alexander’s “stand your ground” defense, saying she could have escaped instead of firing. Florida courts have often recognized a common law doctrine that says when someone is acting in self defense in their home, they don’t have a duty to retreat to first. Alexander’s case has a twist from the usual “stand your ground” claim: she didn’t shoot her spouse. She fired, but didn’t hit him. Her case has drawn immense attention, and gained even more notoriety than it likely otherwise could have as the state has been gripped by a new debate over self defense laws in the wake of the Martin shooting earlier this year.

MA Appeals Court: Judges Must Warn Jurors About Social Media Use

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:13 -0400

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has called on judges to better police jurors’ use of the Internet and social media to make sure they do not discuss cases online, and thus risk a mistrial, reports the Boston Globe. The court said judges need to do more to explain to jurors that refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, common practice in today’s technology-driven world. “Jurors must separate and insulate their jury service from their digital lives,’’ the court said in a ruling involving a Plymouth Superior Court case in which several jurors made comments on Facebook during a trial.

"Instructions not to talk or chat about the case should expressly extend to electronic communications and social media,’’ the court said. The directive follows a national trend, as such cases are reaching the appellate courts. Last year in Arkansas, for instance, that state’s high court overturned a murder conviction that carried the death penalty after finding that a juror tweeted that a verdict was reached before the court was notified. Law groups, such as the National Center for State Courts and a federal judicial conference committee, have also drafted advisory jury instructions, to limit the danger social media can pose to a jury’s private deliberations.

Taking Cue from Texas, Pennsylvania to Announce Prison Reforms

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:41:41 -0400

Pennsylvania officials were expecting a partisan donnybrook when stakeholders met in Harrisburg last November to discuss prison reform, reports that city's Patriot-News. Instead, they found unanimous support for “real corrections reform right now,” as former Gov. George Leader put it. The group was to gather Monday at the Capitol and present “a series of transformative, evidence-based changes to the Pennsylvania corrections system that will reduce prison populations and costs without jeopardizing public safety.”

The newspaper said the advocates were inspired to work together after learning that a Democrat and Republican in Texas had partnered to transform the costs and performance of the prison system there.

In Oklahoma, Baby Born in Prison Fell Through Social Welfare Net

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:41:40 -0400

A federal civil lawsuit over the death of a toddler born to an Oklahoma prison inmate raises questions about the oversight of children born to those circumstances, reports the Tulsa World. Erica Michelle Marie Green was born in May 1997 at University of Oklahoma Medical Center to an inmate mother. After the birth, the mother went back to prison and told officials to give the newborn to an acquaintance, who showed a driver's license and Sam's Club membership card to gain custody, according to the lawsuit. No calls were made to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services for an assessment, basic background check or plan for reuniting with the mother, the suit alleges. Within three years, the girl was murdered from a blow to the head.

Erica was found naked, wrapped in a blanket and beheaded in April 2001 in Kansas City. She was known as Precious Doe as the unsolved case received national attention. In May 2005, her identity was determined. Her mother, Michelle Johnson, and stepfather, Harrell Johnson, were arrested for the murder. Tulsa attorney Paul DeMuro, who is representing Erica's father in the civil suit, said DHS had multiple previous contacts with Johnson, and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections should take more precautions with babies born to mothers in prison.

49 Corpses Dumped on Mexican Highway; Zetas Drug Gang Blamed

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:16:00 -0400

Mexican authorities blamed the Zetas gang for the slaughter of 49 people whose headless, handless bodies were recovered Sunday near a highway that leads from Monterrey, Mexico, to the South Texas border, reports the Houston Chronicle. A message left with the bodies outside the oil refining town of Cadereyta - supposedly signed by the Zetas - claimed credit for the latest in a series of recent atrocities by rival criminal gangs waging a brutal terror campaign against one another. The message's content was not disclosed.

Though the lack of heads or fingerprints obviously will complicate identification of the victims, authorities rushed to assure a beleaguered public that ordinary citizens aren't being targeted. "This is not an attack against the civilian population," said a police spokesman. The corpses of the 43 men and six women were dumped about 2 a.m. The victims were killed elsewhere as many as two days ago. Monterrey and its suburbs, home to some 4 million people, have become a crucial front of the gangland violence that has killed more than 50,000 people since December 2006.

'Secure Communities' Expands in NY; NYPD's Kelly Isn't Enthused

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:31:43 -0400

A program that gives federal immigration officials access to the fingerprints of undocumented immigrants booked into local jails will start Tuesday across New York state despite staunch opposition from advocates and lawmakers, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, reports the Wall Street Journal. New York City and 30 other jurisdictions will join the 31 communities that already have the program in place, including Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester counties.

Asked about the program, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said "we prefer that they not do that here." "The federal government's position is that it's required under the law and they're doing it," he continued. "We're obviously complying." Secure Communities aims at identifying and deporting illegal immigrants who are convicted of crimes. But critics say it has resulted in the deportation of thousands of people who are accused of crimes but not convicted, and erodes the trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.

Ex-LAPD Detective Sentenced to 27 Years in Cold-Case Murder

David Krajicek — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:31:20 -0400

Former LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus, 52, was sentenced Friday to 27 years to life in prison for murdering the wife of her former lover 26 years ago, reports the Huffington Post. She was found guilty in March of killing Sherri Rasmussen, a nurse who was bludgeoned and shot to death in the condo she shared with her husband of three months, John Ruetten. Prosecutors said Lazarus was consumed with jealousy when Ruetten decided to marry Rasmussen.

The case hinged on DNA from a bite mark prosecutors say was left by Lazarus on Rasmussen's arm. Lazarus was not a suspect in 1986 because detectives then believed two robbers who had attacked another woman in the area were to blame for Rasmussen's death. The case file, however, did mention Lazarus because of her relationship with Ruetten. No suspects were found and the case went cold until May 2009, when undercover officers followed Lazarus and obtained a sample of her saliva to compare with DNA left at the original crime scene.

The Justice Department as ‘Change Agent’

Graham Kates — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:41:00 -0400

Laurie Robinson is one of the nation’s most influential players, both in government and in academe, in criminal justice. Now a professor in the criminology program at George Mason University in northern Virginia, she recently left her post as Assistant Attorney General for Justice Programs, the U.S. Justice Department agency that makes crime-fighting grants to states and localities and oversees the research and statistical arms of the department. Robinson had held the same position during the administration of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

She spoke with The Crime Report’s Washington editor, Ted Gest, about some of the major issues she dealt with in a Justice Department career that spanned nearly a decade, and about the policy challenges ahead.

The Crime Report: You led the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in two different eras. In the current one, it has much less money to spend than after the big federal anticrime law of 1994. Does that mean the federal influence on criminal justice policy nationally is diminished?

Laurie Robinson: I don’t think it’s significantly different. The agency’s budget now is $2.5 billion; when I left in 2000 it was $4 billion. The 2000 figure included a significant chunk of prison-building money. That was essentially a formula grant program. It could have been a smaller program or a larger program, but the policy interaction with the states would have been the same.

To me, the federal role in criminal justice revolves around the issues of knowledge development, knowledge dissemination, technical assistance, and support for innovation. Those are the central roles. That can involve a large amount of money or a smaller amount. It’s terrific when there is a great deal of money, because the Justice Department can provide essential support for criminal justice innovations and partnerships. But the federal role depends on good, solid partnership relationships with states and localities, and credible, respectful relationships; and that has been established. So the amount of money per se is less important than what is happening as part of that relationship.

TCR: Still, have there been any areas where spending cuts have made a significant difference?

Robinson: Juvenile justice is the area where I’m greatly concerned. It’s an area where we need to focus attention. We know this both from practitioners and researchers over the last decade. The investment in this area has diminished dramatically in just the last five or six years. If I could wave a wand and bring in more money, this is an area where I would invest. Back in the 1990s, we had substantially more money for juvenile justice, and I think it was extremely well invested.

Competing Priorities

TCR: Why do you think juvenile justice has suffered, budget-wise, more than some other programs?

Robinson: I don’t think there is any one reason. Probably the bottom line is that there are other competing priorities in a shrinking overall budget. The Second Chance Act [for prisoner re-entry], JAG Byrne [for a wide range of state and local aid] and other programs have been funded, and the overall pot is smaller.

TCR: Do you worry that if federal juvenile justice funding continues going down, some states will opt out of the program, as they have with the Adam Walsh sex offender grants, and thus that they might not meet the federal “core” requirements necessary to obtain the funds?

Robinson: Absolutely. I think states would drop out if is not economically viable for them to participate.

TCR: Federal funding for criminal justice aid has been decreasing each year recently. Do you see this continuing?

Robinson: As I look back on 45 years of history at this agency, we can see ups and downs. I think as long as there is a federal government and there are states and localities, this program in some form will continue. The budget will go up and it will go down, and it will go up again. You have to look at this program over the longer term.

TCR: Some people have predicted that as funding for grant programs levels off or decreases, your former agency will be much more of a “technical assistance” provider. Do you agree?

Robinson: The agency has more than 50 different funding streams created by Congress. And there is a separate COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) office and separate Office on Violence Against Women. If there were some realignment of the funding streams by Congress as [legislators] downsized funding during a budget-tightening cycle, that would be understandable.

I am a huge fan of technical assistance. I think it accounts for some of the best-spent federal dollars. It can involve things like drug court judges in one jurisdiction helping judges in another jurisdiction. Or prosecutors in Denver helping prosecutors in Detroit. It’s not sending experts from Washington. It is a change-agent type of mechanism to help things change on the ground. And it is low cost.

So I do see the federal government moving in this direction, but not to the exclusion of other funding. But it is true that we probably are entering the era of fewer grant programs.

Youth Violence Prevention

TCR: Can you offer an example of how the emphasis on technical assistance might play out in the future?

Robinson: Yes, the federal government’s forum on youth violence prevention, started in this administration, which has operated in six cities: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis,

Salinas, CA., and San Jose, CA. It has provided technical assistance from 6 to 8 federal departments, including Justice, Education, HHS, (Health and Human Services), and Labor.

These departments are working on the ground with these local jurisdictions, for example, in Memphis, helping them adopt a nurse home visitation program. The funding might come from the existing HHS budget. The cities might not know that a particular federal funding opportunity exists, or might not be able to match it to their needs. They might not see the connection to juvenile delinquency—that a nurse home visitation program for new mothers might have an impact years later, for example.

One program I put together that is being launched by OJP this summer is called the Diagnostic Center. It’s a companion to the “what works” website OJP started: crimesolutions.gov. The notion is to assist local jurisdictions in adopting evidence-based programs. If you are the mayor of Des Moines, for example, and have a problem to solve, you don’t think about it in terms of federal programs. But to get federal aid, you face the daunting task of penetrating the U.S. government.

Even some people in other parts of the Justice Department don’t know about all of the funding in the Office of Justice Programs. The mayor of Des Moines may not have a clue.

The notion of the Diagnostic Center is that there would be one phone number that a city or county could call and say, “we have this problem, can you help analyze it?” The center would help sort things out, and in some cases could send someone to the site to help figure out what existing funding might help. That kind of assistance is the kind of expertise that local officials may need. That is the essence of the federal role in criminal justice.

TCR: Last year, the nation’s total prison population went down, although by a fairly small number. Do you think this a harbinger of a trend or a minor, mid-course correction?

Robinson: I do think it is significant. Note that while overall state prison and local jail populations are going down, the federal prison population is rising. States and localities should be applauded for addressing this issue. Much more needs to be done, but work under the “justice reinvestment” concept that uses evidence-based approaches to reduce prison population is an example.

It also looks at areas like parole revocations, especially people who are sent back for technical violations where other sanctions might be used. Public safety is critical, and that needs to be the underlying consideration. But in a time of limited resources, having prison be the automatic response in every criminal case can no longer be the operative principle.

I’ve recently been reading Steven Pinker’s book about violence over the history of mankind (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined) and I think the United States needs to be reflective in a way that we have not been about the issue of mass incarceration.

I worry that people in the criminal justice system don’t have sufficient distance from this issue, and we need to be a little bit more reflective about it. I am a strong supporter of the victims movement, and crime victims issues are central to the way I think about this issue, but we have to be more creative about how we think about using prisons.

