Research says therapy and education are needed for juvenile

To read the entire article.

A potential ‘at ease’

Harris County youth boot camp may replace rigorous drills with therapy

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON

Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Jan. 28, 2009, 11:03PM

Trainees perform drills for parents and relatives during July 2002 graduation ceremonies at the Delta Boot Camp in west Harris County, north of Katy. Juvenile Probation chief Harvey Hetzel said there will be less emphasis on such drills in the future.

Harris County may scrap rigorous physical training and rigid military-style drills at its Delta Boot Camp in favor of a program that uses therapy to attack the emotional and behavioral problems that led the young people into crime, officials said Wednesday.

The county opened a juvenile boot camp in 1994 to offer chronic young offenders one last chance to shape up before they would be shipped off to do hard time at a Texas Youth Commission facility.

Officials hoped the facility’s strong emphasis on military structure, drill and discipline would help the 14- to 16-year-old residents change from trouble-making boys into responsible men.

But Harris County Juvenile Probation chief Harvey Hetzel said Wednesday that research since has shown that young offenders are more likely to respond to counseling and education than to discipline alone.

Will Weaker Exclusionary Rule Mean Less Testilying

An article in today's Wall Street Journal raises the issue of testilying (lying under oath by police officer) that has been studied by numerous criminologists and other academics. In Boston a federal judge is actually weighing sanctions against the prosecutor who did not quickly alert the court about discrepancies in testimony and what the officer said initially.

In January 2009 the U.S.Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Herring v. U.S. which will allow more evidence to be introduced at trial even though it is tainted. This will occur because the "good faith" exception was broadened in the holding.

There is talk in the legal profession about the effect of the Herring decision. Specifically members of the legal profession and academics alike wonder if testilying will decrease since the Exclusionary Rule, in many cases, will be less of problem for the prosecution.

It is claimed that most of the testilying involves drugs' being in plain site (dropped by defendant) or the cause of a search of a person. (Drug-related and firearm-possession cases)

It remains to be seen what the actual effect of Herring is and whether there is a decrease in supposed testilying. Not to be overlooked is the near impossibility of knowing if what the defendant claims is truly self-serving or the officer has varnished the incident. Nor can one ignore the fact that sometimes one sees what one expects to see.

When proofing a paper or other writing, we often fail to spot obvious errors because we expect the correction to actually be there. All of this raises the question about whether what the officer states is truly lying under oath or the mind having played with what was seen, allowing the officer to truly believe he saw a bulge. This would allow a bit more leeway in the firearm-possession situation. However no amount of mental gymnastics changes finding drugs in a suspect's pocket into having the suspect drop them on the ground.

Really Frightening Deja Vu

Apparently we seem to keep repeating the same errors of having policies with good intentions and horrible unintended consequences. The question is why did we not learn from what happened in the 70s and prevent its recurrence.

There is a 5-part series running in the Kansas City Star this week that has its focus on a zip code with the highest crime and criminal rate nationwide.

This is a quote from today's article:
********
A history of decay

Built mostly in the 1920s and 1930s, the area’s once-tidy homes were populated by blue-collar white families and surrounded by bustling business districts along Prospect Avenue and other major arteries.

In the 1960s, those families began moving to newer suburban neighborhoods. Black working and middle-class families filtered in. By 1970, the ZIP code was 50 percent black.

Then, fueled by a federal program to help poor people buy homes, and assisted by real estate speculators who steered them to the area, the transformation became a rush — one that increasingly lured the poor.

That 1970s program subsidized mortgage payments, bringing in families with no home ownership history. Many lacked money to maintain their homes and yards. Houses gradually fell into disrepair.

A government report described the area’s “rampaging deterioration and abandonment of housing” as a serious problem that would drag down the entire city.
It was written in 1975.
******

Today's version extends to multiple areas and multiple foreclosures, but the problems that arise from vacant and
abandoned houses continues.

What makes no sense to me is why if you subsidize rents and mortgages, do you not also work with the recipients to provide job training, counseling, and all other social services.

In much the same way that parenting and other pre-natal classes help future children, spending the money on follow-up and services in a proactive manner might prevent other zip codes from becoming a total haven for crime.

Today's problem

Community Resists Prison closing

With looming budget deficits, states are seeking ways to cut expenses. Since in 

some states corrections takes a larger bite of the budget than higher education 

does, corrections is an area of budget cutting.

Community corrections is one possibility with the prisons only being used 

to house offenders who commit violent crimes. But there is anger from victims 

who do not see justice' being done. A large percentage of inmates, especially 

women, are incarcerated because of drug offenses.  The "War on Drugs" 

had the unintended consequence of an exploding inmate population. 

Thus many believethat we need to revisit the sentencing guidelines, 

especially in regard to drug offenses.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal describes the effect this would have

on one community.

For other communities where the prison is the main employer, the closing 

of a prison would be disasterous, especially in these bad economic times. 

The article has concentrated on minimum security facilities that have work 

release programs. For maximum and other high security prisons, the 

town's economic base would disappear along with the prison.

It does not appear as if there is a solution that would work for the 

communities involved and the state budgets as well.

Corrections Officers Accused in Death of Jailed Juvenile

---

January 23, 2009

Correction Officers Accused of Letting Inmates Run Rikers Island Jail

By JOHN ELIGON

Guards reputedly sent inmates to intimidate, threaten and silence uncooperative prisoners with brute force. Inmates were ordered to turn over money, and their every move, including when they could use the bathroom, was controlled. If word of an assault got out, the guards would allegedly orchestrate a cover-up.

In fact, prosecutors said, a unit for teenagers on Rikers Island was run much like an organized-crime family — and two correction officers were the bosses.

Those accusations were made on Thursday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, where three Rikers Island correction officers were charged in connection with the ring, whose crimes, prosecutors said, reached a climax with the beating death of an 18-year-old inmate.

Two of the officers, Michael McKie, 31, and Khalid Nelson, 34, were charged with enterprise corruption and accused of being the masterminds behind the operation, ordering the time, location and manner of some beatings, said Robert T. Johnson, the Bronx district attorney.

Both Officer McKie, 31, of Brooklyn, and Officer Nelson, 34. of Staten Island, pleaded not guilty before Justice Steven Barrett, who ordered each held in $200,000 bail. Each faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

In court on Thursday, an assistant district attorney, James Goward, told Justice Barrett that the defendants were “not simply the author of a crime or the author of a series of crimes, but the architect of a criminal enterprise.”

“They didn’t simply turn a blind eye to violence,” he added. “They authorized and directed it.”

Mr. Johnson said the officers’ motive was simple: to make their jobs easier by making the inmates maintain order among themselves.

Neither officer was charged in the Oct. 18, 2008, death of the 18-year-old inmate, Christopher Robinson.

Officer McKie was on vacation when Mr. Robinson was killed, according to Joey Jackson, his lawyer. Officer Nelson was working that day, prosecutors said.

Mr. Jackson said that Officer McKie was a husband and father of two who spent two years at the University of Buffalo on a basketball scholarship.

The lawyer added that the officer had an exemplary record in his five years as a correction officer.

“My client would have no motivation whatsoever to engage in this behavior,” he said, adding that the prosecution’s case was “predicated upon inmates who now, in an effort to save themselves, are pointing fingers.”

Renée C. Hill, Officer Nelson’s lawyer, said her client “denies the charges adamantly.”

The third correction officer who was indicted, Denise Albright, 43, of Manhattan, was not present when Mr. Robinson was killed, according to Mr. Jackson, who also represents her. She was charged with several crimes, including assault and conspiracy, and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Officer Albright pleaded not guilty and was held Thursday in $50,000 bail. Twelve inmates were also indicted in connection with the criminal ring and were expected to be arraigned Friday.

Three of them, Joseph Hutchinson, Anquant Bryant and Shaddon Beswick, all 18, were charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Mr. Robinson.

