3 Jan 2012

January 3, 2012


Despite Prison Population Drop, Broad-Based Change Not Yet Assured

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Despite the first national decrease in prison populations in nearly four decades, reported last month by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, it remains to be seen whether progress toward meaningful reductions will proceed at a pace necessary to have a significant impact on the phenomenon of mass incarceration, sentencing expert Malcolm Young of Northwestern University Law School writes on The Crime Report. The basis for broad-based and deep change in sentencing and corrections practices has not yet emerged, he says.

Sentenced prisoner populations fell by a combined total of 20,805, or -2.8%, in 24 states, a considerable change from 2006, when only nine states experienced a decrease. In 26 states in 2010, prison counts increased by a total of 11,060, not an insignificant number. In 18 of these 26 states, which house 42 percent of the total state population, the 2010 sentenced prisoner population was the highest ever. So far, Young writes, "neither the dollar nor human costs of a massive system of incarceration and its racial and class impacts, have ignited a widespread, energized political or social movement opposite of that which resulted in mass incarceration."

The Crime Report


Georgia to Debate Sending Fewer To Prison in Drug, Property Cases

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Conservative states across the South have altered their approach to criminal sentencing in recent years by replacing the tough-on-crime mantra with a "smart on crime" philosophy that supporters say saves money and could even cut repeat offenses, says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Georgia legislature this winter will debate a shift in emphasis toward alternatives to prison time for nonviolent offenders, as suggested by a special council appointed last year to study the state's prison population and criminal code.

The effect of its recommendations would be to send fewer people to jail for property and drug crimes and boost alternative punishments. That shift has the backing of Gov. Nathan Deal, who said it is time for Georgia to follow the lead of Texas, South Carolina, and other Southern states and take a more effective approach to punishment. He said Georgia, which now spends more than $1 billion a year on state prisons and has seen its inmate population double in the past 20 years, simply cannot afford to keep the current sentencing regime. While Georgia has some of the toughest criminal penalties in the nation for violent and repeat offenders, almost every convict is spending more time behind bars these days than ever before.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Social Media A Clearinghouse for Information in L.A. Arson Case

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When an arsonist began preying on Hollywood last week, social media sites like Twitter quickly emerged as a clearinghouse for information, says the Los Angeles Times. People tweeted when they first saw smoke, shot videos, and photos of burning cars on their cellphones, and traded both facts and rumors in rapid stream. Faced with a quickly changing, highly unusual investigation, L.A. law enforcement agencies embraced Twitter and other forms of social media as never before. Law enforcement and fire agencies essentially joined the conversation, using Twitter and Facebook not only to disseminate information but to get tips and track reports of new fires.

"This investigation is a social media phenomenon," said Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. "Early, in terms of the public information office, the PIOs noticed that a lot of the best information was coming from and being distributed by social media. We wanted to speak to the public where the public is, and that is social media." He added: "We got some valuable tips from social media," Parker said. "I personally passed on to investigators at least three pieces of information from Twitter that were useful." Authorities have arrested Harry Burkhart, 24, a German national carrying travel papers from Chechnya who had made a scene recently in an immigration court hearing.

Los Angeles Times


NYC Concern: Police Failure to Take Reports of Crimes

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Some New York City crime victims struggle to persuade the police to write down what happened on an official report, says the New York Times. More than half a dozen police officers, detectives, and commanders cited departmental pressure to keep crime statistics low as one of the reasons. Police commissioner Raymond Kelly appointed a panel last January to study the crime-reporting system. The panel is expected to focus on the downgrading of crimes, in which officers improperly classify felonies as misdemeanors.

There also are crimes that officers simply failed to record, which one high-ranking police commander called "the newest evolution in this numbers game." It is not unusual for detectives, who handle calls from victims inquiring about the status of their cases, to learn that no paperwork exists. Detective Louis Molina, president of the National Latino Officers Association, said that for some officers, the desire of supervisors to keep recorded crime levels low was "going to be on your mind," and that it "can play a role in your decision making." He added: "For police officers, it's gotten to the point of what's the most diplomatic way to discourage a crime report from being taken."

New York Times


NRA, Seeking To Defeat Obama, Gets $14.8 Million From Industry

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The National Rifle Association, which began as a grass-roots organization dedicated to teaching marksmanship, enters the 2012 election season as a lobbying, merchandising, and marketing machine that brings in more than $200 million a year and wants to unseat President Obama, reports Bloomberg News. From 2004 to 2010, the group's revenue from fundraising - including gifts from gun-makers who benefit from its political activism - grew twice as fast as its income from members' dues.

More than 50 firearms-related companies have given the NRA at least $14.8 million. "Unlike organizations which start out controlled by industry and created by industry, like lobbying groups for coal or oil, they really started out as a grass-roots organization and became an industry organization," said William Vizzard, a former agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms now a professor of criminal justice at California State University in Sacramento. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre talks about "a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country."

Bloomberg News/Columbus Dispatch


Baltimore Murders Under 200; U.S. Attorney: "Very Big Deal"

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The annual number of killings in Baltimore has fallen below 200 for the first time in more than three decades, the Baltimore Sun reports. Though Baltimore is still among the most deadly cities per capita, the drop extends an overall downward trend in gun violence since 2007, the year Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld took office. The 196 slayings in 2011 were the fewest since 1977; in 2010, 223 people were killed.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said the homicide count falling under 200 is "a very big deal." While criminologists can't agree on what's driving the declines, local officials say they deserve credit for taking out violent drug organizations from top to bottom and breathing heavily down the necks of other known offenders through a policy of "targeted enforcement." Various agencies - from parole and probation to schools to federal prosecutors - are working together more closely than ever before, officials agree. As cities saw unprecedented drops in recent years, Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans, and St. Louis seemingly were unable to stem the violence. This year, Baltimore and St. Louis saw large declines; Detroit and New Orleans saw big increases

Baltimore Sun


Washington, D.C., Homicides Down, Up in Adjoining Maryland

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In a crime-location shift, Washington, D.C.'s murder total is declining just as the count is increasing in adjoining Prince George's County, Md., reports the Washington Post. There were 97 slayings in Prince George's last year, four more than in 2010. In Washington, the total was 109, down from 132 in 2010 and the lowest count since 1963.