Sentencing Reform

TCR: Some people say the current sentencing reforms are nibbling around the edges—that the national number of people behind bars—about 2.3 million—should be cut in half, or more.

Robinson: I’m not going to put a number on it, but I am convinced people in future generations will look back on this era and wonder why we accepted this level of incarceration—whether this is the best way to do things. I’m not sure it will be viewed well, in the same way that we now question practices of 125 years ago.

TCR: Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia has proposed a national commission to study criminal justice issues—the first such panel since the LBJ commission of the 1960s. It’s now stalled in Congress, but how significant do you think it could be?

Robinson: It could play a significant role in stepping back and taking a fresh look from a broad standpoint at the criminal justice system—issues like punishment, policing, courts, and juvenile justice. On punishment, one major question to me is whether we, in effect, have demonized offenders, making it that much harder to reintegrate them back into society. That is one reason the prisoner re-entry movement is so important. I credit (former) President George W. Bush for his support of re-entry, based in large part, I suspect, on his faith-based belief in giving people a second chance.

While we’re discussing re-entry, I’m proud of Attorney General Eric Holder’s Prisoner Re-entry Council, which has more than half of the Cabinet members’ heading domestic agencies involved. The Cabinet members are personally engaged, and 18 agency representatives are meeting on a monthly basis. The work coming out of the council that is resulting in policy changes is significant. For example, HUD Secretary Donovan issued a letter clarifying that people with criminal records can enter public housing, and the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs has begun engaging with incarcerated veterans much sooner after they enter prison.

The interagency council is mobilizing the federal government in a way that hasn’t been done before. It is an example of “pulling levers,” as criminologist David Kennedy of John Jay College has used in a different context, in a big way. It’s an important initiative of this administration.

TCR: If Congress fails to enact a version of the Webb commission, would you support the idea of a commission appointed by the executive branch?

Robinson: Yes. This is certainly a potential alternative if Congress doesn't enact legislation.

TCR: One of the Republican arguments against it was that a Webb-type commission would infringe on states’ rights. What do you think?

Robinson: I don’t understand that argument, since the proposed commission would have no enforcement power. I find that argument baffling.

TCR: There are some laws, such as the 1974 juvenile delinquency act, and the Adam Walsh law on sex registries, in which the federal government makes funding contingent on states’ adopting certain standards. Is that a good way to make national criminal justice policy?

Robinson: My view is that I would not do that. I think making funding contingent on adopting on particular policies is not the ideal way to run a program, for several reasons: it doesn’t necessarily recognize the variety of differences among the states, and it is extraordinarily difficult from a bureaucratic standpoint for a staff to administer and manage. At a time that Congress wants to cut back staffing at the federal level, I don’t know if they recognize that laws like this run counter to that goal.

Evidence-Based Programs

TCR: You’ve mentioned on many occasions that you are an advocate of evidence-based programs. How much progress have we made on that front in the criminal justice area?

Robinson: We have made progress, but I completely agree with those who said at the recent Jerry Lee Symposium on Crime Prevention that we still have a good road ahead of us that we need to go down. If we look back 10 or 15 years, we can see that we have traveled a good way. I remember back in the 1990s it was very common for organizations to come out with lists of best practices or local programs they thought were good. This was based on mostly anecdote, however.

People are much, much less apt to do that now, because there is more understanding that programs need to be evaluated and there needs to be some kind of evidence, measures that prove things work. There still must be education on what constitutes evidence and what kinds of measures need to be produced.

I think the criminal-justice field, particularly police and corrections—the front and back ends of the system, less so in the adjudicatory part—practitioners are far, far more sophisticated about realities of evidence-based programs. The field is open to and demanding evidence-based programs.

I am given a lot of credit for advocating this when I came back to DOJ in 2009, but the field was really ripe for it. I was announcing a platform that everybody out there was ready for. Much more needs to be done, but the reception to crimesolutions.gov— OJP's "what works" clearinghouse—has been terrific.

Initiatives ‘That Work’

Elected officials understand that in a time of tight budgets, they want initiatives that have been shown to work. They don’t want to adopt scatterbrained ideas. We are making progress by shaping people’s thinking of how to approach things.

I have had encouraging conversations with members and staff on both sides of the aisle in Congress in support of research and evaluation. The evidence of that is that a two percent set-aside of my former agency’s funds for research and evaluation has been approved this year by both Senate and House committees that handle Justice Department appropriations.

TCR: How much grantmaking in your former agency is dependent on proposals that have supporting scientific evidence?

Robinson: It’s hard to quantify, but OJP is looking at that kind of thing all the time. OJP has also given thoughts to OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and congressional appropriators about what kinds of grant programs should and should not continue. When I was at OJP, we turned down grant applications for programs that have been proved ineffective.

As an example, hypothetically, if there were a proposal to mentor at-risk youths with different adult mentors every week, so there was no continuity, or no training, it would not have been funded.

TCR: What about a proposal that has no evidence yet-- someone saying they think they have a good idea but it needs to be tested. Are you still funding those?

Robinson: Absolutely. That is a central role for a federal agency. For example, support for innovation among those officials in states who run the JAG Byrne program is critical. Evidence-based programs should not be crowding out support for innovative proposals.

$16 Muffins

TCR: The Justice Department inspector general erroneously accused one Justice Department agency of holding a conference at which muffins cost $16 each. How did that report affect your former agency?.

Robinson: The perception, especially in view of the GSA conference scandal, which is horrendous, is that we are talking in the Justice Department about conferences for federal employees. The conferences that my agency, COPS and the Violence Against Women office puts on are primarily for state and local criminal justice practitioners.

Conferences can be a central vehicle for making connections with the field. The provision of training at conferences has been a central goal of the agency back to its founding 45 years ago as the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. At the same time, careful stewardship of federal money was a goal I had when returning to the federal government in 2009, so I have taken very seriously the notion that we should be very careful with the handling of federal dollars.

I would never claim that my former agency never wasted money. It runs or funds every year hundreds of conferences and webinars. My former agency puts on more of these events than the rest of the Justice Department put together. Last fall, after the inspector general’s report came out, I issued a memo that we would no longer support payment for any food and beverage at conferences. I got a lot of negative feedback, but it seemed to me an important thing to do. It’s unfortunate that we had to do that, but at a time of lesser resources, it had to be done.

TCR: Later the Government Accountability Office reported that there could be duplication of programs at your agency. What do you say?

Robinson: I thought the report was very poorly done and not evidence-based. It is true that there is overlap in some of the underlying statutes. In 50 different funding streams, there is some overlap created by Congress. There could be an effort to eliminate some of those funding streams.

Working Across the Aisle

TCR: You are a Democrat, but have Republicans supported good criminal-justice policy?

Robinson: I think this is a good time to be looking for opportunities to be working across the aisle on criminal-justice issues. Groups like Right on Crime, Prison Fellowship and any number of individual conservatives are interested in prisoner re-entry and in other ways to improve the criminal-justice system. There are opportunities for people on the progressive side to work with them. That is the future of how to get things done in Washington.

We should also consider the maturing of our field. In the past, both Democratic and Republican administrations have at times not appointed at the Office of Justice Programs people with professional backgrounds in criminal justice.

I applaud the Obama administration for appointing criminal-justice professionals. I think it’s a reflection of respect for our field, and I hope whoever is elected president in November continues the practice.

Ted Gest is President of Criminal Justice Journalists and Washington, D.C.-based contributing editor of The Crime Report. He welcomes comments from readers.

Duped by Love

Graham Kates — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:16:37 -0400

More than 5,600 Americans were duped last year by online romance scams, in which criminals target people who are searching for love online. In most cases, “scammers search chat rooms, dating sites and social networking sites,” according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a Virginia-based federal agency that logs and analyzes Internet fraud reports.

The figures were released this week in the center’s "2011 Internet Crime Report."

According to the report, Americans’ continued reliance on email is exposing them to more online fraud. In addition to romance scams, online users were victimized by identity theft, advance-fee fraud and work-from-home scams to the tune of almost $500 million last year.

Nearly one-third of the 314,246 complaints filed last year with IC3 entailed financial losses, according to the center’s report. And IC3 said the typical victim wasn’t losing chump change: on average, those reporting losses were conned out of $4,187.

The center reported a 3.4 percent increase in complaints last year, compared to 2010.

William Hinerman, Unit Chief of IC3, said the increase is most likely due to an increase in Internet usage.

IC3 logged thousands of complaints from every age group and every state, referring roughly one-third of them to law enforcement authorities. It employs an “automated matching system” that allows investigators to group related complaints together.

In a conference call for reporters on May 10, prior to the report’s release, IC3 representatives said individuals aged 40 and above represented the majority of complainants in 2011. Elizabeth Walling, an Internet crime analyst, who was among several FBI agents and IC3 administrators on the call, explained that older Internet users are “particularly vulnerable” to scams that prey on those seeking companionship.

Financial losses for romance scams alone topped $50 million dollars, according to IC3, an average $8,900 per victim. Complaint statistics regarding romance scams from previous years were not immediately available.

The report detailed the sometimes elaborate schemes used to woo potential victims.

“Scammers use poetry, flowers and other gifts to reel in victims, while declaring ‘undying love,’” according to the report. “These criminals also use stories of severe life circumstances, tragedies, family deaths, personal injuries or other hardships to keep their victims concerned and involved in their schemes.”

Hinerman noted: “The victims think they’ve met someone nice, they grow to trust the scam artist, and then the scam artist begins asking for money or other types of merchandise.”

The highest volume of complaints stemmed from promises of being able to work from home, according to the report.

Organized cyber criminals recruit their victims through newspaper ads, online employment services, unsolicited emails or “spam,” while social networking sites advertising work-from-home “opportunities,” the report said.

The Center reported receiving an average of 39 complaints a day about fraudulent e-mailers purporting to be from the Federal Bureau of Investigation or other government agencies, demanding money from victims. As a matter of policy, IC3 notes, government agencies do not send unsolicited e-mails.

Other e-mails scams are similarly malicious.

Terri Shaffer, an IC3 supervisor, said victims should make sure they know whom they’re sending their money to before completing any transaction.

“If I have to sum it up in one word it would be ‘homework’ or maybe it would be ‘research,’” Shaffer said. “If a stranger came to your home you wouldn’t hand them $1,000.”

Graham Kates is Deputy Editor of The Crime Report. He welcomes comments from readers.

DOJ Sues AZ's Arpaio, Calling It "An Abuse of Power Case"

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:50:18 -0400

The Justice Department lawsuit against Maricopa County, Az., sheriff Joe Arpaio asks a federal court to prevent the brazen and outspoken lawman from racially profiling Latinos, abusing them in his jails, and retaliating against his critics, says the Los Angeles Times. "The police are supposed to protect and support our community, not divide them," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division. "This is an abuse of power case involving a sheriff and a sheriff's office that has ignored the Constitution."

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, alleges that Arpaio's department engages in a "pattern of unconstitutional conduct" against Latinos, especially immigrants. Justice Department officials in Washington are asking the court to name an independent monitor to oversee the sheriff's office, develop reform policies to better staff the jails and patrol the county, and possibly find Arpaio and other top sheriff's officials in contempt of court if they do not make changes in a community whose Latino population has grown by 47 percent over the last decade. The sheriff issued a 17-page document called "Integrity, Accountability, Community" that addressed some of the issues, but Perez called it "largely an admission of the problem."

OH Top Court: Police Can Withhold Their Identities If Threatened

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:22:25 -0400

When a Columbus police officer’s fatal shooting of a suspect inflamed passions last year, city authorities refused to identify the officer to protect him from “credible threats.” The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that law-enforcement agencies may withhold the identity of police officers who face substantiated threats of injury or death in retaliation for on-the-job actions, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

The officers’ constitutional right to privacy — and personal protection — supersedes Ohio’s public-records laws, the justices ruled. A police-union president welcomed the ruling, while the attorney for the Cincinnati Enquirer, which filed the appeal, said it could inhibit public and news-media review of officers’ use of deadly force. The Enquirer had sought the names and identifying information of two police officers who were shot in a 2010 confrontation with members of a motorcycle gang at a bar. Cincinnati police refused to release the officers’ names, saying they were potential targets for retaliation by the gang because its “national enforcer” was killed in the shootout with officers. The Enquirer argued that Cincinnati police did not provide sufficient evidence that the injured police officers, who recovered, faced credible threats to their safety.

