Jan. 31, 2011 Today's Stories -- WI Laywers Convicted of Crimes Often Retain Law Licenses -- New York Moves to Deny Pensions to Crooked Public Officials -- Are Police, Fire Pension Reform Next on NJ Gov.'s Agenda? -- Funding Withers as Rx Drug Deaths Surge in Kentucky -- Brown Proposes Shifting CA Juvenile Justice to County Control -- A Crime Sign of the Times: Increase in Vending Machine Thefts -- As Justice Ramps Up Police Probes, Magazine Sees Liberal Bias -- FBI Disciplinary Files Offer Look at Agency's Misconduct Cases -- St. Pete Times Calls on Conservatives to 'Rehabilitate' FL Prisons -- Conservative-Backed Sentencing Reform Spreads to More States -- Cuomo Retreats on Plan to Close Underused State Prisons -- Justice Department Launches Science Advisory Board You may go to TheCrimeReport.org to search all archived CJN stories. Please e-mail Ted Gest at CJJ with concerns about the editorial content of our news items, to suggest news stories, or with general comments. |
WI Laywers Convicted of Crimes Often Retain Law Licenses ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least 135 attorneys with criminal convictions are practicing law today in Wisconsin, including some who kept their licenses while serving time and others who got them back before they were off probation, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The roster includes lawyers with felony or misdemeanor convictions for fraud, theft, battery and repeat drunken driving, as well as offenses involving political corruption, drugs and sex. Another 70 lawyers were charged with crimes but succeeded in having the charges reduced or avoided conviction by completing a deferred prosecution plan. All were given the green light to practice law. The newspaper's review, which ran nearly 24,000 Wisconsin lawyers against state and federal court records, found that lawyers who are convicted of crimes are then subjected to a slow-moving disciplinary system that operates largely behind closed doors. Unlike many other states, where the licenses of lawyers convicted of serious crimes such as fraud are immediately suspended to give regulators time to determine the proper sanction, Wisconsin sometimes allows criminals to keep their law licenses even while they are behind bars. |
New York Moves to Deny Pensions to Crooked Public Officials ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New York officials will press the Legislature to deny pensions to public servants convicted who commit a felony related to the performance of their duties, reports the Albany Times-Union. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced a program bill that would make that change and increase penalties for officials who violate the public trust. The pension-stripping provision would only affect future officials. Former Comptroller Alan Hevesi is one of several elected officials who continue to receive pensions for their public career despite felony convictions. He collects more than $100,000 annually. Former state Sen. Guy Velella, who died earlier this week, was receiving more than $75,000. Former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who is appealing two felony convictions, gets more than $96,000. Steven Raucci, the Schenectady schools manager convicted of arson and sentenced to 23 years to life in prison, receives almost $80,000 in pension benefits. |
Are Police, Fire Pension Reform Next on NJ Gov.'s Agenda? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Having taken on the state teachers union, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie may be ready to put the squeeze on another once-sacred employee base - the police and fire unions, says the Asbury Park Press. One goal may be the revamping of police unions' arbitration processes and reforming the state's pension system with such changes as making police and fire employees put in more years of service to receive full pension benefits. While most aren't expecting a battle with police unions to play out as viciously as the past year's with teachers, analysts and police union officials alike agree police and fire will share at least a portion of the governor's chopping block this year. Although embattled by sweeping layoffs, police union leaders said they are watching the governor and are ready to stand up for themselves. Last year, Christie proposed sweeping pension reform changes and made it clear in his recent State of the State address he would follow through on the initiative. |
Funding Withers as Rx Drug Deaths Surge in Kentucky ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prescription drug abuse is killing Kentuckians at record levels, with deaths more than doubling in the past decade to nearly 1,000 a year, surpassing even traffic fatalities, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. But even as the state's prescription-drug problem increases, the money to fight the problem is drying up, with budgets for key agencies and programs that work to prevent, control and treat drug abuse being cut by millions of dollars. The Office of Drug Control Policy, a state agency that coordinates much of Kentucky's fight against drugs, saw its state funding drop from $8.6 million in 2008 to $6.5 million in 2010, forcing its staff to shrink from 10 to four employees. Kentucky's family and juvenile drug courts - created to help new addicts stay out of prison and mend their families - were eliminated as of Jan. 1 to save the state budget $1.5 million a year. Operation UNITE, a nonprofit agency that U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers formed to fight chronic drug abuse plaguing his 29-county 5th District in Eastern Kentucky, saw its budget slashed from $10.3 million in 2007-08 to $4.6 million the following year. |