Some who still see frequent violence in their neighborhoods say there's not much to celebrate in the city's declining homicide numbers. "I'm slow to get to excited," said the Rev. Donald Isaac of the East of the River Clergy, Police, Community Partnership. "As soon as you begin to celebrate, it can reverse so quickly." Said Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier: "When I started here in 1990, the two things that used to really bother me was that we were known as the murder capital of the world and the city of unsolved homicides. Our detectives and our police officers have done an amazing job turning that around. We are no longer either one of those things."

Washington Post


Cleveland Homicide Total Tops '10, Well Under the 1970s

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A hot summer of shootings led to an increase in homicide cases in Cleveland in 2011, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The city had seen 88 slayings as of Thursday, up from 77 last year but the number had reached beyond 300 in some years in the 1970s. Police Chief Michael McGrath said "statistics are a sensitive issue."

A summer of shootings in Cleveland led some city leaders to call for a new approach to approach gun violence. From June 9 to Oct. 5, there were 30 homicides. McGrath said homicides generally happen more in the summer because more people are on the street, and hot weather flares tempers. "You'll also find that felonious assaults with handguns also occur more in the summer," he said. "They parallel each other." Violence -- youth violence in particular -- was addressed at a November summit which called for the problem to be considered a public health issue.

Cleveland Plain Dealer


As Death Penalty Declines, Texas Still the National Leader

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With six executions scheduled for the first three months of 2012 and more than twice as many executions as any other state last year Texas is poised to continue leading the nation in executions, says the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Despite dropping to a 15-year low in 2011, Texas leads the U.S. in executions even as questions are raised nationwide about the wrongful conviction of inmates. Last year, 43 prisoners were executed nationwide.

Alabama, which had the second most executions, sent six inmates to the death chamber in 2011. Other states with more than one execution were Ohio with five, Georgia and Arizona each with four, and Oklahoma, Florida and Mississippi each with two, says the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty. "Executions have dropped by about 50 percent since the late 1990s," says its director, Richard Dieter. "With a growing concern about whether some of those convicted are actually innocent, jurors, prosecutors, judges and legislators [are] more cautious about the use of the death penalty."

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram


Michigan Tests Plan To Reduce Use of Prison Segregation Cells

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Michigan has a long, sordid history of using isolation for prisoners, sometimes with disastrous and deadly results, says Detroit Free Press columnist Jeff Gerritt. Inmates call it "the box" or the "the hole," the corrections department calls it "administrative segregation." For months, or even years, the steel-bolted cells hold inmates who can't adjust to prison or pose a safety, security or escape risk. In one prison, a pilot program shows that alternative approaches can reduce the need for segregation cells and the dangers they pose.

Alger Correctional Facility's remote location can mean few or no visits from friends and family. It has 176 segregation cells. The state is trying to reduce the use of segregation, where inmates do time alone in an 8-foot-by-10-foot cell. Segregation costs nearly double the $33,000 a year the state typically pays to incarcerate each prisoner. In 2009, Alger started an "Incentives in Segregation" pilot project to reward positive behavior. The program has cut down on major misconducts and critical incidents in segregation, including cell damage, by more than half. It has also reduced days in segregation by possibly 10%. "When you start re-enforcing positive behavior, (prisoners) have something to lose," said Warden Catherine Bauman. "It's made a safer environment for staff and prisoners."

Detroit Free Press


Dallas Police Chief Shifts Detectives To Family Violence Unit

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A Dallas man who attacked his sister with a hammer and two years later beat his ex-girlfriend slipped through a system strained by heavy caseloads, staffing shortages, and frequently uncooperative victims, says the Dallas Morning News. Other cities use techniques to help identify high-risk domestic offenders and stop them before something deadly happens. Dallas Police Chief David Brown has ordered more detectives assigned to the family violence unit to reduce the caseload. He instructed his commanders to look at what's being done elsewhere. "You've got to figure out a way to catch that flag - that individual that's escalating to murder," Brown said, cautioning that he didn't want to create a system in which detectives overlooked something just because it didn't show the standard warning signs. "You've got to treat them all as a priority."

Family violence represents a quandary for police. Burglary and theft detectives work high caseloads, too, but those crimes typically produce no leads and require little follow-up. Domestic violence cases almost always have a known offender and require more follow-up work. More important, each one represents the potential for a deadly outcome.

Dallas Morning News


Examining the Impact of Big Drug Bust on a Small Pennsylvania Town

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In the 40-year-old drug war, the descent of 200 law enforcement officers on the little city of Clairton, Pa., a year ago was barely a skirmish. For that town of 6,800, it was a big deal, says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the first of a series. Part of a 42-person roundup of accused cocaine dealers, "This case, for the first time ever in this community, allowed us to remove the people who were bringing large amounts of drugs in," said Clairton Police Sgt. Joe Giles.

The city went on to have, in 2011, what Police Chief Robert Hoffman described as "a horrible year" in terms of violent crime. Its civic leaders are struggling, with limited resources, to take the next steps to build on progress made in the roundup. While some career criminals were taken off the streets, so were some people who had worked legal jobs and were well-liked in their community. As with many criminal cases, incarceration has yanked pillars of support from some families. The local drug market, meanwhile, endures.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette