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Crime & Justice News (January 16, 2008)

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News (January 16, 2008)

--Meth Availability Beginning To Rise Again

--Dallas Will Change Practice To Prevent Misidentifications

--Holder "Unflappable" Under Criticism In Senate Hearing

--White House Says Inmate Re-Entry Participants Had Low Recidivism

--Stimulus Bill Could Be Boon To Police, Other Anticrime Programs

--State Budget Crises May Lead To Corrections Policy Reforms

--Survey Finds Many Unhappy Workers At Homeland Security Agency

--Police Academy Offers Training For Split-Second Decisions

--MD Governor To Push Death Penalty Repeal Legislation

--Phoenix Jail Accreditation Denial May Bolster Lawsuits

--2/3 Of Mentally Ill Inmates Were Off Treatment At Arrest

--Most St. Louis Readers Favor More Racial ID's Of Crime Suspects

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Meth Availability Beginning To Rise Again

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After a dramatic decline over several years, the

availability of methamphetamine - a highly addictive

stimulant "cooked" with chemicals from over-the-

counter cold medications - began to creep up in

2008, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The

reversal, reported by the National Drug Intelligence

Center (NDIC), worries law enforcement agencies.

Some 17,000 meth labs were discovered in 2004,

tucked inside homes, barns, and vehicles. Among the

dangerous byproducts: toxic waste, explosions, theft,

and other crimes to support addiction. In 2005,

Congress passed restrictions on key ingredients

ephedrine and pseudoephedrine found in cold and

allergy medicines. It helped: during 2007, agents

found just 5,910 labs. That year, Mexico banned all

imports containing either chemical in an effort to curb

exports by large-scale traffickers. The move helped

create methamphetamine shortages in many parts of

the country during 2007 and the first part of 2008.

Several indicators suggest that since then, domestic

production has increased to fill the void. Authorities

say more small-time cooks are sidestepping federal

regulations to obtain what they need to manufacture

the drug. The per-gram price of pure

methamphetamine fell more than 30 percent, from

$267.74 to $184.09, between the last quarter of 2007

and the third quarter of this year, says the Drug

Enforcement Administration. Lab seizures quickened

in many areas. The curbs on buying key ingredients

are commonly bypassed through "smurfing." Small

groups who know two or three cooks travel from store

to store, buying the maximum allowable amount of

ingredients. Then they trade medications for finished

methamphetamine or cash.

Christian Science Monitor - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmJzHSFpy8CkHndUAC-rNpUBNwK-JMgwnQ6t5n1xriskDk8Q5CqYtRNLy3ZkNkNddamLhnMK9alEJ6KHtNcZu-YCVnPVGkgp27aW9wKb9EcYk0rE1G8yNLAMUyfnNiRGDNPQETqrQkES_aZ51It5CL-4

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Dallas Will Change Practice To Prevent Misidentifications

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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, says

the Dallas Morning News. 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 aimed at reducing the

number of eyewitness misidentifications. Dallas

Police Chief David Kunkle ordered the changes

because the department could wait no longer to

improve its procedures.

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. Because of the delays, the Urban Institute, the

group doing the study, lost its funding from the

National Institute of Justice, police said.

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.

Dallas Morning News - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmIT0G8J_EmwRm51U3vSmZUnWoTI5O7CYWKe4Yu7zVP-FhkhQpgjUjjO7Uh7CtJjtXBdbjYcjM8ElFPPer2ufpjdZX3zwHKhYT1RX79h_X_gHWG4U45pBJhtTHvKUbic0hR7BcdcwQp474DE5fSv-ZccUn0jol7abB8Cs7ECRy46LzXM0-SJ9nQ8p0gsxXck-ip0QPUkIGsV4RuhahuWJdTLV6Zq11BbEY4=

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Holder "Unflappable" Under Criticism In Senate Hearing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama's choice

for attorney general, was largely unflappable in Senate

Judiciary Committee questioning yesterday about his

role in President Clinton's controversial last-minute

pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and his push for

clemency for 16 radical Puerto Rican nationalists,

reports National Public Radio. He made clear that if

confirmed, he would work quickly to remake the

embattled and demoralized Justice Department and

jettison practices of his Bush administration

predecessors. Holder said he would

classify "waterboarding" as torture and move to bar

the controversial interrogation practice. Holder also

objected to "rendition," the practice of handing over

detainees to countries where they could be subjected

to mistreatment or torture.

Holder defended his role in seeking clemency for 16

members of two violent Puerto Rican groups involved

in bombings and robberies. Pressed to explain why

he advocated clemency for prisoners who didn't

request it - including four radicals who robbed a

Wells Fargo branch of $7.2 million - Holder said the

decision was made in a "pre-9/11 world" and hinged

on his assessment that the prisoners had served

long enough. "These were people who had served an

extended period of time, who did not directly harm

anyone, who did not directly murder anyone," Holder

said. Faced with a similar situation today, he might

view it differently. "Hindsight is always 20/20," he said.