Outside the courtroom, Mr. Robinson’s mother, Charnel Robinson, held up a photo of her and her son embracing. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I have to live the rest of my life without ever getting to hug him again, because some officers didn’t do their jobs correctly,” she said.

Ms. Robinson has filed a notice of claim, the first step toward a lawsuit, requesting $20 million from the city and the Department of Correction, claiming that they were responsible for her son’s death.

Following Mr. Robinson’s death, the Bronx district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation launched an inquiry that uncovered what prosecutors said was a criminal enterprise known as “the Program.”

It was confined to the Robert N. Davoren Center, a jail at Rikers for inmates ages 16 to 19, prosecutors said.

Officers McKie and Nelson delegated the duty of maintaining order in the jail to chosen inmates, according to the indictment, and instructed them to exert authority over others by making them give up some of their commissary money and phone privileges.

The participants also prevented other inmates from using certain chairs in a common room and restricted other inmates’ access to that room and the bathroom, the indictment said.

Inmates who did not comply with the Program’s rules were assaulted, the indictment said, with Officers McKie and Nelson enabling the violence by letting some inmates out of their cells when they were supposed to be confined.

The indictment said that the two officers instructed the inmates to strike their victims only in the body, to avoid leaving any facial marks that might attract attention. Signals were used to alert inmates to abort assaults when other guards were in the area.

Officers McKie and Nelson covered up their actions by filing false reports about assaults and instructing the inmates to lie about them if questioned, the indictment said.

Martin F. Horn, the city’s correction commissioner, said that the conduct the officers were accused of was isolated and that the department had taken measures, including installing additional cameras, to ensure the safety of inmates in the aftermath of Mr. Robinson’s death.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Juveniles Need to be helped neared Home

Counties criticized on young offenders

By law, detention to be near home

By David Hasemyer

2:00 a.m. January 18, 2009

OVERVIEW
Background: Under California law that went into effect Sept. 1, 2007, juveniles who commit all but the most violent crimes must be housed in their home counties instead of being sent to state facilities.

What's changing: A prisoners' rights agency instrumental in forcing the legislative change said it has found major flaws in the implementation of the law statewide, including in San Diego County.

The future: The county's Probation Department will devote a portion of its $4.3 million in state funding this year to further develop rehabilitation programs for young offenders that include substance abuse counseling, anger management and job training.

Online: To read the full report by the Prison Law Office, go to uniontrib.com/more/ documents

A majority of California counties, including San Diego, have not fully met the expectations of a new law mandating that young criminals be kept in their home counties instead of state facilities, according to a juvenile justice watchdog agency.

The Prison Law Office, the San Francisco-based prisoners'rights organization that played an instrumental role in forcing the state's dramatic shift, praised San Diego County for some efforts.

But the nonprofit also criticized the county for pouring money into custodial facilities instead of finding alternatives to confinement, a strategy the law office said is a proven failure in the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
Statewide, flaws in implementing the new law might scuttle its intended benefits, the office argues in a report released this month.

“The reform's potential successes are not yet certain,” the Jan. 6 report states. “(The law's) immense promise to benefit California youth and communities will only be fully realized if counties rise to the occasion.”

Mack Jenkins, San Diego County's chief probation officer, said he believes the county is meeting the needs of offenders and disagrees with the criticism that the Probation Department is spending too much on institutions.

“We have to be concerned about both the needs of the kids and protecting the community,” Jenkins said.

The county and all 57 others in California were ordered last year to begin accommodating all but the most violent juvenile criminals instead of sending them to state juvenile prisons.

The directive came as a result of a court mandate to overhaul juvenile prisons, institutions described as inhumane by a Superior Court judge in 2004.

Under the new law, which went into effect Sept. 1, 2007, and gave counties only four months to devise and implement plans, local authorities must provide rehabilitation programs for juveniles who commit crimes such as assault, kidnapping and carjacking. Only those who commit such crimes as murder and rape can be sent to state facilities.

To deal with the transition, San Diego County was given $1.4 million last year in state funds and will receive $4.3 million this year.