OK Gov. Signs Bill to Reduce Prison Population, Save $170 Million

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:12:24 -0400

Oklahoma House Speaker Kris Steele, who led a three-year effort to pass legislation intended to control prison growth and change how the state handles prison issues, challenged lawmakers to continue similar efforts to reduce the state's nation-leading incarceration rates, The Oklahoman reports. “The tide has truly turned,” said Steele, who couldn't seek re-election because of 12-year legislative term limits. Steele wrote a measure expanding the types of inmates eligible for community sentencing and GPS monitoring. The bill was signed by Gov. Mary Fallin.

It establishes a grant program to fund crime-reduction initiatives by local law enforcement agencies; requires at least nine months of post-release supervision of all felons, which should reduce the recidivism rate; establishes risk, mental health and substance abuse assessments and evaluations before convicted felons are sentenced; and develops intermediary revocation facilities for nonviolent offenders who violate drug court regulations or conditions of probation and parole, which should ease prison overcrowding and save money. It's expected the program will save $170 million in the next decade and provide $40 million to law enforcement agencies over a 10-year period to help pay for technology, overtime and targeting strategies such as hot-spot policing that increases police presence in high-crime areas, which can help prevent and reduce crime.

To Cut Pittsburgh Police Complaints, U.S. Attorney to Train on Civil Rights

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:29:31 -0400

In a move aimed at averting lawsuits alleging officer misconduct, Pittsburgh officials are arranging for the U.S. attorney's office to provide training on civil-rights issues to police academy recruits, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. In an audit of the city Law Department, Controller Michael Lamb encouraged the city to "continue its efforts to train police personnel to perform to a high standard of professional conduct while both on and off duty to help prevent potential civil rights violations."

The audit documented 40 civil-rights lawsuits filed against various city departments from Jan. 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011. Twenty-four cases named the police bureau as defendant. Ten of them "were settled in the plaintiffs' favor" during the 30-month span, the audit said, costing about $4.3 million in settlements or judgments and $20,645 in court-related expenses. The bulk of that money -- about $3.8 million -- was awarded in a 2009 case involving a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape and served 19 years in prison.

Racial Disparities in Milwaukee Police Stops Reflect Demographics: Flynn

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:12:20 -0400

Disparities in Milwaukee traffic stops are driven by the racial makeup of high-crime neighborhoods that most need police intervention, Police Chief Edward Flynn told council members yesterday, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Flynn said research had shown that when police "aggressively enforce traffic laws, they have a direct impact on street crime."

Under Flynn's leadership, the department has more than tripled the number of traffic stops over the past four years. The number of citizen complaints fell 44 percent during the same period. More than 80 percent of drivers stopped in four police districts were black, but those disparities are merely a reflection of the suspect and victim demographics in those areas, Flynn said. Last December, the Journal Sentinel reported that black Milwaukee drivers were seven times more likely to be stopped than white resident drivers. Hispanic drivers were stopped nearly five times as often. After a state law requiring law enforcement agencies to collect such information was repealed last year, Alderman Milele Coggs sponsored a resolution that urged Milwaukee police to continue collecting information about the race of those involved in police traffic stops.

House Refuses to Rebuke NYPD Over Muslim Surveillance

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:58:17 -0400

The House refused this week to rebuke the New York Police Department’s intelligence-gathering efforts focused on Muslim groups, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), introduced an amendment to a Justice Department appropriations bill that would have blocked spending on police programs found to violate the U.S. Constitution or federal antidiscrimination laws. The measure was part of a broader push to stop the NYPD’s counterterrorism and surveillance efforts focused on Muslims.

“My amendment would ensure that no federal funds are flowing to any law-enforcement entity that the [Justice] Department has identified as engaging in racial, ethnic, and religious profiling,” he said. It failed in a largely party-line vote, 232 to 193. The police counterterrorism tactics have come under scrutiny as the result of an Associated Press probe into efforts targeting Muslim groups in the city and across the New York region. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have defended the department’s approach as necessary and legal.

U.S. Campaign Finance Case Against John Edwards Called Weak

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:58:00 -0400

Defense lawyers for John Edwards are asking a judge today to dismiss corruption charges, arguing prosecutors failed to prove the former U.S. presidential candidate intentionally violated the law, reports the Associated Press. Such motions rarely are successful, but after 14 days of evidence presented by prosecutors, legal observers said the government's case was weak. "They have established their case enough to get to a jury, but it has holes in it," said Kieran Shanahan, a Raleigh defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. "He is not charged with being a liar and he is not charged with having a baby out of wedlock. He is charged with breaking campaign finance laws."

Edwards is accused of masterminding a scheme to use nearly $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy donors to help hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Prosecutors must show Edwards not only knew about the money used in the cover-up orchestrated by two members of his campaign, which he denies, but also that he knew he was violating the law. If U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles doesn't grant the motion to dismiss, the defense will begin presenting its side Monday. A key question is whether Edwards will take the stand.

CA Officers to Stand Trial For Beating Death of Homeless Man

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:50:35 -0400

Two police officers in the Southern California town of Fullerton will stand trial for the death of Kelly Thomas, a mentally ill homeless man, reports NPR. Thomas died last July from injuries sustained during a violent arrest by six Fullerton officers. Officer Manual Ramos approached Thomas, then 37, while responding to a call that someone had been peering into cars at the town's bus depot.

The surveillance video at the depot was running during the incident, and officer Ramos was also recorded by a device he was wearing on his uniform. Synced together, the audio and video formed the key evidence shown in court this week during a preliminary hearing to decide whether to bring the officers to trial. For weeks last year, dozens of supporters rallied in front of Fullerton's police headquarters demanding that the officers be prosecuted. Under pressure, the chief of police took a medical leave of absence, then resigned, and three City Council members have been targeted for recall.

"Grandma" Refuses Guilty Plea in Drug Case, Gets Life Without Parole

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:35:44 -0400

Three years after a jury convicted Houston grandmother Elisa Castillo in a conspiracy to smuggle at least a ton of cocaine on tour buses from Mexico to Houston, the 56-year-old first-time offender is locked up for life without parole, reports the Houston Chronicle. "It is ridiculous," said Castillo, who is a generation older than her cell mates, and is known as "grandma" in prison. "I am no one." She is serving a longer sentence than some of the hemisphere's most notorious crime bosses - men who had multimillion-dollar prices on their heads before their capture.

The drug capos had something to trade: the secrets of criminal organizations. The biggest drug lords have pleaded guilty in exchange for more lenient sentences. "Our criminal justice system is broke; it needs to be completely revamped," declared Terry Nelson, a federal agent for 30 years and a board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "They have the power, and if you don't play the game, they'll throw the book at you." Castillo maintains her innocence, saying she was tricked into unknowingly helping transport drugs and money for a big trafficker in Mexico. She refused to plead guilty and went to trial. In 2010, of 1,766 defendants prosecuted for federal drug offenses in the Southern District of Texas 93.2 percent pleaded guilty rather than face trial. Of the defendants who didn't plead not guilty, 10 defendants were acquitted at trial. Also, 82 saw their cases dismissed. The statistics are similar nationwide.

Stealing Manhole Covers For 15 Cents/Pound Called Sign of Desperation

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:32:00 -0400

A surge in the value of copper, iron, and other metals has fueled a wave of thefts from sidewalks, roadways, and rail yards in the last few months, says the New York Times. On Wednesday alone, New York police arrested three men for stealing hunks of cast iron — grates made to protect tree roots and manhole covers weighing as much as 300 pounds.

The arrests followed reports of the disappearance of dozens of the grates and covers across the city and came on top of a spree of thefts of copper wire from utility cables. “It’s about money,” said Kevin Rafferty, president of Dublin Scrap Metal in Newark. “The economy’s tough, and people are looking to sell whatever they can find to sell.” Rafferty said his company would not buy manhole covers or pieces of train rail that people showed up with. He said stealing a manhole cover from a city street is a true sign of desperation. Iron is worth only about 15 cents a pound, compared with about $3 a pound for copper.

As Death Penalty Cases Proceed in NC, Executions Are In Doubt

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:16:00 -0400

If a North Carolina jury finds him guilty in an ongoing trial, Jason Williford will get a death sentence in the 2010 rape and beating death of state school board member Kathy Taft, says WRAL. In Durham, prosecutors say are seeking the death penalty for O'Brian McNeil White, who is charged in a March shooting at a tire store. Even if courts hand down the state's ultimate sanction in these high-profile crimes, death penalty experts say it's impossible to say when, or even if, the sentences will ever be carried out.

North Carolina, which has 156 prisoners on death row, has not executed an inmate since Aug. 18, 2006, when Samuel R. Flippen was put to death by lethal injection for the beating death of his two-year-old step daughter. Since then, a complex and evolving set of legal challenges have imposed a de facto moratorium on the death penalty in North Carolina. The controversial Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that allows death row prisoners to use statistical evidence of discrimination to appeal their sentence, has played a part in this stalemate. So have other prisoner appeals that question whether the state's execution method is cruel and unusual or their crimes were investigated fairly.

Lemonade Ad With "Convicts"--More Sensationalist Imagery on Crime?

Ted Gest — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:28:00 -0400

Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project objects to a new lemonade advertisement featuring an alternate ending showing "convicts emerg[ing] from a hole on the golf course as part of a prison break." Mauer, writing in the Huffington Post, says, "The visual -- a grizzled 60-something white guy with a hardened look -- seems like he's got in mind something much more threatening than sharing a lemonade."

"For far too long, our approach to developing public policy on issues of crime and punishment has been overly framed by sensationalist imagery," Mauer complains. Mauer urges a serious discussion of criminal-justice issues and suggests that ad makers "use some visuals of cute babies or clowns to encourage people to buy lemonade."

Feds Seek Seattle Police Monitor Who Would Serve as "Shadow Chief"

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:45:46 -0400

Five months after the U.S. Department of Justice found a "pattern and practice" of excessive force by Seattle police, city officials face a deadline next week to reply to proposed remedies that sources tell the Seattle Times include increased supervision by sergeants and a court-appointed monitor with sweeping powers. Federal attorneys, who have told the city they will file a lawsuit in early June if there is no agreement on the fixes by then, insist on a mutually agreed-upon consent decree that would spell out the changes and provide a timetable, sources say.

The monitor, who one source described as a "shadow chief," would answer only to a federal judge overseeing the agreement. The proposed consent decree also calls on the department to increase the number of sergeants, the department's first-line supervisors, to a ratio of one sergeant for every six street officers. With the current ratio at roughly one to eight, the change would likely require the city to hire more police to fill the ranks. Mayor Mike McGinn and Police Chief John Diaz have drafted and are implementing a plan called "20/20" — 20 initiatives in 20 months.

House Votes to Add Funds for Anticrime Grants, COPS Hiring

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:38:12 -0400

The House of Representatives has approved a Justice Department budget for the year starting October 1 that increases funding by $22.4 million for the Byrne JAG program, which supports state and local anticrime initiatives. The House also raised committee recommendations by $4 million for drug courts, $18 million for criminal-justice information sharing, $5 million for violence against women programs, and $126 million for the COPS hiring program, reports the National Criminal Justice Association.

Because the same bill that funds the Justice Department pays for NASA, and increases in one area must be offset by cuts in another, some of the money for COPS would come at the expense of NASA. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chair of the committee that funds both agencies, said the move would put a "spear right through NASA's heart." The issue will be resolved in negotiations with the Senate. Earlier, the House voted to cut $1 million from the Justice budget in a protest against the agency's handling of the botched "Fast and Furious" gun-tracing program.

Ex-Attorney General Katzenbach Dies; Headed LBJ Crime Panel

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:09:05 -0400

Nicholas Katzenbach, who served as U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson has died at 90. Although Katzenbach was best known for his involvement in contentious civil-rights issues of the era, he also was noted in the criminal justice field for having chaired Johnson's landmark commission on law enforcement and the administration of justice. Criminologist Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie-Mellon University, who served as the commission's science and technology director, remembers Katzenbach for "displaying the compassion and sensitivity he showed in so many of his other activities. The commission's report was characterized as having liberal text with conservative bold-face recommendations. But those differences were minuscule compared to today's polarization." Katzenbach tried to recruit prominent Republican Thomas Dewey to co-chair the panel, but FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, a Dewey friend, thwarted the idea.