Brown Proposes Shifting CA Juvenile Justice to County Control ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ California may finally be ready to get out of the business of juvenile corrections, reports the Sacramento Bee. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to eliminate the state Division of Juvenile Justice and give counties responsibility for the state's worst young offenders over the next three years. High costs, poor treatment and other shortcomings have made the agency a target of critics. The juvenile justice transfer would complete a process that started in 2007 of giving counties responsibility for juvenile corrections. Previously, the state incarcerated about 10,000 juveniles. Now the state has about one-tenth that number of young offenders in custody. They represent the most serious cases murderers, robbers and sex offenders among them. The Little Hoover Commission, a state agency charged with ferreting out inefficiency in government, called for the elimination of the Division of Juvenile Justice two years ago. Under Brown's proposal, counties would receive the same amount of money per offender as the state spends now. |
A Crime Sign of the Times: Increase in Vending Machine Thefts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tough economic times have spurred a rash of vending-machine thefts, prompting operators to fight back with sales-tracking devices and automated text-message alerts, reports the Wall Street Journal. Theft rings have sprung up in Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and New York, among other states. More schools, hospitals and other big vending customers are complaining of such break-ins, especially with outdoor vending machines, according to loss consultants and machine operators. While no one closely tracks the exact number of such thefts, these experts report a proliferation of websites and YouTube videos with instructions on how to break into the machines. "My sense is that theft is on the rise as there are so many people in desperate times," said Mark Manney, chief executive of Loss Prevention Results Inc. The industry already is struggling. U.S. sales fell 10% in 2009 to $19.85 billion, the latest data available, from $22.05 billion the year before. With profit margins as thin as 1%, losses from theft have an impact. Police rarely get involved, operators say, because each theft seldom amounts to much money. Sometimes operators call the police but they usually arrive too late. |
As Justice Ramps Up Police Probes, Magazine Sees Liberal Bias ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Justice Department appears to be ramping up its investigations of police departments, having hired nine additional attorneys to beef up the search for alleged police agency racism and to sue agencies that don't capitulate to federal demands, reports the Weekly Standard. The magazine cites Justice's oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department as a "disturbing harbinger" for other police agencies. It presents the issue as a conservative-vs.-liberal ideological battle by overaggressive Justice investigators. The magazine says "it is a given to the Justice Department staff that the LAPD, like every other police department, routinely violates people's rights. The possibility that the vast majority of Los Angeles officers are operating within the law is simply not acceptable. Such a preordained conclusion is not surprising, since the career attorneys who investigate police departments for constitutional violations are possibly the most left-wing members of the standing federal bureaucracy. They know, without any felt need for prolonged exposure to police work, that contemporary policing is shot through with bias." |
FBI Disciplinary Files Offer Look at Agency's Misconduct Cases ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CNN says confidential FBI documents give a look at the 300 disciplinary cases the agency deals with each year. For example, one employee shared confidential information with his girlfriend, who was a news reporter, then later threatened to release a sex tape the two had made. A supervisor watched pornographic videos in his office during work hours while "satisfying himself." And an employee in a "leadership position" misused a government database to check on two friends who were exotic dancers and allowed them into an FBI office after hours. The reports, compiled by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, are e-mailed quarterly to FBI employees, but are not released to the public. The agency, with 34,300 workers--including 13,700 agents-- says it fires about 30 employees each year. "We do have a no-tolerance policy," FBI Assistant Director Candice Will told CNN. "We don't tolerate our employees engaging in misconduct. We expect them to behave pursuant to the standards of conduct imposed on all FBI employees." |