While the report comes just over a year after the law took effect, its author said potential shortcomings should be identified now, before they become more difficult to correct.

“This is more of a precautionary report,” said Noor Dawood, the Prison Law Office's juvenile justice policy advocate. “The counties are not far enough into the process to say definitively what they are or are not doing right.”

The report was based on a review of each county's plan and interviews with probation officials.

It states that counties should focus more resources on providing mental health and substance abuse programs for offenders.

Further, counties need to ensure that there is support for offenders once they are released on probation and provide adequate facilities for female offenders.

The San Diego County Probation Department drew praise in those areas. Dawood said the county's plan shows a “rich array” of programs, but that time will tell how successful they are.
The county's biggest fault, according to Dawood, is in dedicating too much state funding to incarcerating offenders at its East Mesa and Kearny Mesa juvenile detention facilities.

The Probation Department budget this fiscal year calls for spending 85 percent – or $3.7 million – of its $4.3 million on detention facilities. The remaining $659,000 will be used to support youths once they are released.

Department spokesman Derryl Acosta said the agency has little discretion because the state reimburses the county $117,000 for youths in custody and $25,000 for those on probation.
The incarceration approach failed miserably at state institutions, prompting the new law, Dawood said. Detention emphasizes punishment over rehabilitation and discourages developing other alternatives, she said.

She suggested that intense community supervision coupled with mandatory counseling or less-restrictive housing would be better than locking offenders in juvenile halls.

There are 44 young offenders – 42 boys and two girls – in county custody. Jenkins said many of them pose a risk to the community and have to be incarcerated while undergoing treatment.

“Historically, this is a group who has committed some serious crimes,” he said. “That means the custodial aspect is necessary to protect the community until they have become stable enough to release into the community.”
The county's rigid incarceration requirements also trouble Dawood and the law office.

The Probation Department mandates a one-year sentence for offenders, who can be released on probation after nine months or held for up to 16 months.

“There may not be a need for a year of confinement,” Dawood said. “But there is little flexibility for those kids who can complete programs short of a year.”

Jenkins said every offender is evaluated and put in an individualized treatment program, but those generally require about a year and intense supervision at institutions to be successful.

He acknowledged the importance of programming outside the institutions and said that will be a priority in the coming year.

William Hishaw praised San Diego County's program, saying it made a “positive change” in his 17-year-old son, Nicholas.

During the year Nicholas was at the East Mesa facility, he earned his GED and got intense anger management therapy and individualized attention by teachers, probation staff members and counselors, his father said.
“He got more than I expected,” Hishaw said. “It helped him do a lot of growing up.”

Nicholas, who was serving a sentence for armed robbery, has been on probation for a month and is working part time at a warehouse. His father is optimistic about his future.
“It's up to him, but he's been given a good start,” Hishaw said.

David Hasemyer: (619) 542-4583; david.hasemyer@uniontrib.com

What lessons. if any, could Texas learn from the California experience since we are also
undergoing revision of our juvenile system

Bad Checks Being Passed in Record Number - Restitution Required

In Illinois and Elsewhere Fraudulent checks on the rise as economy dives

By Chris Coates

A few months ago, someone walked into the BP Station at South Buchanan and East Schwarz streets in Edwardsville, handed the clerk a fake check and left with $12 worth of stolen merchandise.

Only later did the worker realize the transaction was bunk, leaving station owner Jill Essner to saddle the cost. She opted to not call police.

"It was just $12," said Essner, who estimates her store has been hit with two bad checks since the fall. "I didn't even have time to follow up."

While hardly a capital offense, the con against Essner is a small piece in a growing trend that's bilking an increasing number of local retailers and small business owners out of thousands of dollars in illegally purchased goods.

Because they're often used to cover small purchases and many businesses don't report to police, statistics on the number of bounced, doctored or just plain fake checks are unreliable. But Madison County State's Attorney William A. Mudge said the trend is not only real, it's growing in popularity, most recently because of a crumbling economy that's made passing off forged checks seem all too easy.

"Every year, the number increases, but now it's in part due to the economy," he said.

At the same time, the amount of felony retail cases have jumped, statistics from November show, Mudge said. "And I'm assuming the numbers will be up for December, too," he said.

The increase has tacked on more work for police and prosecutors, along with providing a steady stream of clients for the county's Bad Check Restitution Program.

The 11-year-old program has collected more than $2.1 million in restitution for merchants mostly by allowing crooks caught passing fake checks to repay businesses and take classes instead of facing more serious charges.

About 600 caught passing bad checks took the option last year, repaying about $250,000 in fees, according to statistics. The funds help businesses recoup losses and pay for the program.

The centerpiece, Mudge said, is the series of courses ran by American Credit Counseling Service Inc., a firm that deals with personal financial management. The classes help bad check passers keep tabs on funds and controlling spending, teaching them "better management skills of their money to avoid a repeat performance," Mudge said.

Usually, the class members span all ages and social backgrounds, from petty criminals to forgetful older people to checking account holders unversed in balancing funds. What a surprising number have in common is that they don't get caught again passing bad checks - the program claims a 4.3 percent recidivism rate.

"That's excellent," Mudge said. "It's been a great program."

The classes also help streamline the process and eliminate the cases from clogging up the judicial system, he said.

For businesses, the program helps reign in scofflaws, said Carol Foreman, executive director of the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce.

"They're doing a lot of work there," she said. "We know about it."

As for Essner, the gas station owner, she said clerks there rarely accept checks and make sure to write drivers license numbers on stubs.

And for the crook who passed the bad check? Never entered the store again, Essner said.

"I was never able to collect," she said.

Got a bad check?

Madison County since 1998 has ran a Bad Check Restitution Program, which tracks down crooks who pass fake checks.

For more information, call Don Petrillo at 692-6280 or e-mail drpetrillo@co.madison.il.us.

Business owners and other victims can also contact their local police.

Online at http://www.madco-sa.org/bad-check-program.html

Former President Brush Granted Clemency to Two Former Border Patrol Agents

Bush commutes sentences of 2 ex-Border Patrol agents

By JAMES PINKERTON and SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Jan. 19, 2009, 8:54PM

On the last full day of his term, President George W. Bush commuted the contentious prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a fleeing, unarmed drug smuggler near El Paso and covering up the shooting.

The 12-year prison term of Jose Compean and the 11-year sentence of Ignacio Ramos were commuted to time served by Bush on Monday in a move that elated supporters but did not end the fierce debate over the case. The agents had served about two years of their sentences and are now scheduled to be released March 20.

“We’re ecstatic, thrilled for the families and the agents, but we’re troubled by the fact it took so long to do the right thing,” said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing most of the 18,000 border agents. Bonner, noting the agents’ convictions are being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, said the union will push for a congressional investigation of the prosecution.

Compean and Ramos were convicted of shooting drug smuggler Osvaldo Adlrete Davila, an illegal immigrant, in the buttocks as he fled toward the Rio Grande near El Paso in 2005. The agents did not report the shooting to superiors, removed evidence from the scene of the shooting and submitted false reports about the incident, according to court records.

‘Justly convicted’

Their federal prosecution heightened the debate about illegal immigration, became the topic for talk shows and was taken up as a cause celebre by groups favoring limits on immigration.

“We certainly hope this will serve as a catalyst to restore confidence in the justice system by our law enforcement officers,” said Curtis Collier, president of the U.S. Border Watch volunteer group based in Spring. “This will allow them to do their jobs a little better because they won’t be prosecuted for doing ridiculous things, like Ramos and Compean were.”

Maria Jimenez, a Houston immigration activist who has monitored civil rights violations by Border Patrol agents, said cutting the agents’ prison time “sends the signal that law enforcement agents will be treated differently.”

“They received a fair trial, and the jury’s decision should be respected,” Jimenez said. “Ultimately, the type of law enforcement officers we want to have are those who carry on their duties while upholding the Constitution of the United States.”

