Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005
Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright: 2005 The Commercial Appeal
Contact:  http://www.commercialappeal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95
Author: Michael Kelley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

US TN: COLUMN: THE KEY TO CUTTING CRIME INVOLVES LOCKING SOME UP, BUT 
KEEPING OTHERS OUT

Violent crime in the United States dropped for the third year in a 
row last year, property crime for the second.

Crime is down in metropolitan counties and rural counties. It's down 
in the South, in the West, in the Midwest, in the Northeast. Either 
property crimes or violent crimes or both decreased last year in 
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Little Rock, Jackson, 
Miss., Atlanta, Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans.

Experts disagree on why. No doubt demographic issues play a role. In 
"Freakonomics," a provocative best-seller, University of Chicago 
economist Steven D. Levitt argues that legalized abortion began 
reducing the demographic cohort responsible for most crime in the 1990s.

Conservatives maintain that we're experiencing less crime because 
get-tough, three-strikes-and-you're-out, gun-time-is-jail-time, 
mandatory sentencing strategies are putting so many of us in prison 
for longer stretches.

But it's not just putting a lot of people behind bars. Crime rates 
drop when you put the right people behind bars, says Richard 
Janikowski, chairman of the Criminology and Criminal Justice 
Department at the University of Memphis. That's why law enforcement 
agencies are collaborating like never before in Shelby County on 
metro gang units, metro DUI units, joint task forces for this, joint 
task forces for that.

"It's making sure serious criminals are incarcerated," Janikowski 
said. "It's innovative prosecution efforts like Project Safe 
Neighborhoods, the anti-gun violence initiative. There what you're 
targeting are repeat offenders on firearms. When you've got felons in 
possession of firearms, those are good predictors of someone who 
poses a real danger. Previously they got probation. It's not much of 
a deterrent. You're seeing the effects already in decreases in 
homicide and robberies. It's smart law enforcement and smart prosecution."

It's also, frankly, smart public relations -- making sure that 
criminals know that their buddies are getting caught and facing swift 
and sure punishment. What other reason could there have been to round 
up more than 30 suspects in unrelated drug cases on the same day last 
month in a highly publicized roundup? Obviously police were using the 
news media to send a message.

The law enforcement and sentencing strategies are expensive. Offender 
populations are swelling all over the country, in prisons and jails 
as well as in probation, parole and Community Corrections programs. 
The number of state prisoners in Tennessee, who cost about $50 a day 
to house, feed and provide medical care for, has grown by an average 
of almost 800 a year for the past five years, while the number of 
parolees, probationers and Community Corrections offenders, who cost 
taxpayers $2.50 to $4 a day to supervise, is increasing by almost 2,000 a year.

It's not just Tennessee. The United States has the highest 
incarceration level in the world, and it's increasing rapidly. And 
we're tough on people after they're released. Some jurisdictions 
forbid ex-cons from voting, from receiving public assistance, living 
in public housing and receiving financial aid for college. Technology 
has made it easier for employers to exclude people with records.

The problem with that approach is that it makes an already tough job 
- -- bridging the gap between prison and society -- even tougher. 
Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell calls rehabilitation one of the 
biggest weaknesses in the criminal justice system.

But even the weakest link of the system is being fortified. Lawmakers 
concerned about recidivism rates among parolees, which top 25 percent 
some years, have granted significant budget increases the past two 
years to the Tennessee Board of Probation & Parole.

The new money will put 50 new probation and parole officers and five 
new supervisors to work this year, decreasing caseloads from an 
average of about 85 to about 75. The board also is expanding the 
Community Corrections program, a sentencing alternative that keeps 
offenders from furthering their education in crime at Bighouse U.

Helping convicts make the transition to the straight life has always 
been one of the most difficult missions in corrections. But it's 
obviously one of the keys to perpetuating the crime rate decrease. 
Most prison inmates eventually make it out of prison alive, even with 
the extra-long sentences that are being handed out nowadays.

A recent appellate court ruling put Tennessee's parole board on 
notice that it had to quit dragging its heels on inmates who have 
been awaiting hearings for up to 20 years in some cases.

Combine that with the knowledge that the population we're talking 
about sprang from a lot of dysfunctional families, dysfunctional 
school systems and unhealthy environments and one thing becomes 
clear: Factors that will continue to ease our fear of crime lie 
beyond what's customarily considered the criminal justice system.

That's why you might see sheriff's deputies and police officers in 
places you don't ordinarily see them -- working with elementary 
school principals in Northaven, for example, and addressing such 
issues as boredom among children in after-school programs.

In General Sessions Court a few weeks ago I watched as a middle-aged, 
red-haired woman in an orange jumpsuit began a series of appearances 
she would have to make on charges related to a burglary at my home.

It happened on a mild Sunday morning in February while I was doing 
yard work and my wife and daughter were inside the house. A sneak 
thief had lifted a driver's license and a bank card from the 
breakfast table and headed for the nearest supermarket. Charges 
immediately began showing up on the account. We wrote the experience 
off as part of what my wife calls the extra tax we pay to live in Memphis.

We'd been hit before: jewelry, stereos, lawn care equipment, bicycles 
and stuff I can't even remember now. But this case was different. It 
was solved a few weeks later when a woman with a rap sheet that read 
like an Elmore Leonard novel was caught in a stolen car with the 
missing driver's license on her.

Now here she was in court, looking comfortable in her jail attire, 
speaking animatedly to a public defender and respectfully to the 
judge. She'd done time before, and seemed like someone who'd spent a 
lot of hours in this environment. She's in a revolving door, I 
thought, and doesn't even seem to care whether she gets out of it or not.

How can we ever feel safe or confident about our property, our 
privacy, even our safety in a community with thousands of people like 
her -- people who can't seem to imagine what their lives might be 
like if they made different choices?

The lock-em-up approach is without a doubt having some effect on 
crime, but to keep the crime rate dropping we need to make 
fundamental changes in the society.

We can get into a heavy discussion about what that means.

Is it covenant marriages? Is it vouchers that allow more kids into 
religiously oriented schools?

Is it shaping a stronger economic climate that eases fears among 
parents about where they're going to get the money to buy food and 
pay the utility bill? Is it a universal health care system that 
leaves nobody behind?

Is it better drug rehabilitation programs?

Is it even possible to get to the point where it would seem out of 
the question for someone to walk into your house while you're 
otherwise occupied and help herself to whatever's handy?

The crime statistics might be encouraging, but we're keeping the 
doors locked for now. The time to relax, even around the house on a 
lazy Sunday morning, has not yet arrived.
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MAP posted-by: Beth