The Los Angeles Times noted that Katzenbach "could not win a fight within his own department to control the long-serving, imperious [ ] Hoover, who insisted on wiretapping civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Unable to rein in Hoover, Katzenbach stepped down in 1966 and moved to the State Department as undersecretary." In a talk to a 2006 conference at the University of Texas on oversight of prisons, Katzenbach commented on the increasing length of prison terms in the U.S. in recent decades, saying that, "indeterminate sentences giving way to fixed sentences without the possibility of parole, the length of the sentences, and the numbers of people convicted of non-violent crimes that suffer such sentences have raised huge issues for the prison system, including the issue of hope. Where in the system is the hope—the hope of the prisoners getting out, the hope of the keepers, the hope that we can do better?"

Lanier Gets 5 More Years as D.C. Chief; Police Union Dissents

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:17:22 -0400

Cathy Lanier, the most prominent female police chief in the nation, got a new five-year contract from Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray, the Washington Post reports. Gray mentioned "a growing sense among District residents: that the city has become safer since she took charge of the 3,800 member force in 2007. Lanier is paid $253,817 annually. She will not receive a pay increase because of a law freezing her salary.

Lanier is popular in the city, but the labor union representing police officers took a different view. “It is a grim day for police officers and residents,” said Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police. Noting that the FOP has been without a contract since 2007 and that officers and sergeants have not received a raise since then, Baumann said, “We are reminded once again that this is an administration without honor, and the leaders are out to enrich themselves at the expense of the public and workers that serve the public.” Lanier, 44, joined the D.C. force as a patrol officer in 1990.

Ray Kelly Trails Democrats in Survey on Potential NYC Mayor Race

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:10:59 -0400

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly trails the three top Democrats expected to run for mayor in hypothetical match-ups testing the political strength of the city’s top cop, says the Wall Street Journal. A new poll assesses what might happen if the commissioner, who is not registered in any party, entered the 2013 mayoral race as a Republican. The result is a double-digit deficit against City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former City Comptroller Bill Thompson or Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, says the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Kelly has insisted he has no plans to run for elected office. That hasn’t stopped the city’s Republican Party from trying to recruit him as their nominee to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg next year. In a hypothetical contest against Quinn, the current front-runner among expected Democratic contenders, Kelly trails by 15 percentage points, 48 percent to 33 percent. Former City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio both top Kelly in the poll by 12-point margins, 46 percent to 34 percent. Half of those surveyed said Kelly would make a good mayor.

Budget Problems Force TX City to Eliminate Police Department

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:52:00 -0400

Kemp, a small East Texas town near Dallas, has disbanded its police force because of budget woes, the Associated Press reports. The Kemp City Council voted Tuesday night to lay off the police chief and four police officers, along with a part-time secretary. The Dallas Morning News said the department ceased to exist Wednesday morning.

Chief Richard Clemmo said he had no warning that the force was to be disbanded. He is running for sheriff of Kaufman County, where Kemp is located. The town will depend on the sheriff's department for law enforcement.

NYC Police Analysis: More Stop-and-Frisks Per Guns Recovered

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:27:00 -0400

In 2003, New York City police officers confiscated 604 guns through 160,851 stop-and-frisk encounters: a success rate of one gun for every 266 stops. Last year, the police seized 780 guns in 685,724 stop-and-frisks, meaning that officers made 879 stops for each gun found, says the New York Times. Critics of the police street-stop tactics said the falling gun recovery rate was a sign that the department was stopping too many innocent people as it made an increasing number of street stops in minority neighborhoods.

To police officials, the statistics demonstrated their commitment to going after illegal guns, and the drop in gun seizures as a percentage of overall stops indicated the effectiveness of the tactic: criminals, officials believe, are more likely to leave their guns at home, knowing they may be stopped by the police. “We think it is a prescriptive result we may be seeing,” said police spokesman Paul Browne. Yesterday, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued an analysis of last year’s record number of street stops, providing data for mayoral candidates eager to distinguish themselves from the tactics of the Mayor Michael Bloomberg era. Comptroller John Liu said street stops should be abolished, prompting Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson to tweet, "A race to the left and a return to high crime."

Detroit Police Officials Seek Tax Hike; Council Head Skeptical

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:06:00 -0400

Detroit's struggle to maintain public safety services as the city prepares for enormous cuts to balance its budget took another twist when the city's Board of Police Commissioners said it would seek a tax hike to maintain funding for cops and firefighters, the Detroit Free Press reports. Board members are asking the City Council today to put a proposal on the November ballot that officials said could generate millions each year for police and fire.

Current and former board members said the 7-mill public safety proposal, if approved by voters, could generate upwards of $56 million a year for public safety. Officials said the tax would be levied for five years and brought before voters again for approval. The owner of a $75,000 home would pay about $262.50 more a year in taxes. The idea was greeted with deep skepticism by Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown, a former deputy police chief. "The challenges with public safety have more to do with effectively managing resources than lack of funds," Brown said. "Detroit citizens are deeply overtaxed. Another millage will overburden citizens who continue to face economic challenges. Restructuring the police department is the answer."

St. Louis Chief Isom: Downsize Command Staff to Restore Patrols

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:01:00 -0400

Facing budget cuts, St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom is proposing to reduce the city’s nine police districts and downsize his command staff to restore as many as 50 of perhaps 100 officers being cut from patrols, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Right now we’re locked into a framework that was set back in the 1960s when we had a different police department and a different community, and we need to make our department more consistent with the reality we have today,” Isom said.

Isom plans to move about 30 officers to the street from various desk positions within the department — such as the property custody unit — and eliminate 30 to 50 positions from the rank of sergeant and above through redistricting.

Cracking the ‘Blue Wall of Silence’

Cara Tabachnick — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:52:00 -0400

Adhyl Polanco became a police officer to make a difference on the tough New York City streets of his youth. But he discovered the job was more about accumulating summons statistics and frisking teenagers.

Polanco was among a group of former and serving New York City cops who have broken the traditional law enforcement code of silence with scathing criticism of their city’s policing strategies in minority communities.

On May 3, six former New York City Police Department (NYPD) detectives, captains and sergeants (and Polanco, who is currently suspended with pay) gave personal accounts of being asked to meet “productivity goals” or downgrade crimes.

The pressure to produce ever-increasing arrests encourages a “cuff-first, exercise-discretion-later” attitude in the nation’s largest police force, the officers said at the panel, organized by the non-profit Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP), a group that advocates against what it calls prejudiced practices in the NYPD.

The cops argued that the demand for so-called “stop and frisks” — there were nearly 700,000 in New York City in 2011, compared to less than 100,000 in 2002 — has caused commanders to pressure their officers to harass the primarily black and Latino residents of the city’s high crime areas.

Suspended after TV Interview

Polanco said he was suspended after he revealed orders to target youths on their way home from school in a 2009 interview with ABC News.

“Not everybody who lives in the hood is a criminal, and this needs to be said very loud to Commissioner (Raymond) Kelly,” Polanco said. “However they call the productivity goal, it’s there and it’s harmful to the community.”

John Eterno, a former NYPD captain who is now a professor of criminal justice at Molloy College, said he defended the police department in 1999, when it was hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging that stop and frisks involved racial profiling.

However, he has since soured on the practice.

Eterno’s recently published book, The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation, explores how the NYPD’s use of Compstat — a crime statistics database — has affected the reporting and analysis of crime.

“Initially I was very positive about stop and frisk and I still think it’s a good thing, if it’s not abused,” Eterno said. “However, today I am very confident, based on my research (and) on the interviews, that this practice is being abused by the New York City Police Department.”

Stop and frisk statistics expose New York’s “hypocrisy,” Eterno added, noting that while Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg insist that crime is drastically down compared to a decade ago, “how the hell can you have 700,000 suspects and say crime is down 80 percent?”

Other former officers at the panel echoed Eterno’s remarks.

Questions about Compstat

Anthony Miranda, a former NYPD sergeant and chair of the National Latino Officers Association, said Compstat wasn’t created as a tool for increasing arrests.

"Compstat had a legitimate purpose when it began,” Miranda said, noting that it was supposed to help commanding officers get a better understanding of their precincts.

“It was for cops who were ignorant of the crime in their command... in its inception it was a good idea."

But the net effect of Compstat, according to Miranda, has been to constrict the ability of police officers to make decisions.

The NYPD declined several requests for comment on allegations that it uses quotas.

Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, the city’s patrol officer’s union, said in a statement to The Crime Report that productivity goals are against the law.

“Illegal quotas build barriers between communities and the police officers who risk their lives to protect them,” Lynch said in the statement. “That is why this union successfully led a fight in Albany that made quotas for all police activities including arrests, summonses or stop and frisks illegal.”

Graham Kates is Deputy Editor of The Crime Report. He welcomes comments from readers.

Novelist's NC Murder Conviction Voided Over Witness Testimony

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:48:00 -0400

A North Carolina judge ruled that the 2003 murder conviction of novelist Michael Peterson was obtained with “materially misleading” and “deliberately false” testimony from a State Bureau of Investigation agent who was the most crucial witness in a case that spawned TV movies, books, and a film, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. Judge Orlando Hudson had previously said from the bench that misconduct by agent Duane Deaver required a new trial, and set Peterson free on bond.

Peterson spent eight years in prison in the killing of his wife, Kathleen. Hudson said Peterson's rights were violated because Deaver “deliberately and intentionally” misled the court and jurors, particularly about his education, experience, and the scientific basis for conclusions he made that Peterson had killed his wife. An attorney for Deaver, who was fired last year ear amid questions about several cases, said, “I 100 percent, categorically dispute and disagree with the findings in the judge’s order.”

SC High Court: Lifetime Sex Offender GPS Tracking Unconstitutional

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:29:00 -0400

The South Carolina Supreme Court has declared lifetime GPS monitoring of sex offenders unconstitutional, says the Sentencing Law and Policy blog. In a split opinion, a majority of the court concurred with one justice who concluded that the "challenged mandatory lifetime, non reviewable satellite monitoring provision [of the law] is arbitrary."

The court ruled in an appeal by Jennifer Dykes, who contended that lifetime GPS monitoring violated five constitutional rights. An opinion that got only two of five votes by justices said the monitoring violated her "substantive due process rights." Blogger Douglas Berman of the Ohio State University law school said the ruling might "have ripple effects in at least a few other jurisdictions."

Sheriff Arpaio Issues Reform Plan on Eve of Justice Department Lawsuit

Ted Gest — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:17:00 -0400

On the eve of the U.S. Justice Department's anticipated filing of a lawsuit alleging racial profiling by the Maricopa County, Az., Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Joe Arpaio unveiled the most public effort to overhaul the office since he took the job nearly 20 years ago, the Arizona Republic reports. Justice was expected to sue Arpaio today. Sheriff's officials were under no impression that the reform plan would stop the Justice Department from taking legal action. They hope the initiative will provide a framework for improvement within the Sheriff's Office while the legal dispute makes its way through court.

The sheriff's initiative focuses on community outreach, accountability within the agency, transparency in how the office conducts its operations, and more robust data collection. The goal is to improve the Sheriff's Office and build trust within certain segments of the community. "We've been talking about this philosophy for months, and we finally decided -- the sheriff decided -- it's no longer time to sit on our hands waiting for the Department of Justice to take us to court. Let's do something about it," Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan said.

IL Law Curbing Police-Talk Taping Likely Unconstitutional: Court

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:12:20 -0400

The Illinois Eavesdropping Act, one of the broadest restrictions on audio recording nationwide, is likely unconstitutional and may not be enforced against the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois when it records conversations of police officers openly engaged in their public duties, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled yesterday, says the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The ACLU sued as a First Amendment-based preemptive challenge, arguing that the threat of prosecution under the act chills the implementation of the ACLU's police monitoring program. The ACLU records police officers without their consent when they are performing their public duties in public places and speaking at an audible volume. Judge Diane Sykes said the law "burdens speech and press rights and is subject to heightened First Amendment scrutiny." Judge Richard Posner dissented, saying that, "The constitutional right that the majority creates is likely to impair the ability of police both to extract information relevant to police duties and to communicate effectively with persons whom they speak with in the line of duty."