A senior administration official told The Associated Press that Bush declined to pardon the agents because he believes they received fair trials and their verdicts were just. Instead, he reduced their prison time because he believed the sentences were excessive, the official said.

P.S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor in Illinois and editor of a blog on pardons called “Pardon Power,” said the commutation of the sentences was not a risky political decision for the president, considering the level of support from lawmakers.

“So many members of Congress supported this, and in that sense, it may have been the safest commutation of a sentence that President Bush could have possibly granted,” he said, adding that a commutation for the former governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards, or former Illinois governor George Ryan would have been “a lot more controversial.”

Johnny Sutton, the federal prosecutor for the Western District of Texas who prosecuted the case, issued a statement late Monday saying he respected Bush’s decision.

“Like the trial judge and the court that reviewed the cases on appeal, President Bush found that Compean and Ramos were justly convicted of serious crimes and that their status as convicted felons should remain in place,” Sutton said.

Supporters for the agents, which include many of the Texas congressional delegation, argue that Compean and Ramos confronted an experienced drug trafficker who was likely armed, although no weapons were ever found. The trial court was not allowed to hear evidence that the wounded trafficker, while in the U.S. waiting to testify at the agents’ trial, was arrested for smuggling a large load of marijuana.

‘A long time coming’

U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Houston, a former state district judge, said Congress must exempt law officers such as Compean and Ramos from prosecution under the law that mandates a 10-year sentence for discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

“As a former prosecutor and judge, I spent most of my career putting people in jail — this is the first time I’m excited someone was released from custody,” Poe said.

Compean’s attorney, Robert T. Baskett, said he spoke with his client about the news, saying it was “a long time coming.”

Joe Loya, Ramos’ father-in-law, said the commutations came as a relief after years of trying to “get the truth out” about Ramos and Compean.

james.pinkerton@chron.com

susan.carroll@chron.com

Economic Woes Mean Alternative Corrections Considered

Criminologists have been advocating greater use of alternative 

corrections for some time, but the perception was that only 

"lock 'em up and throw away the key" legislators could get 

re-elected. It makes sense to keep the locks in place for 

violent and sexual abuse offenders but not for many 

non-violent offenders. The War on Drugs has meant that 

longer sentences for drug-related offenses was the norm. 

Now that it is too costly to keep all these prisoners locked up, 

consideration is being given to revision of policy.

NEW YORK - Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators 

and prison officials across the nation are making or considering 

policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of 

offenders from prisons and parole supervision.

Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up 

to one of biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into 

place cost-saving reforms that have struggled to win political 

support in the tough-on-crime climate of recent decades.

"Prior to this fiscal crisis, legislators could tinker around the edges

 — but we're now well past the tinkering stage," said Marc Mauer, 

executive director of the Sentencing Project, which 

advocates alternatives to incarceration.

---

"Many political leaders who weren't comfortable enough, politically, 

to do it before can now — under the guise of fiscal responsibility — 

implement programs and policies that would be win/win situations, 

saving money and improving corrections," Mauer said

In California, faced with a projected $42 billion deficit 

and prison overcrowding that has triggered a federal lawsuit, 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to eliminate parole for 

all offenders not convicted of violent or sex-related crimes, 

reducing the parole population by about 70,000. He also 

wants to divert more petty criminals to county jails and 

grant early release to more inmates — steps that could 

trim the prison population by 15,000 over the next 18 months.

In Kentucky, where the inmate population had been soaring, 

even some murderers and other violent offenders are 

benefiting from a temporary cost-saving program that 

has granted early release to nearly 2,000 inmates.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is proposing early release of about 

1,000 inmates. New York Gov. David Paterson wants early 

release for 1,600 inmates as well as an overhaul of the 

so-called Rockefeller Drug Laws that impose lengthy 

mandatory sentences on many nonviolent drug offenders.

"These laws have neither curbed drug use nor enhanced 

public safety," said Donna Lieberman of the New York 

Civil Liberties Union. "Instead, they have ruined thousands 

of lives and annually wasted millions of tax dollars in prison costs."