National Public Radio - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmLhceTvU0M4-afXmulFPnVok73K6qmW-jqUYR_q5I-5mB4sXp7Gpa8_dBWZccp671-QJc_91N05WDr8tT08KIHqesT_QOKICmq4ZzG_he1lRbhWObUR3QnIze3CHf7dDB--RlIEs5DqqX6JPZ2R1iTO6gNHYihjY9o=

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White House Says Inmate Re-Entry Participants Had Low Recidivism

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Participants in a Bush administration prisoner re-entry

program had a recidivism rate of only 15 percent, far

less than the average 44 percent one year after

release, says the White House Office of Faith-Based

and Community Initiatives. In a final report, the office

said that nearly 16,000 people had been helped as of

last September, at a cost of $115 million. That is a

small fraction of the roughly 700,000 prisoners

released every year in the nation. The report said that

grants went to 73 faith-based organizations and 63

criminal justice agencies.

Of the roughly 16,000 ex-convicts enrolled in various

programs, nearly 11,000 were placed in jobs; others

went to educational programs and skills training. The

report also discussed the separate federally funded

Serious and Violent Offenders Re-entry Initiative,

which got $110 million in federal funds. Participants in

that program were 15 percent more likely to have a job

and 12 percent less likely to test positive for drugs

than were non-participants, 15 months after their

prison release. Prisoner re-entry programs will be

started or expanded under the new federal Second

Chance Act, which has not been funded yet by

Congress.

White House - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmJ6rtwvja4vMVJKhVu37JpDt7_t81e16c9OV8ot88cGvS6ocJDFFEcJ9YSYNTEpLvb_WdFBdiDz6EICyPZkRhX5bnrfubegwMrWksHyaYB4HMG0FueB-k2lahLds2bV0ZKt6mamIDEhH_oMDLY99w1IF_wvAnkXYfrSdnAj4tfD4ww6uE3IMZ1I

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Stimulus Bill Could Be Boon To Police, Other Anticrime Programs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Criminal justice advocates are encouraged by the

news that House Democrats included $4 billion for

state and local law enforcement, including $3 billion

for Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, in their

version of the economic stimulus bill. The National

Criminal Justice Association, which represents state

and local agencies in Washington, said that additional

funds would help fight reported spikes in crime linked

to the economic downturn. A proposal to spend $1

billion for the COPS hiring grant program would allow

communities to hire 13,000 new police officers for

three years.

The Byrne grants have funded drug task force officers,

police investigators, prosecutors, crime and forensic

analysts, public defenders, and victims' services

counselors, among others. In 2007, Congress cut the

program's budget by 67 percent, from $520 million to

$170 million. Whether anticrime programs will get

anywhere near $4 billion is an open question, with

some Republican leaders saying that spending

proposals in the House Democrats' bill are excessive

and Senate Democrats yet to be heard from. It also is

not certain what line items the incoming Obama

administration will fight for.

National Criminal Justice Association - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmIq2IoimkEzjKs24-dZJOj4Xb6ADbmxSIlwCTwOTa_c1V2cWNkbDem43aeTOvtke9YvHmnC2JS9_DhPANheseSJ3hP2HePGQJ0=

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State Budget Crises May Lead To Corrections Policy Reforms

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With many state budgets in crisis, governors,

legislators and prison officials are making or

considering changes that could remove tens of

thousands of offenders from prisons and parole

supervision, the Associated Press reports. The

initiatives could add up to one of biggest shifts ever in

corrections policy, putting into place cost-saving

reforms that have not won political support in the

tough-on-crime climate of recent decades. Faced with

a projected $42 billion deficit and prison

overcrowding, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

wants to eliminate parole for offenders not convicted

of violent or sex-related crimes, reducing the parole

population by 70,000. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine wants

an early release of 1,000 inmates.

New York Gov. David Paterson wants early release for

1,600 inmates and an overhaul of the Rockefeller

Drug Laws that impose lengthy mandatory sentences

on many nonviolent drug offenders. Policy-makers in

Michigan, one of four states that spend more money

on prisons than higher education, are awaiting a

report from the Council of State Governments' Justice

Center on ways to trim fast-rising corrections costs,

likely including sentencing and parole modifications.

The Pew Center on the States' Public Safety

Performance Project has projected that state and

federal prison populations could grow by more than

190,000 by 2011, to about 1.7 million, at a cost to

states of $27.5 billion. "Prisons are becoming less

and less of a sacred cow," said Adam Gelb, the

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."