How Chief Myers Will Try to Rebuild Police-Minority Relations in Sanford

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:43:23 -0400

Richard Myers, who began work as interim police chief last week in Sanford, Fl., has vowed to be a "bridge builder" with the city's black community after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, 17, in February, says the Orlando Sentinel. Myers, 57, former chief in Colorado Springs, Co., is leading a department that was criticized for not arresting George Zimmerman, who was charged by a special prosecutor with second-degree murder.

Myers tells the Sentinel: "It sounds trite, but you really have to win them one heart at a time. Trust has to be earned — you can't buy it. Take the time to listen, to demonstrate that you care, to be honest and forthright about what you can and cannot do, and not to give false hope. [ ] at some point you have to ask people to be willing to let go of history and look forward."

Stop-and-Frisk Emerges As First Contentious Issue in NYC Mayor Race

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:07:13 -0400

As the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practice draws increasing criticism from blacks and Latino, the city’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, will call on the Mayor Michael Bloomberg to force a reduction of the controversial practice, the New York Times reports. City Council speaker Christine Quinn, appearing with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, gave a "measured critique" of police stops.

Stop-and-frisk has emerged as the first major contentious issue of next year’s mayoral race. De Blasio, who is expected to run, has been among the most outspoken on the topic among the possible Democratic contenders. The issue is significant to left-leaning and black and Latino voters who can sway the Democratic vote. Polls suggest that many New Yorkers support the policy. Quinn says stop-and-frisk should be retained but "needs significant reform." Two other possible candidates for mayor, Scott Stringer, Manhattan borough president, and John Liu, the comptroller, have been critical of the stop-and-frisk practice. The Police Department and the mayor have defended the tactic, saying it has helped cut crime to record lows.

Bealefeld Legacy: Corruption Fight, Changing "The Wire" Image

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:54:21 -0400

A tenth Baltimore police officer will be sent to prison this week in a scheme to divert cars damaged in traffic accidents to a body shop in return for payoffs--one of the widest police corruption scandals in the city's history, says the New York Times. Fourteen officers pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges, a trial ended in conviction, another officer pleaded guilty in state court and at least 14 suspended officers still face departmental discipline and possible state charges.

Retiring Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, who invited the FBI to investigate the force, brought in Grayling Williams, the Department of Homeland Security’s former counternarcotics chief, to head the division charged with rooting out corruption. The previous director had been ousted for socializing with an officer indicted on a charge of heroin trafficking. Bealefeld will be remembered for reducing the city’s crime and murder rates as well as for his aggressive anticorruption efforts. He made no apologies for his efforts to change the department’s direction and shed its troubled image reinforced — unfairly, he says — by television's fictional "The Wire."

Secrecy Hinders Efforts to Reduce Child-Abuse Deaths: Report

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:35:40 -0400

A culture of secrecy in many states is hindering efforts to reduce child abuse deaths and serious injuries, says a report by a national child advocacy organization quoted by The Oklahoman. “The death of an abused or neglected child is not only an unspeakable tragedy, it is also a red flag that something has gone terribly wrong with the child welfare system responsible for that child,” said Robert Fellmeth of the Children's Advocacy Institute at he University of San Diego School of Law. Oklahoma's child welfare system has come under intense criticism after news media reports about the state's failure to prevent the deaths of children despite numerous reports of possible abuse and injuries in the months leading up their deaths.

News media have been limited in their efforts to collect information about events leading up to child deaths in some other cases by a state law that requires someone to be charged with a crime before state officials will release background information. Oklahoma and several other states drew strong criticism for their secretive laws and policies in the report, “2nd Edition, State Secrecy and Child Deaths in the U.S.” “The current undue emphasis on confidentiality only masks problems inherent in child protection systems,” the report said. “Public exposure is a necessary step toward fixing these problems. Each year, millions of taxpayer dollars go to support child protective services investigations. Accordingly, the public has a right to know if the laws for the protection of children are being followed and its tax dollars well-spent.”

Perry Taps Key Aide to Deal with Violence at TX Juvenile Lockups

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:26:14 -0400

Jay Kimbrough, Gov. Rick Perry's key fix-it man, was reassigned from a high-level post at the Texas Department of Public Safety to help restore order in state-run youth lockups after months of continuing violence, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Kimbrough served as conservator of the former Texas Youth Commission in 2007 when the agency was ensnared in a sex abuse and cover-up scandal. He will oversee the six secure lockups of the months-old Texas Juvenile Justice Department — including the troubled Giddings State School.

Sending Kimbrough to fix the agency again is the first public acknowledgment of a crisis at the agency by Perry, whose aides have been working behind the scenes for weeks to fix continuing problems at an agency that seems to defy a solution. Kimbrough will serve as a special assistant to Executive Director Cherie Townsend, who has been criticized by legislative leaders for not fixing the problems fast enough. Kimbrough, 64, an assistant director for homeland security at the Texas Department of Public Safety, will be on loan to the juvenile justice agency for at least a year — but will remain as long as necessary.

Seattle Cop Leading Response to DOJ Cleared Amid Finger-Pointing

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:17:26 -0400

An assistant Seattle police chief was cleared by prosecutors of criminal misconduct allegations that grew out of his handling of a traffic accident involving his daughter, donations he solicited for a charity, and preparations for a promotion exam for prospective sergeants, the Seattle Times reports. Assistant chief Mike Sanford now will face an internal investigation and possible outside review by the city's ethics board.

The case has exposed deep rifts and finger-pointing within the department, at a time when it has come under intense scrutiny over December findings by the U.S. Justice Department that officers regularly use excessive force. Sanford, 51, who commands the Patrol Operations Bureau and oversees five police precincts, is leading the department's response to the federal civil-rights investigation, devising a detailed plan to address the Justice Department's concerns as the city and federal attorneys negotiate a settlement.

Few Juveniles in TX County Jails, Some Isolated, In Danger

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:58:00 -0400

Few juveniles in Texas land in county jails, but when they do they are often isolated, in danger from older inmates, and without access to educational and rehabilitative programs, says University of Texas reprot quoted by the Texas Tribune. Last year, state legislators allowed local boards to give judges the discretion to send youths who are certified to stand trial as adults to juvenile facilities, instead of county jails.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs surveyed jails to determine what kind of conditions juveniles face when they are incarcerated in facilities meant for adults. Jails, they discovered, are not suited to deal with the particular needs of youths. “There’s no good answer,” said Michele Deitch, who led the study. “The jail administrators are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to managing these juveniles.” Researchers discovered far fewer youths in county jails than they expected. Each year from 2006 to 2010, about 200 youths were certified to stand trial as adults. Last October and November, there were only 34 youths under the age of 18 in jails statewide.

U.S. Infiltrates Al Qaeda to Foil Latest Airliner Bombing Plot

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:49:27 -0400

The supposed bomber in a foiled plot to bring down a jetliner was actually a double agent who funneled vital information to U.S. and Arab intelligence agencies, marking an apparently successful infiltration of al Qaeda's most dangerous branch, reports the Wall Street Journal. U.S. officials said the Central Intelligence Agency, working with foreign security services, had thwarted a bomb plot by al Qaeda's Yemeni branch aimed at bringing down a U.S. jetliner with a more advanced version of an underwear bomb used in a failed 2009 Christmas Day attempt.

The bomb that was recovered has two detonators, providing a crucial backup in the event one failed. The device is similar to those used both in the Christmas Day attempt aboard an international flight to Detroit and an earlier failed plot to assassinate a Saudi prince. The Federal Bureau of Investigation wasn't informed of the operation to foil the airline plot until it had been completed and the CIA had the bomb. FBI technicians are examining the bomb.

Border Crossings At 40-Year Low; Patrol Adopts "Risk-Based" Strategy

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:23:00 -0400

With border crossings at a 40-year low, the U.S. Border Patrol announced a new strategy that targets repeat crossers and tries to find out why they keeping coming, reports the Associated Press. For nearly two decades, the patrol has relied on blanketing heavily trafficked corridors for illegal immigrants with agents, pushing migrants to more remote areas where they would presumably be easier to capture and discouraged from trying again.

"The jury, for me at least, is out on whether that's a solid strategy," Chief Mike Fisher told AP. The new approach is more nuanced. Outlined in a 32-page document that took more than two years to develop, agents will draw on intelligence to identify repeat crossers and others perceived as security threats. "This whole risk-based approach is trying to figure out who are these people? What risk do they pose from a national security standpoint? The more we know, the better informed we are about identifying the threat and potential risk," he said. Yesterday, members of the House Homeland Security subcommittee asked Fisher why the new strategy didn't include any specific "metrics" that could help members of Congress and the public better understand if the border is secure.

Mediation Rise Helps Lead to More Charges Sustained Vs. Chicago Cops

Ted Gest — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:31:00 -0400

Chicago is seeing a rise in the number of disciplinary charges sustained against cops — partly because more of those cases are being resolved through mediation, says the Chicago Sun-Times, quoting the agency that investigates police misconduct. The Independent Police Review Authority sustained charges against officers in 70 investigations last year. In the first three months of this year, the agency has sustained charges in 33 investigations.

Charges were sustained in 42 investigations in all of 2009 and 44 in 2010. Ilana Rosenzweig, chief administrator of the authority, said her investigators pushed to complete older cases that required a lot of work. The agency started resorting to mediation more often to resolve allegations of misconduct. “It’s an opportunity for an officer to accept responsibility, to change behavior and in return, have a lower level of discipline,” Rosenzweig said. Mediation also benefits the officers because they do not have to go through a full-blown investigation and a lengthy grievance process, she said.

Life or Death: Are any punishments effective in deterring homicide?

Cara Tabachnick — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:18:00 -0400

A new report, Deterrence and the Death Penalty, from the Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty of the National Research Council, concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates is not useful in determining whether the death penalty increases, decreases, or has no effect on these rates.

The key question researchers pursued is whether capital punishment is less or more effective as a deterrent than alternative punishments, such as a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Yet none of the research that has been done accounted for the possible effect of noncapital punishments on homicide rates. The report recommends new avenues of research that may provide broader insight into any deterrent effects from both capital and noncapital punishments.

Access the report here.

"Close to Obscene" for Media to Replay Victims' 911 Calls: Columnist

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:25:21 -0400

Citing the often-replayed words of Julia Hudson, sister of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, from a frantic 911 call to Chicago’s Emergency Communications Center when she discovered the body of the first of three family members who were murdered in 2008, columnist Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune objects to media's reflexively airing and publishing the text of 911 messages.

"I’ve long felt that it’s close to obscene to play the most intimate, raw sounds of shock and pain experienced by those experiencing the effects of crime, given how little news value the recordings have," says Zorn. "And the fact that we can — that 911 recordings are part of the public record — doesn’t mean we should." Zorn agrees that the material should remain public so that functioning of our emergency response system can be monitored. But he argues that "playing the audio simply to dramatize the depths of someone’s agony is abusive, not only of the privacy rights of the person who called 911 looking for help, not to offer up their darkest moment for the delectation of the masses, but also of the listener or viewer who’d rather not hear it."

Indianans Ask Why Teen Girl Would Stab Cousin, 4, to Death

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:41:30 -0400

Indianapolis residents are perplexed over why a girl, 14, would have stabbed her cousin, Leon Thomas III, 4, to death, reports the Indianapolis Star. The girl was being held at the Juvenile Detention Center as authorities pondered whether they should request that she be charged as an adult.

Bill Glick of Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force Inc., said the suspect should get a thorough psychological exam before any decision is made about where she will be tried. "This is such an unusual situation that it appears the impulsivity was out of her conscious control," said Glick, whose nonprofit works with Indiana youths who have been in the juvenile justice system. "The fact that she left the house and wandered the street sounds like she disassociated herself from it. We need to find out what in her background led to this." A next-door neighbor said, "What could go through a child's mind to make them stab a baby?" she said. "No one here has the answer to that question."

Baltimore's Bealefeld: "We Changed the Culture of Policing"

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:17:03 -0400

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld insists he is leaving his at age 49 to do something new and not because of some political pressure. He tells the Baltimore Sun's Peter Hermann, "I've been doing this for 31 years. I don’t feel like a young kid. Thirty-one years is a long time to be doing this kind of work, at this pace, and I’m anxious to do something new in my life. And I figure that 50 is the right moment to go in another direction and discover something new.”

He also says, "I think we changed the culture of policing. We went from 100,000 arrests a year to half that number and we got better results. [ ] You can tell them to stop arresting people, but you still have to get results. You still have to make people safe. Today, we are [ ] down 7 homicides, down 17 nonfatal shootings. So they continue to get the job done. I’m confident, because the mayor endorsed our strategy when she took office. She embraced it and empowered us to continue it. I’m confident there are a lot of very courageous young men and young women in this police department who aren’t going to be led away from success.”

MA Mother's Stabbing Death Raises Issues of iPad Evidence

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:01:30 -0400

The news that a Burlington, Ma., mother’s stabbing death was watched by a stunned teen over a live iPad video chat opens new possibilities and difficult questions about Web evidence in a heavily plugged-in world, says the Boston Herald. “Welcome to the worst aspect of the 21st century: cyber horror and its progeny. This is just one more step in a horrible direction,” said defense attorney Jeffrey Denner.

At Christopher Piantedosi’s arraignment yesterday, prosecutors said a young friend of his 15-year-old daughter watched in horror — in real time over an iPad — as Piantedosi slashed longtime girlfriend Kristen Pulisciano to death Thursday, while waiting for the teen to return to her bedroom to continue their online chat. “This is a very, very difficult case. And it wouldn’t surprise me if we see more of them. In this day and age of video chatting and Skyping, this is the next logical step,” said attorney William Korman, calling it an evolution of past cases of assaults that were captured on 911 tapes as victims pleaded over the phone for help. “Obviously, the key question here is whether this data was saved on the electronic device or if the prosecution is going to rely on what the witness says they saw on a computer screen. There’s a big difference between the two."

Ex-NYC Police Captain Repeats Charges on Crime Stat Manipulation

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:50:25 -0400

“Make no mistake: There are quotas, and that is illegal,” former New York City police captain John Eterno, told a forum last week organized by a group called the Police Reform Organizing Project, says the New York Times. the audience. Eterno once trained officers to stop and frisk. Now a professor at Molloy College, he and Professor Eli Silverman of John Jay College of Criminal Justice surveyed more than 100 retired police captains, and detail their findings in their recent book "The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation.”

The former captains reported what the Times calls "an unrelenting, often unethical pressure to manipulate crime statistics." The Police Department launched a counterattack against the professors. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “There’s always going to be some fudging of the numbers, but it is tiny,” he said, adding that the study “was paid for by one of the unions.” As it happens, Molloy College paid for the study. “Any suggestion of a chink in the armor of the 'NYPD success story' is very threatening. You’re excommunicated,” says Silverman. “It’s the holy of holies.”

Ohio Youths Tried As Adults More Likely to Commit New Crimes

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:51:52 -0400

About 300 youth offenders — some as young as 14 — go through Ohio’s criminal-justice system each year and end up in adult jails and prisons. A study by the Children’s Law Center, “Falling Through the Cracks,” says young offenders in the adult system face a higher risk of being assaulted, are more prone to suicide, and are 34 percent more likely to commit crimes once released than are offenders processed in the juvenile justice system.

Ohio has taken steps through the Reclaim Ohio program to reduce the number of offenders in juvenile prisons. As recently as 1995, there were 2,795 young offenders in Department of Youth Services facilities. In February of this year, there were 628, a decline of 78 percent. State law includes several ways that juveniles as young as 14 can be sent to the adult system, depending on the severity of the crime. Ohio has made changes to laws regarding juveniles, some more successful than others. State lawmakers last year made it easier for youths sent to adult court to be transferred back to the juvenile system through waivers. However, a 2000 state law that was designed to restrict sending juveniles to adult court ended up expanding it.

National Review Objects to U.S. Grant to Group With Dohrn on Board

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:50:00 -0400

An editor of the conservative National Review is questioning why the U.S. Justice Department gave $400,000 in grants to an organization that lists a Northwestern University professor and former Weather Underground activist as a board member, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Robert VerBruggen of the magazine asked why the government gave funds to the W. Haywood Burns Institute, whose board member Bernardine Dohrn who was once one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.

The funds were to help the San Francisco-based institute’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which aims to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. VerBruggen agrees with the goal but asserted that, "there are plenty of charities that do good work without including Weather Underground co-founders on their boards of directors and openly praising prison rioters on their websites."

Group Seeks Denver Action on Police Who Beat Motorist

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:03:00 -0400

The Colorado Progressive Coalition is challenging Denver Police Chief Robert White's delay in recommending discipline for cops accused of beating a man bloody in a case the city settled for $795,000, reports the Denver Post. The case involves the 2009 arrest and beating of Alexander Landau after he was stopped for a traffic violation.

"It is important to me that I make an intelligent decision based on all the facts in front of me," White said. "I decided to get a re-enactment to get a better understanding of where people were positioned, why they made their decisions. It is just a matter of getting the officers, getting the cars in their positions to find out what people did and why they did it." The Progressive Coalition said Landau has waited nearly 40 months for a recommendation. "The decision by White contradicts both his public and private assurances that the recommendation for officer discipline would be given to the manager of safety within two weeks of receiving the investigation," the group said.

Six Running for CA Legislature Must Defend Arrest Records

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:29:00 -0400

It isn't enough these days for certain state lawmakers to defend their voting records at election time. Some also have to explain arrest records, reports the Los Angeles Times. Within the last 20 months, five state legislators and a former state senator with active campaigns have been arrested on suspicion of crimes including drunk driving, perjury, voter fraud, shopliftin.g and trying to carry a loaded gun through airport security.

Not since a 1990s FBI sting known as Shrimpscam, which targeted influence peddling in the Capitol, have so many state lawmakers posed for booking photos in such a short time. "The people responsible for passing our laws should feel themselves under a special obligation to comply with those laws," said Tracy Westen of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit group promoting open government. "Apparently, a number do not.'' The handcuffs have come as the legislature has struggled to improve its reputation with a skeptical public.

CA Wants Prison Health Care Control Back; Critics, Receiver Disagree

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:16:00 -0400

California Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is sharply at odds with inmate advocates and a federal receiver over the future of the prison medical system, reports the Los Angeles Times. State officials told a federal judge they’re ready to take back control of the medical system in the next 30 days. The receiver said he should remain in charge until at least early 2014.

The Brown administration said prison health care has been “wholly transformed” in recent years. In addition, officials said, the ongoing reduction in the inmate population -- the result of a separate court order -- has made it easier to provide better medical care because prisons are less crowded. The inmate advocates who originally sued the state over poor medical care said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation still lacks the will, resources and leadership to prevent the system from backsliding. Receiver J. Clark Kelso said his control should not be ended until more improvements have been made. That includes lowering the inmate population to court-ordered limits, finishing a new medical facility, and making headway on other construction projects.

The Risks Of George Zimmerman's Embrace of Social Media

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:09:00 -0400

In the Trayvon Martin case, the court of public opinion has moved online, says the Poynter Institute. Last month, attorneys for George Zimmerman, who is facing second-degree murder charges in Martin’s killing, launed a website, Facebook apge, and Twitter account to comment on developments in the case, solicit money for Zimmerman’s defense, and interact with the public.

“[S]ocial media in this day and age cannot be ignored,” wrote Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara. “It is now a critical part of presidential politics, it has been part of revolutions in the Middle East, and it is going to be an unavoidable part of high-profile legal cases, just as traditional media has been and continues to be.” California attorney and legal ethicist John Steele and other observers agree that O’Mara’s embrace of social media carries risk. “They just broke through a major wall by saying the way to defend is to start a website and put out news,” said Scott Greenfield, a New York attorney and blogger. "You have to understand the dynamic of the Internet and understand that you’re playing with a monster that will devour you if you screw up." He added, "Anything you put on the Internet is there forever, and no matter what you say, it can be used against you."

Texas Prosecutor: No Epidemic of Misconduct, Actual Misdeeds are Rare

Ted Gest — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:28:00 -0400

There is no epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct in Texas, says former prosecutor Shannon Edmonds, now with the Texas District & County Attorneys Association. Writing in the Austin American-Statesman, Edmonds says that, "claims about the prevalence of prosecutorial misconduct have been blown out of proportion, in this case by proponents of change playing fast and loose with the facts in an effort to bolster their claims."

Texas appellate courts reviewed 69,000 criminal cases between 2004 to 2008. Citing a recent study, Edmonds says that even all of the 91 cases of prosecutorial misconduct are true, it was a minuscule 0.1 percent of appeals. Courts found that 72 of the 91 errors to be "harmless." Edmonds argues that the courts define misconduct to include a criminal defendant failing to receive helpful evidence that even a scrupulous prosecutor never knew existed. "That is hardly the kind of thing that most people in the real world would label misconduct in their own job, but it is the sort of thing for which some defendants demand a prosecutor's head on a platter," Edmonds says.

‘A Step Forward’ for Jobseekers with Criminal Records

Cara Tabachnick — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:01:00 -0400

The mass incarceration of minority communities, and the resulting mass reentry and lifetime collateral consequences, have created the “perfect storm” to ensure that criminal record-based employment discrimination serves as a surrogate for race-based discrimination.

Jobseekers with criminal records are often at the “back of the line.” In the current economy, that line has grown considerably.

But on April 25, 2012, in a 4-1 bipartisan vote, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) showed tremendous leadership and courage by issuing a revised guidance encouraging the hiring of individuals with records by clarifying the application of Title VII to criminal records.

This decision gives jobseekers with criminal records a renewed opportunity to successfully enter the labor market.

But the by-product of mass incarceration—mass reentry—means that this year alone 700,000 people will return to their communities from prison.

Millions more will cycle through our courts and jails or be placed under some other form of correctional supervision. More than half of these men and women come from and return to impoverished communities that are under resourced and ill-equipped to respond to the large number of returning citizens.

On their return to the community, these individuals are expected to find and maintain gainful employment. And, let there be no mistake, those that can work want to work.

However, over the past few decades, state and local legislatures have promulgated a wide array of laws and policies that make it increasingly difficult for people with criminal records to enter the labor market successfully— even for those who have fully paid their debt to society and have demonstrated that they are not a threat and are capable of becoming productive, tax-paying citizens.

Legal restrictions, occupational bars, inadvertent and deliberate employment discrimination practices, and the cultural stigma associated with having a criminal record have prevented many of these people – especially those who come from economically distressed communities of color – from obtaining employment and other necessities of life.

In addition, researchers from around the country confirm that the majority of private- sector employers have little or no interest in hiring people with criminal records, especially those recently released from state and federal correctional facilities.

When many individuals inevitably fail to reintegrate and are re-incarcerated, they are not the only ones who suffer. So do their families, communities and indeed the entire country; valuable lives are wasted, the public is less safe, and justice is diminished.

Finding effective ways to manage their reentry into society and the workforce is critical to promoting public safety and curbing recidivism rates and the high costs of re-incarceration.

The new guidance supersedes the original version issued in 1987, and reminds employers that criminal record policies have a disparate impact based on race and national origin.

According to the new guidelines, employers must consider the age and seriousness of the offense, and its relevance to the job the applicant is applying for.Employers must also now conduct individualized assessments when screening applicants with criminal records.

This new provision will offer qualified jobseekers a chance to explain their involvement with the criminal justice system, in addition to providing them an opportunity to share evidence of rehabilitation. This will help to level the playing field and offer jobseekers with criminal records a chance to compete on the merits, once their criminal record is taken into account.

Surprisingly, the new guidance also encourages employers to consider recent research on “desistance,” when designing their human resource policies. This is an especially important provision, since most employers rely on often ill-informed and misguided notions about risk and recidivism.

The EEOC's action is a welcome step forward.

The labor market has changed considerably since the EEOC’s last issued guidance. Changes in technology have greatly increased employer access to personal background information and more small and medium-sized employers obtain criminal background information.

According to The Fortune Society’s research, and its experiences working with employers to place its reentry clients, businesses want to hire individuals with records, and are looking for knowledge on how to make informed decisions on using criminal justice information.

EEOC's updated guidance will provide that information, and will aid these employers by expanding the labor pool of much-needed qualified workers

Glenn E. Martin is Vice President of Development and Public Affairs and Director of the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy at The Fortune Society, Inc., a non-profit organization devoted to the successful reentry and reintegration of individuals with criminal histories. He welcomes comments from readers. Follow him on Twitter @GlennEMartin

MA Launches Criminal Background Check System, Limited to 10 Years

Ted Gest — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:38:47 -0400

Massachusetts today launched a new online system to check criminal backgrounds that would provide wider and easier access for employers, but limit their searches of criminal history to 10 years back, the Boston Globe reports. The time limit, part of a new law updating the Criminal Offender Record Information system (CORI), is prompting a debate that pits the rights of employers to know the history of job applicants against the needs of people with decades-old convictions to work and move ahead with their lives.

It is raising questions about the role of lightly regulated background-screening companies, which can dig back into court records, sometimes reporting erroneous information to employers. A coalition of 125 community organizations, religious institutions, and labor unions has proposed barring screening companies from using the state’s central system if they rely on court records to gather more information than they can get in the registry. The National Association of Professional Background Screeners, based in Schaumberg, Il., opposes limits on gathering information. "We find that we have more accurate information when we go to the primary source," said board member Christine Cunneen of Hire Image, a Rhode Island screening company.

As Detroit Murders Rise, Holder Calls Black Homicides "Unacceptable"

Ted Gest — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:53:43 -0400

Calling the homicide rate among young black men unacceptable, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says his department is committing "unprecedented" resources to address violence to which young people are exposed, reports the Detroit News. Addressing more than 6,000 people at the Detroit Branch NAACP's Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner, Holder said an average of two young black men a week are killed in Detroit.

Saying that 60 percent of young people are exposed to violence as victims or witnesses, Holder declared, "This is shocking and all of this is unacceptable." Holder said that's why his office is directing resources to reduce childhood exposure to violence, raise awareness of its ramifications and study its causes. He also has a task force on youth violence that will make recommendations. "In far too many American cities, there are neighborhoods where too many kids go to prison and too few go to college, where the doors to education opportunity seem to be firmly closed," Holder said. "And where for too many young people, funerals are more common than weddings." Holder's remarks came as violent crime continues to be a major issue in Detroit. Through March 21, there were 70 murders this year, a 37 percent jump over last year.

Tackling Gang Violence

Cara Tabachnick — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:37:00 -0400

Stepping over boxes, Rev. Peterson Mingo points to a poster with dozens of faces, all of them victims of Cincinnati’s unsolved homicides.

His wife’s only brother is among them.

Mingo is getting ready to pick up a group of men from a suburban apartment complex where they’ve been landscaping for about eight hours. Most of the men, like himself, have served time in the state’s prison system.

Now Mingo tries to help the men, who remind him a little too much of his younger self, through Cincinnati’s Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV).

Other cities are paying attention. In Toledo last month, Police Chief Derrick Diggs and Mayor Mike Bell announced the Toledo Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, or TCIRV, based in part on the program introduced in Cincinnati in 2007.

The initiative, which kicked off at a meeting between city leaders and nearly 40 parolees and probationers identified as gang members, is intended to reduce gang-related shootings and homicides, which in the past year increased significantly.

No Overnight Change

The changes won’t happen overnight, cautioned Robin Engel, a criminal justice professor at the University of Cincinnati who has worked with Cincinnati’s anti-gang initiative since day one.

“This offender population has been lied to all of their lives,” she said. “They’re going to be brought in, they’re going to be told a message, and they probably won’t believe it, and they’re probably going to continue with business as usual.”

In Cincinnati, it wasn’t until the second, maybe even the third, call-in session, that changes were noticeable.

In 2007, Cincinnati recorded 62 homicides, a number that since has fluctuated but never again came close to 2006 levels of the record 90 homicides, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. This year, Cincinnati has recorded 14 homicides to date.

An analysis of the 42 months before and after implementing the Cincinnati initiative found an overall reduction in gang-related homicides of 42 percent and 21 percent fewer shootings, Engel said. It’s almost impossible to determine what impact is a direct result of the initiative and how other factors,
such as the economy, weigh in.

Getting the ‘Right People’

But Mingo said he knew in his heart the initiative would work in Cincinnati from the first time he heard of it. The strategy can work in other cities too, he said, “if you have the right people in place. That’s the key to the whole program. Having the right people in place.”

Mingo drives many of the men to work in the morning, picking them up at the Evanston Baptist Church before 6 a.m. and retrieving them from the job site a little after 3 pm. Mingo knows all of the men personally and the baggage they come with. It’s easy for him to connect. His story isn’t much different. In 1958, he lost a brother, Morris Fluellen, to street violence. And in 1974, another brother Charles Ball, was killed by Cincinnati police.

His brother, Joea Harris, was shot and paralyzed, losing both legs, before he died as a result in 1985. Two other brothers — Robert and William Ball — are dead. One from AIDS and, William, well, Mingo’s not really sure how he died.

He has another brother, Eddie Ball, who has been in a state prison since 1979 for voluntary manslaughter. His brother-in-law, William Clendening, was killed in 2003. Two of Mingo’s nephews, including one he raised, Kenny Mingo, a talented athlete, died in 2005.

The other, whose lifeless body was found behind a dumpster, he doesn’t like to talk about. Mingo’s childhood wasn’t easy. His parents split and remarried. His father lived in a different part of town; his stepfather was in jail. One day, Mingo said, after coming home from school, he found his mother standing in a window ready to jump. He pulled her back inside.At only 47 years old, his mother, “an outstanding cook” and “one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen,” died.

In 1967, Mingo joined the Marines as a way to get out of the certain hell he found himself in, he said as he drove through Evanston, honking and waving, calling out by name to nearly everyone he passes.

“You ready to work?” he yells at one young man walking out of a convenience store.

Mingo left the Marines in 1971, coming home to Cincinnati. Before long, he was up to no good. In 1974, Mingo found himself in court, facing charges for 27 robberies — all from a seven-month period.

“I was completely off the hook, totally,” Mingo said.

He plea-bargained down to seven, and after serving about four years in a state prison, he was released after an assistant warden asked for him to be paroled

“It’s not every day someone gives you your life back,” said Mingo.

In 1984, Mingo joined the Rose Chapel Baptist Church. Ask him now, and he’ll proudly say he’s celebrating his 21st year as a minister since he started in 1991 at the Christ Temple Baptist Church.

Helping Young Men

Since then it’s been his calling to help young men who are caught up in dangerous business. For a while he visited families in his neighborhood at dinner time, always asking for a bit to eat, certain to compliment the cook no matter how awful the food might taste.

“It was building relationships,” he said. “I found if you can eat with somebody and not complain about the roaches on the floor, and you can eat with them and not complain about the smell, you build relationships with people. Getting to feel what they feel, experience what they experience, see out of
their eyes.

“A lot of times, if the house was in really, really, really bad shape, I made sure that I came back. They
always got another visit from me.”

The need for improved community-police relations in Cincinnati was never more clear than in 2001, when an unarmed black man was shot and killed by a white city police officer, igniting four days of race riots.

City Councilman Cecil Thomas, then the executive director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, said once the riots ended, “we started to have a tremendous amount of gun violence” with an overall increase in gun-related crimes.

Thomas, who also spent 27 years as a Cincinnati police officer, set about repairing strained police- community relationships.

Focusing on the Perpetrators

He and others started by looking at what caused the “civil unrest” and who was “perpetrating a bulk of the violence.”

Their study found that those involved in violence tended to be black males, ages 14 to 25. The dropout rate of African-American males in Cincinnati, in 2000, was double that of white men — 33 percent compared to 17 percent, according to Census data. During the same time period in Toledo, the dropout rate for African-American males was 30 percent compared to a dropout rate of 17 percent for white men.

“We knew that education had to be one of the factors involved in the whole issue of crime and violence,” said Thomas.

Comparing Cincinnati’s response to violence built on the approach taken by Boston during the late 1990s, developed by David Kennedy, now the director of the Center on Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College in New York.

In 2002, Thomas started the Street Worker Program, which sent individuals — many with criminal backgrounds — into the streets to meet the at-risk population and encourage them to take advantage of services and programs the city offered.

Cincinnati officials reached out to Kennedy for help in developing a more inclusive strategy designed specifically for Cincinnati. Kennedy’s crime-reduction initiatives, which have been implemented in communities across the country, have won numerous awards.

Kennedy also now heads the National Network for Safe Communities, which works with cities across the country in similar programs.

‘What’s Different?’

“It took me awhile because it was like, ‘So what’s different?’” he said. “We’re going after the bad guys. Of course we’re going after he bad guys. So what’s different?”

Mark Mallory, an avid supporter of the initiative , said Kennedy had to explain a few times that some people, given the opportunity, would change their behavior and that a very small portion of the population was responsible for a very large portion of the violent crime.

Cincinnati police Lt. Col. James Whalen, also the assistant chief, said there was pushback from all over: community members, government, the police department. “All the cops seemed to have heard about was the social services and the helping end of it,” the assistant chief said.

“It’s not hug-a-thug, we’re going to have a meeting, and we’re going to cry, and they’re going to put their guns down and never offend again.

“That’s not what this is about,” he said. “There is a social services piece that is genuine, a community building piece that is genuine, and there’s a law enforcement piece that’s real. That’s what I told the officers. Our part is law enforcement; that’s what we do.”

Now, the community appears to support the city’s efforts.

A large mural — a black gun inside a red circle with a line painted through it, and “Stop the violence” painted above it — is a plea on the side of one Over-the-Rhine building.

The near-downtown neighborhood was, in 2001, one of the central locations for the city’s race riots. Nearby there is another sign above a business that reads, “Help the police stop the violence. Save a loved one.”

City Councilman Thomas said that since CIRV was implemented, calls to the city’s Crime Stoppers program have increased.

He points to a recent shooting that injured a 4-year-old boy in Avondale, what many say is the most dangerous neighborhood in Cincinnati. He said he went to the media saying “the maggots that did this will be under arrest; we will know who you are in a short period of time because people are going to
tell us.”

Sure enough, he said, the calls came in and police had a suspect.

“We’re operating as a group,” Thomas said. “That’s the moral-voice piece and people operating as a group and not standing out there by themselves. Folks feel comfortable going to court as a group saying, ‘We don’t want you in our community,’ and all of that works.”

Football Coach

These days, Mingo coaches a football team, the Evanston Bulldogs, for—mostly—at-risk youths,leading church, and spending time with his wife, children, and grandchildren.

There’s also the men he mentors as he drives them to and from work, men like Demarkus Brown. Demarkus Brown, 21, started carrying a gun when he was 14 years old. Kicked out of his family’s home he started sleeping in cars — any he could get into.

“I was off the chain so I wasn’t really worried about nobody breaking in,” Brown said. “I always had something to protect me so they had to protect theyself if they broke in.”

For money he would rob people, he said. As a juvenile he was arrested twice, once for drugs and another time for a shooting, of which he was acquitted.

Brown said he finished one year of college at a University of Cincinnati branch campus, studying business management, before being arrested.

“I seen everybody was good, fresh to the T, and the money just got in my way,” Brown said. “It got in my eyes. I wanted money now.”

Brown has known Mingo since he was a boy and, now that he’s on parole, he’s using that time and connection to try to do better. It’s hard though, not to think about going back to the quick, easy money. Church, the job, and his one- 1-year-old daughter, An’bri, keep him motivated.

If it weren’t for Cincinnati’s Initiative to Reduce Violence, he said, he would probably try to do some of the same things. He’s hoping that with the work he has this summer, school will be paid off and he can return to finish his degree.

“I’d still be dedicated to trying to find a job and doing what I got to do to change,” he said. “Because facing 20 years at 18, it’s a big mountain on you and once I got out and got away from it, I told myself I’d never go back to that predicament.”

If he could, he’d tell the guys running around with guns to settle down and think about what they’re doing.

“You either going to end up dead or you’re going to jail if you keep living the same lifestyle,” Brownsaid.

Pitfalls

There have been pitfalls in the CIRV program.

Its focus on individuals 18 and older leaves room for juveniles to be manipulated by adults who are afraid of facing federal charges, said Thomas.

“We started to see a lot of your older dope dealers, 20 and older, going to the younger kids, 15 and 16 years old, and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to hire you to shoot so and so,’” he said.

“We start to see the younger individuals now perpetrating the violence and the only reason that was occurring was because the older guys are telling the younger ones, ‘You don’t have to worry about federal prosecution, you ain’t got to worry, you’re just going to juvenile court and you’ll be out by
21.’”

Thomas said officials “knew this was going to happen” and tried to start a similar initiative for youth offenders, but, without funding, the program was put on hold.

Funding has, in recent years, also become an issue, although officials say they are working to restore money for the initiative.

For the 2011 fiscal year, much of the budget — funded through city coffers — was cut; CIRV’s annual funds dropped from $861,590 in 2010 to $289,530 in 2011. For 2012, the city budgeted $274,830.

“[Funding] affects the number of individuals we can hire, OK, but the approach to policing remains exactly the same,” Mayor Mallory said, adding that CIRV’s budget would be increased “pretty soon.”

“Hopefully that won’t happen again because, if this is going to work, and Professor Kennedy pointed this out from day one, you have to sustain it,” the mayor said.

“You can’t do it for two years and stop. You can’t do it for three years and stop. You have to maintain it. If you don’t, you will see the return in group-related homicides.”

Taylor Dungjen is a staff writer for The Toledo Blade, and a 2012 John Jay/ H.F. Guggenheim Reporting Fellow, which led to this project. This is an abridged version of a two-part series which appeared in The Blade May 6 and May 7, 2012. To see the entire series, please click here. She
welcomes comments from readers.

Dissatisfaction Reported in Ranks of NYC Undercover Drug Officers

Ted Gest — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:21:24 -0400

There is widespread dissatisfaction in the ranks of the 120 undercover officers in the New York Police Department's Organized Crime Control Bureau, which runs most undercover operations, reports the New York Times, citing interviews with nearly a dozen current or recently retired detectives. About 40 undercover officers or detectives have pending requests to be transferred out, said one official.

“Once you’re in, there’s no way out,” said Michael Palladino, head of the detectives’ union. The job attracts young officers with three to five years’ experience. After an interview process, which involves a role-playing component, applicants undergo a month of training, including courses on street drugs, and lessons on how to affect the mannerisms of an addict. Most candidates tend to be black or Hispanic; officials say that many minority drug dealers are more likely to suspect white customers of being undercover officers. The work is not glamorous. It is aimed at those who sell drugs or guns, making the job inherently dangerous. Officers are at risk of being robbed and have been killed by suspects they hope to arrest; they face the risk of being shot by fellow officers who may mistake them for armed criminals.

Firearms Background Checks Up 20%, 22nd Straight Monthly Rise

Ted Gest — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:30:01 -0400

Americans are arming themselves like never before, and Wisconsin is smack in the center of the trend, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Firearms-related businesses in the state say they are hard-pressed to meet demand, which they say is being generated by factors ranging from Wisconsin's concealed carry law to presidential politics. "It's incredible," said Steve Lauer of Lauer Custom Weaponry, a manufacturer of firearms, firearm coatings, and accessories in Chippewa Falls. "We can hardly keep up."

Precise figures on firearms sales don't exist. Based on the number of calls made to the FBI and Wisconsin Department of Justice for background checks related to firearms purchases, more guns are being sold this year than ever. The number of calls to Wisconsin's handgun hotline set a record in February, with nearly 16,000 calls. So far this year, the hotline has handled more than 53,000 calls. That's on pace to far eclipse 2011, when the hotline handled just shy of 90,000 calls for the full year. Nationally, calls for firearms purchases using the FBI's instant criminal background check system totaled nearly 1.2 million in March, says the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group. The number is up 20 percent over a year ago and marks the 22nd straight month-over-month increase.

Philadelphia Court Cracks Down on Fugitives; 300 Get Jail Terms

Ted Gest — Sun, 06 May 2012 12:20:21 -0400

Some 300 fugitives have faced a new, tougher punishment in the latest change for the Philadelphia criminal justice system in the more than two years since an investigative project by the Philadelphia Inquirer. The newspaper portrayed the courts as having one of the nation's highest fugitive rates and one of the lowest conviction rates for violent crime. A new Bench Warrant Court has been established to go after fugitives. Judge Joseph Waters has handed out 300 brief jail terms since the court kicked off last month. The court's warrant unit has been rounding up the most violent fugitives in that period and bringing them before the new court for hearings. "The idea is to send a message," Waters said. "I mean, 33 percent of our people don't show up for court."

Early figures suggest word of the crackdown is getting out. In the three weeks since the program started, judges have been handing out markedly fewer bench warrants for missing defendants. The trend could mean 1,000 or more fewer fugitives annually. "These are only very preliminary results, but they are incredibly compelling," said William Chadwick, a former prosecutor who helped design the new program. A skeptical note came from Bradley Bridge of the Defender Association, which represents most of the 60,000 arrested yearly, those too poor to hire a defense lawyer. He noted that cases passed up to Common Pleas Court for trial could still collapse or end in acquittals. Municipal Court judges might merely be failing in their "gatekeeper" role, he said. Only conviction data would resolve the issue.

Cost to Handle CA Death Row Cases to Conclusion Estimated at $700 Million

Ted Gest — Sun, 06 May 2012 11:46:00 -0400

California carried out its last two executions in 2005 and 2006, administering lethal drugs to killers Stanley "Tookie" Williams and Clarence Ray Allen. The executions ended more than two decades of taxpayer-funded legal costs for challenging their convictions and death sentences. Records obtained by the Bay Area News Group shows the final price tag for all the state and federal appeals for Allen, the oldest death row inmate California ever executed, was more than $761,000. Appeals for Crips street gang co-founder Williams, who gained international notoriety on death row, cost the public nearly $1 million.

The debate over such costs is at the heart of California's first political campaign since 1978 to repeal the death penalty, clear the state's bulging death row, and replace capital punishment with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The so-called SAFE California Act is on the November ballot. Death penalty opponents, who in the past have argued executions are unfair and immoral, are now urging voters to think with their wallets, saying the ultimate punishment has become too expensive for deficit-ridden California. Death penalty supporters say overall cost estimates are inflated and no reason to do away with executing the state's most heinous killers. A San Jose Mercury-News review of the Williams and Allen cases -- both considered typical for California's death row -- show the combined state and federal legal costs to see the state's 724 condemned inmates through the nation's most sluggish death penalty system would likely exceed $700 million. That does not include the expense for the attorney general's office to defend those death sentences in the courts.

Regional License-Plate Scanning Database: Privacy Threat?

Ted Gest — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:35:00 -0400

Sumner County, Tn., law enforcement officials are using high-tech cameras to create a detailed picture of the whereabouts of thousands of cars, regardless of whether they are suspected of any link to criminal activity, The Tennessean reports. Police say this ability to capture license plates is among the most powerful new crime-fighting tools at their disposal, and that it has already led them directly to vehicles used in crimes.

It’s also a type of government surveillance — spreading quickly, thanks to federal grants — that has raised privacy concerns across the U.S. and pushed police departments to consider how the cameras and records should be used. “I’m sure that there’s going to be people out there that say this is an invasion of privacy,” said Gallatin Detective James Kemp. But “the possibilities are endless there for solving crimes. It’s just a multitude of information out there — to not tap into it to better protect your citizens, that’s ludicrous.” Police see potential in a map database that catches all of the locally scanned license plates. With that map, a detective can type in a license plate number seen at a crime scene — or even just a partial tag — and search for places where it has been spotted by cameras.

Scheck: Why Is So Little Done About Prosecutorial Misconduct?

Ted Gest — Sat, 05 May 2012 14:17:00 -0400

The pending prosecutorial misconduct case against Texas Judge Ken Anderson in the Michael Morton wrongful conviction made national headlines because, as a recent article in the Yale Online Law Review documents, our system rarely disciplines, much less brings criminal charges against, prosecutors who have engaged in intentional misconduct. Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project writes in the Austin American-Statesman.

Far too often, prosecutors, who wield enormous power over our lives, aren't investigated at all, even for intentional misconduct that has led to a wrongful conviction, much less "harmless" intentional misconduct in cases in which the defendant was guilty, Scheck says. What can be done to reform the system? One remedy, civil litigation, is increasingly unavailable. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court severely limited the ability of wrongfully convicted plaintiffs to hold a district attorney's office accountable for intentional acts of misconduct by line prosecutors. Scheck says that just because there are only a few bad actors doesn't mean we should sit back and do nothing. When a bridge collapses, we conduct an investigation to find the root of the problem. When an airplane crashes, we do everything in our power to find out what went wrong. When a prosecutor withholds evidence that could have prevented someone from being wrongly convicted, we're lucky if we ever find out about it.

Houston Sheriff Discipline Rises: 9 New Firings, 31 Suspensions

Ted Gest — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:53:00 -0400

Houston's Harris County Sheriff's Office continues to fire deputies and other employees for having sex with jailed inmates, using illegal drugs, employing excessive force or using their position to steal from the public, reports the Houston Chronicle. In the first three months of this year, Sheriff Adrian Garcia fired nine deputies, detention officers, and clerks after they committed criminal acts or violated department regulations.

Garcia also reprimanded 30 employees and suspended another 31. Their offenses included causing 34 wrecks, associating with convicted felons, sleeping on the job, leaving the doors to a jail facility open, and one case where an armed deputy got into a drunken bar fight. Since taking office in 2009, Garcia has increased the number of disciplinary actions compared to his predecessor. He has fired about 95 employees and handed down around 830 reprimands and suspensions without pay to others in the department. "We have up to 2,000 employees working in the jail system, and I am proud of the fact that nearly all do their jobs without complaint and without complaints against them," Garcia said.

Supreme Court Asked To Review When Police Taser Use is Excessive

Ted Gest — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:14:05 -0400

The Supreme Court is being asked to consider for the first time police use of Tasers, McClatchy Newspapers reports. With more than 11,000 agencies arming officers with the stun guns, the time may be getting ripe for settling questions about when electrical force becomes excessive. “One could argue that the use of painful, permanently scarring weaponry on non-threatening individuals, who were not trying to escape, should have been known to be excessive by any informed police officer,” said Judge Mary Schroeder of the US. Court of Appeals for for the 9th Circuit, before cautioning that “there is no good case law” to clarify decision-making.

The 9th Circuit confronted the complicated Taser questions last year. The majority’s conclusion that stunning a nonviolent individual could be considered excessive force will be reviewed by Supreme Court justices in a private conference this month. The Los Angeles County Police Chiefs’ Association is urging the high court to take up the Taser cases. Some appellate judges, too, are warning about dire consequences if Taser use is restricted. “My colleagues cast doubt on an effective alternative to more dangerous police techniques, and the resulting uncertainty will lead to more, worse injuries,” said 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski. “This mistake will be paid for in the blood and lives of police and members of the public.” The Taser cases will be considered by the Supreme Court on May 24. If at least four justices agree, the cases will be added to next term's docket.

University of California Urged To Control, Train Police Better

Ted Gest — Sat, 05 May 2012 07:22:00 -0400

University of California administrators should take more responsibility for controlling their police and police should be better trained to keep campus protests peaceful, says a new report from university officials quoted by the Contra Costa Times. The report was prepared after protests in November at UC Berkeley and Davis. Both protests drew criticism of police actions: jabbing protesters with batons at Berkeley and using pepper spray on passive protesters at Davis.

Among recommendations in the report by authors UC Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley Jr. and UC General Counsel Charles Robinson: Chancellors should be directly involved with police during demonstrations; campus police should rely on officers from other campuses instead of calling in support from outside law enforcement agencies. Using pepper spray is still up for debate. "We have a presumption against pepper spray," Edley said. The report says it is not clear if pepper spray is more harmful than batons and Tasers.