St. Pete Times Calls on Conservatives to 'Rehabilitate' FL Prisons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is time for Florida's Republican-led Legislature to "rehabilitate" the state's costly criminal justice system, the St. Petersburg Times says in an editorial. Experts say diversion programs, drug treatment and flexible sentencing reforms are the best ways to pare back the Department of Corrections' $2.4 billion budget. The paper says, "The need for reform is real. Florida's decades of get-tough-on-crime policies - including minimum mandatory sentences and three strikes you're out - have swollen the state's prison population to more than 100,000 and shortchanged rehabilitation in the process. The bottom line delivered to lawmakers this week: The only way to save significant money is to keep people out of prison or move them out sooner." Conservatives have resisted "liberal" prison reform. But they are being told from various quarters, including Florida TaxWatch, the state's business-backed fiscal watchdog group, that changes must be made. One of TaxWatch's most significant recommendations is to add flexibility to the current rule that requires inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. This alone could save the state up to $53 million annually. The paper says, "Clearly, the best way to save hundreds of millions of dollars in prison costs is to adopt policies that invest in turning low-level offenders into productive citizens. If there is one positive that could come out of the state's fiscal crisis, it's a more rational and fiscal conservative criminal justice policy." |
Conservative-Backed Sentencing Reform Spreads to More States ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Louisiana and Indiana are among new states considering conservative-backed sentencing reform, says the Los Angeles Times. The package can include reduced sentences for drug crimes, more job training and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent offenders, and expanded alternatives to doing hard time. The trend started a few years ago in Republican-dominated Texas, where prison population growth has slowed and crime is down. South Carolina adopted a similar reform package last year. A conservative group has identified 21 states engaged in some aspect of what it considers to be reform, including California. Corrections is the second-fastest growing spending category for states, behind Medicaid, costing $50 billion annually and accounting for 1 of every 14 discretionary dollars, says the Pew Center on the States. The crisis affects both parties, and Democratic leaders also are looking for ways to reduce prison populations. Conservatives have been working most conspicuously to square their new strategies with their philosophical beliefs - and sell them to followers long accustomed to a lock-'em-up message. Much of that work is being done by a new advocacy group called Right on Crime, which has been endorsed by conservative luminaries such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.former Education Secretary William Bennett, and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. |
Cuomo Retreats on Plan to Close Underused State Prisons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the state legislature that underused prisons would no longer be "an employment program" for upstate New York. Now, the New York Times reports, the governor may be scaling back on his plans to close or consolidate at least 10 adult and youth prisons and other facilities. Senate Republicans are trying to fend off the loss of hundreds of state jobs in some of their upstate districts. The New York Post reported that as few as six prisons would be closed, three of them in New York City, including two that house work-release programs. If the new strategy holds, it would sharply curtail Cuomo's ambition and could ultimately even increase the proportion of prisoners sent upstate. |
Justice Department Launches Science Advisory Board ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A new Science Advisory Board has started work at the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs, which provides billions of dollars in anticrime aid to states ad localities. The board will provide advice on how to make programs conform to scientific principles. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed its first meeting last Friday. The 15-member panel is chaired by criminologist Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University In opening remarks to the panel, Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson asked members to "look at the broad role of science" within the agency and recommend "how we can better integrate what we learn from science into our programmatic design and spending." The mandate includes not only the agency's grant making but also the research arm, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Robinson also called for suggestions on broad priorities on which research might be focused, and institutional ways to protect the role of science at the agency in the future. She noted that the parent Justice Department "is a lawyer culture and we know from history that it can be hostile to science." |
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Monday, January 31, 2011
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