Associated Press/MSNBC - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmJI0t_bWCXm0CxRlq5G6aXq_HPuSswSFHECHSxeR2GeU9TUsjwOYfUboVJwZNd5a6D6H7epV-GXUyVwpzGTORK6cK2_dNEOKdGd0iIQDuuYPgc4tbgoaV6NXp2_BL_2yfI=

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Survey Finds Many Unhappy Workers At Homeland Security Agency

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Staff morale at the U.S. Department of Homeland

Secuirity, with 218,000 employees, is not high, says

an Office of Personnel Management report quoted by

the Center for Investigative Reporting. Homeland

Security outpaced a long list of others in generating

negative responses from its nearly 10,000 responding

employees. It had one of the highest numbers of

respondents who disagreed or strongly disagreed

with the statement, "My work gives me a feeling of

personal accomplishment." Ditto for the statement, "I

feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways

of doing things."

Questions on the outlook DHS employees had on

their supervisors also elicited a comparatively higher

number of negative responses, including those

asking whether senior leaders seemed to exhibit

honesty and integrity and whether personnel felt safe

blowing the whistle on corruption or law-breaking

without fear of reprisal. That's not surprising

considering many cases of corrupt department

employees being charged with crimes related to their

work. The department also faired poorly when

employees were asked simply "Considering

everything, how satisfied are you with your job?"

Center for Investigative Reporting - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmJ-MiV80tdrmEiJI8Sbhb4JZGKE30yTzVcZuACl8fxwZ5FszZ-SmlMIcafROma5p8AgLCrKPKzitI-Qa0T8r4CsNxvOKfA2tVtSGJixkhqQ9QEatkd-UENoVlQL7RDihmhmt5n2VGo3ibetqhwz8c1yazlgBao7czRAfSp8g1ck6sPKF9-bgi-SHbx_mCz0XELI_RyxbR1idg==

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Police Academy Offers Training For Split-Second Decisions

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Complex training scenarios are being offered to

potential police officers at the West Hartford, Ct.,

College Police Academy, reports the Hartford Courant.

It's an intense, 10-day introduction to the rigors and

demands of the job. "It's so hard to be thinking about

protecting your partner, safety, laws and what's going

on - all in a confined space, and all on the fly," said

one trainee. "But this is great. It's bonus training."

Seventy students from 15 colleges have gone through

the program since it began two years ago. The

students come away with a newfound appreciation for

the split-second decisions that police officers have to

make, and a sense of whether the job is for them. It is

the only program of its kind in New England, and

Officer Rob Riccobon, who coordinates the academy,

said he has not been able to find another one like it in

the country. The police department uses the program

as a recruiting tool and has hired two of the program's

graduates as officers. The students faced several

situations in which they were forced to sort out what

happened while trying to protect their partner and

control violent people, who in some cases had a gun

or other weapon. A shooting simulator put the trainees

into heart-pounding "shoot or no-shoot" scenarios.

Students learned fighting skills in demanding physical

training sessions and got a taste of numerous police

tasks, including crime scene processing, accident

investigation and stopping a suspicious car.

Hartford Courant - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmJRgOGYFeiD5CVYyGglJEBhmJDFuh8xjIN6qjvVUvTxnTGpamujbxup_kLAd50bgHvk2R_P-4GgAOnFiw6srKVNRCsTPhfRuOsiPORdXR11OXwfCh6lJRG5wnV5GBg_xgUbGEPWnGHxZ1zWPXgvJYjRShlbjrZxvV2fBN5RZ56b6xlpjrf83vogr-xsdSjEDZ0=

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MD Governor To Push Death Penalty Repeal Legislation

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Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will do "everything in my

power" to abolish the death penalty in Maryland this

year, reports the Baltimore Sun. He raised the

possibility of allowing voters to decide the divisive

issue through a constitutional amendment if

legislative repeal efforts fail again. The governor, a

Democrat, intends to sponsor a bill to repeal capital

punishment, which would put more of his political

capital behind the issue. A longtime death penalty

opponent, the governor has testified in favor of repeal

legislation, but he has never offered his own initiative.

Last month, a gubernatorial commission voted to

recommend abolishing capital punishment and

outlined what it saw as fatal flaws in the application of

the death penalty. Some lawmakers and death penalty

opponents said the administration's sponsorship

could be enough to move a bill out of the Senate

Judicial Proceedings Committee, where identical

efforts have failed the past two years.