Policy-makers in Michigan, one of four states that spend 

more money on prisons than higher education, are awaiting 

a report later this month from the Council of State Governments' 

Justice Center on ways to trim fast-rising corrections costs, 

likely including sentencing and parole modifications.

"There's a new openness to taking a look," said state 

Sen. Alan Cropsey, a Republican who in the past has 

questioned some prison-reform proposals. "What 

we'll see are changes being made that will have a 

positive impact four, five, six years down the road."

Even before the recent financial meltdown, policy-makers 

in most states were wrestling with ways to contain 

corrections costs. The Pew Center's Public Safety 

Performance Project has projected that state and 

federal prison populations — under current policies — 

will grow by more than 190,000 by 2011, to about 

1.7 million, at a cost to the states of $27.5 billion.

"Prisons are becoming less and less of a sacred cow," 

said Adam Gelb, the Pew project's director. 

"The budget crisis is giving leaders on both sides 

of the aisle political cover they need to tackle issues 

that would be too tough to tackle when budgets are flush."

In contrast to past economic downturns, Gelb said, 

states now have better data on how to effectively 

supervise nonviolent offenders in their communities 

so prison populations can be reduced without increasing 

the threat to public safety.

Safety remains a potent factor. In California, for example, 

the state correctional officers' union contends Schwarzenegger's 

proposals will fuel more crime.

In Idaho, a combination of budget cuts and prison overcrowding 

contributed to an uprising Jan. 2 in a former prison workshop 

that was converted into a temporary cell block. Inmates who 

engaged in vandalism and arson had been placed there as part 

of a cost-cutting effort to move other prisoners back to Idaho 

from more expensive quarters at a private prison in Oklahoma.

Thomas Sneddon, a former Santa Barbara, Calif., prosecutor 

who is now executive director of the National District Attorneys 

Association, said he and his colleagues support reappraisals 

of corrections policies yet worry constantly that dangerous 

criminals will be released unwisely.

"I don't think the public at large has any idea of who's 

in these prisons," Sneddon said. "If they went and visited, 

they'd say 'My God, don't let any of these people out.'"

He noted that many states are seeking to send fewer offenders 

back to prison for technical violations of parole conditions. Some 

of these violations are indeed relatively minor, Sneddon said, 

but often they are accompanied by more serious criminal 

behavior that warrants a return to prison.

As budgetary pressures worsen, some advocacy groups 

are concerned that spending cuts will target the very programs 

needed to help inmates avoid re-offending after release — 

education, vocational and drug-treatment programs.

"The idea that we'd cut programs and then release inmates 

early is a toxic combination," said Pat Nolan, vice president 

of Prison Fellowship. "Just opening prison doors and letting 

people out with no preparation — that's cruel to the offender 

and dangerous to public."

However, Nolan, a former California legislator who served 

time in a federal prison on a racketeering charge, sees the 

current climate as ripe for the kind of reforms Prison Fellowship 

has advocated with its Christian-based outreach programs.

"It's forcing the legislators to see the actual costs of 

imprisonment, because it's coming out of the budget 

for schools, roads, hospitals," he said.

The Council of State Government's Justice Center 

has been working with 10 states to develop options f

or curbing prison populations without jeopardizing public 

safety. Tactics used in Texas and Kansas have included 

early release for inmates who complete specified programs, 

more sophisticated community supervision of offenders, 

and expanded treatment and diversion programs.

"There's an unprecedented level of interest in this kind 

of thinking," said the Justice Center's director, Michael 

Thompson. "It's a combination of fiscal pressure and a 

certain fatigue of doing the same thing as 20 years ago 

and getting the same return."

In Florida, where prisons are so crowded that the state 

has acquired tents for possible use to house inmates, 

officials say 19 new prisons may be needed over the 

next five years. As an alternative, Corrections Secretary 

Walter McNeil told lawmakers they should re-evaluate 

the state's hard-line sentencing policies and look at ways

to help released inmates avoid returning to prison.