Baltimore Sun - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmKXWQT8o161CqxoPk4N2gs-EVggQorMHgRHfQwpAiydf6xSTqwV3RAsN3AvgTLfTAr9RqXf6QU4MvMrgnsxj-av-P-GzX-5QYkGyHNsPyI0WaozA63thFO6IgxUsGOZJPKGEbVOEH9D8uOlFcrKB5gef5mPTDv19Q8YLW_nU1y-OGgGSyojjnOtv-t0_oz9r_Q=

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Phoenix Jail Accreditation Denial May Bolster Lawsuits

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Less than a week since a national health-care

accrediting group took the rare step of denying

Maricopa County's appeal to keep its jails accredited,

little has changed in the jails, says the Arizona

Republic. The decision by the National Commission

on Correctional Health Care so far has had little

impact on the day-to-day operations in the jails.

County administrators say the decision was politically

motivated and fundamental changes in jail health care

are unnecessary.

Taxpayers could begin to bear the burden of that

decision soon as attorneys for inmates bolster their

claims against the county with the commission's

determination that medical care in the jails falls short

of national standards. "The financial implications and

public-relations fallout are reasons enough for county

officials to be concerned about the accrediting

agencies," said Dan Corsentino, a former Colorado

sheriff who had accreditation in his jails denied in

1997. Maricopa County's jail system, the third-largest

in the nation and typically home to nearly 10,000

inmates, joins just a handful of others that have been

denied accreditation by this group. Federal law does

not require that county jails be accredited. When the

federal agency investigates the conditions of jails, it

focuses on constitutional violations. Arizona law

requires sheriffs annually to determine if jails meet

standards that are adopted by either a national

corrections commission on health care or an

American correctional association.

Arizona Republic - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmKEopdKrAXNmqDPiv1Y-IBlCHyuKnKuPVgaGZmsX9lkN7lDWG0IIWMMfI3HCT46NNoOYWtON9_qTuiz1llVhiXOe-Z6Mnbwi-671htfBk-rqn2aTgpodzLPoiGohFrYB6HYeBpvtBBW5rOCu6aGOGScdnqIY-jUWUWDlO1Cy8DUpqDIiZgCIvoMqy_QjfsqQEM=

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2/3 Of Mentally Ill Inmates Were Off Treatment At Arrest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two thirds of prisoners nationwide with a mental

illness were off treatment at the time of their arrest,

says a new study by Harvard researchers that

suggests under-treatment of mental illness

contributes to crime and incarceration, reports the

White Coat Notes blog on Boston.com. The study,

published online in the American Journal of Public

Health, found that about a quarter of inmates

nationwide had a history of chronic mental illnesses

like schizophrenia, bipolar illness ,and depression.

Researchers analyzed data collected in 2002 and

2004 from local, state, and federal correctional

facilities.

"For many of them, treatment of their mental illness

before their arrest might have prevented criminality

and the staggering human and financial costs of

incarceration," said study author Steffie Woolhandler,

an associate professor of medicine at Harvard.

Woolhandler said the findings portend significant

problems for Massachusetts, where the Department

of Mental Health last week laid off about 100 case

managers -- nearly one quarter of the staffers who

supervise people with severe mental illness and

make sure they get services they need.

Boston.com - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmLE49SHl-CgpXwAd_qerRQ4VNsqtrNMAgwdNypSHwuW_Pp6IeCUlKVr-b-T8tfDHLUE9HbwOLdjnVRH2XPZjV-Eo0NFkr92ihBoTnw0lt12WlN7D3JkKHgkFhPGLc7Maa4=

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Most St. Louis Readers Favor More Racial ID's Of Crime Suspects

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most readers who have answered a St. Louis Post-

Dispatch online survey favor the newspaper's using

more racial identifications of crime suspects. That

approach was backed by 103 of 138 respondents as

of today. The survey was prompted by calls and

comments on online stories asking why the race of a

suspect wasn't specified, particularly when police are

seeking someone.

The newspaper quoted Keith Woods of the Poynter

Institute, a center for training journalists, as arguing

against racial identifications in most cases. The

current Post-Dispatch policy is to identify an individual

by race only if "the information is clearly relevant. In

crime stories in which authorities seek a fugitive, a

racial designation is included only as part of a very

detailed description that provides enough information

to aid in the capture of a suspect." Reader comments

on the issue can be viewed on the newspaper's site.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001DYMBrxtLrmJfYy6iMuoIFI88zISrQvC0fh94NriZY6suGtclKK7dMV_lLP2tfcoXjN1oIfJ46s7Uhww1__doylh0Oz_swgW5cqqojj1c0VERH_E6DoaQPxQuoIr7JwLGiaCJH7Kc0tzMppYTCvvfIVQOBm0ysrr9g_2lTbEM9AtMq6TXc9gAV0LoQEDFtESg8KCUhb17GxfJNpzhKEwLwg5gUEl7jpQM9nrc-g_yG_0-9eVqZVnFf7CQ1jEdlChr9tglUGPQuq4T1w69Omf2SrGkM6AeN4Bk

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).