One important variable is the role of private prisons, 

which some advocacy groups consider less accountable 

that state-run prisons. Elizabeth Alexander of the 

American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project 

expressed concern that fiscally struggling states would 

rely increasingly on private operators.

The largest private prison firm, Nashville, Tenn.-based 

Corrections Corporation of America, operates in 20 states 

and says some of them have asked if CCA can expand its 

capacity so more beds don't need to be added to the state-run system.

"Of the states we do business with, none have made 

prison construction a priority in this economic environment," 

said Tony Grande, CCA's executive vice president. 

"Our partnership with the states will become even stronger. ...

We want to be a part of their financial solution."

 

 

Dallas To Use New Photo Line-up Procedure

Dallas police drop study, plan photo-lineup changes

08:27 AM CST on Friday, January 16, 2009

By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News 
jemily@dallasnews.com

After two years of delays, Dallas police have dropped out of a study designed to determine the best method for showing photo lineups to crime witnesses.

Instead, the department will change its policy to adopt a technique that was to be highlighted in the study. The new approach, called the sequential blind method, is regarded for reducing the number of eyewitness misidentifications.

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said Thursday that he ordered the changes because the department could wait no longer to improve its procedures.

"The study was taking way too long, and even with the results, I don't know that it would change where we would end up," Kunkle said. "The standard to where the department should be is a little clearer than it was a few years ago."

No deadline is set for rewriting the policy, but police officials said they want to make the change soon.

Dallas will become just the eighth department in Texas to use the sequential blind lineup, according to a survey by the Justice Project, a nonprofit reform group. Others include Richardson, Lewisville and Haltom City.

Because of the delays, the Urban Institute, the group doing the study, lost its funding from the National Institute of Justice, police said. The Urban Institute thought the study had an automatic extension, police said, but it did not.

Terry Dunworth, who was planning to conduct the study, could not be reached for comment.

Traditionally, Dallas detectives show witnesses photo lineups with six pictures all at once. In the sequential blind method, someone who does not know which photo is the suspect's shows them to the witness one at a time.

Dallas County public defender Michelle Moore, who has represented several exonerees as they sought DNA testing, said it was "about time" the department made the change.

"It's a great improvement for the Dallas Police Department. We've had problems with the way they do things," Moore said. "We all know this is the way to do lineups."

Conflicting information exists about whether the sequential blind method is best. That's why Kunkle said he wanted to participate in the study.

But the chief said Thursday that he is certain that the sequential blind method is the best way to eliminate errors.

Misidentifications have been cited as a key factor in an estimated 75 percent of the 220 wrongful convictions exposed by DNA testing nationwide since 1989.

Dallas County has had 19 DNA-based exonerations – more than any jurisdiction in the nation – since 2001, when a state law began allowing post-conviction DNA testing. Dallas police investigated 13 of the 19 cases. All but one of the exonerations were based on faulty eyewitness testimony, a Dallas Morning News investigation determined last year.

Dr. Gary Wells, an Iowa State University psychology professor who developed the sequential blind method, said the decision "tells me that the DPD is genuinely interested in doing something about this problem and has no interest in latching on to convenient excuses."

"Frankly," Wells said, "the way that the DPD was repeatedly delayed by the Urban Institute from starting this study could easily have been used as an excuse to do nothing."

Two types of photo lineups

TRADITIONAL

How it works: Typically, a detective shows a witness at least six pictures of possible suspects at one time.

Results: Critics say physical and verbal cues from the detectives conducting such a lineup can taint the results, even if the detectives are not deliberately trying to do so. Using a booking photo of a suspect from a past crime (with height markers and ID numbers across the chest, for example) can also suggest guilt in the recent crime.

SEQUENTIAL BLIND

How it works: Photos are shown to a witness one at a time by someone who does not know which picture is the suspect's.

Results: Experiments show that viewing pictures sequentially results in fewer misidentifications when the perpetrator is not in the lineup, probably because the witness isn't just comparing one person with another and picking the person who looks most like the criminal. However, a witness is also less likely to pick the correct person.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research