Friday, December 31, 2010

Some Amber Alert Success Stories 2010

AMBER Alert Success Stories
Recent Success Stories
October 7, 2010
Spokane, Washington
A custody hearing involving 3 boys ages 10, 8 and 6 resulted in custody being awarded to the children’s mother. After the hearing, the mother allowed the father to take the boys in his car to a local McDonald’s less than 2 miles away. Upon their return, the father drove past their meeting place and waved to her. At that point the mother knew he did not plan to return the children. She immediately filed a Custodial Interference report, and the commissioner who had been involved in the custody hearing earlier in the day, articulated his reasons to believe the children were in danger, and an AMBER Alert was issued. The father saw the AMBER Alert on the news and turned himself in to law enforcement. The children were safely rescued.
October 5, 2010
Manchester, CT
On October 5, 2010 Manchester Police were summoned to investigate a family dispute and an abduction of 2 children in progress. In the course of their investigation, they determined they needed to activate the AMBER Alert system and requested the activation via the Connecticut State Police Communication Center. After hearing theAMBER Alert activation, an off-duty Connecticut State Trooper observed the suspect vehicle being driven by the suspect with the abducted children inside the vehicle in Andover, Connecticut. The State Trooper, along with a Manchester Police Sergeant who was also in the area arrested the suspect and rescued the children without incident after the suspect stopped her vehicle.
October 4, 2010
Fresno, CA
An 8-year-old girl was playing in the front yard of her residence with several other children, when she was approached by an unknown male. The suspect attempted to lure the children toward his vehicle. Most of the children did not respond positively to the enticement but the girl moved toward the suspect. When the other children began to scream for the victim to get away from the suspect, the suspect grabbed the girl and forced her into his vehicle, as the mother of the victim exited the house in an attempt to rescue the victim, and the suspect fled the scene with the girl. A statewideAMBER Alert was issued. An individual saw a news report that detailed the incident and showed surveillance video of the suspect vehicle. He later observed a vehicle that matched the description of the suspect vehicle. The concerned citizen utilized his own vehicle to intercept and stop the suspect vehicle, then continued to confront the suspect which allowed sufficient time for the victim to escape. As the suspect fled the scene in his vehicle, the concerned citizen contacted authorities, and stayed with the victim until police could arrive and safely rescue the child.
September 24, 2010
Dardenelle, AR
A 17-year-old girl was abducted from the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, as witnessed by several customers. Her cell phone was later located in a ditch in the Perry area of Perry County, AR. A Morgan Nick/AMBER Alert was issued. It was later learned that someone had broken a window to the girl’s bedroom at her residence and several items were taken. Later that evening, the girl called her mother from a gas station in New Boston, TX. She told investigators that her abductor observed the AMBER Alerton an electronic road sign near Texarkana and decided to let her go. The New Boston Police Department was notified and they went to the gas station where the child was safely rescued.
July 22, 2010
Raleigh, NC
Two boys ages 2 and 3 were abducted  from their mother’s home by their non-custodial father and his friend. The father had a protection order taken out on him a few days prior to the abduction after he was arrested and charged with domestic violence and child abuse.  An AMBER Alert was quickly issued. The abductor’s family members saw the AMBER Alert and notified the children’s father. The abductor began to cooperate with law enforcement and the children were safely rescued.
July 18, 2010
North Canton, OH
A 2-year-old boy was abducted by his biological father, who had assaulted the child’s mother and had pending domestic violence charges against him. He also told the mother that she would never see her son (victim) again and that he would be dead.  An AMBER Alert was issued. The suspect became aware of the AMBER Alert and took the child back to the custodial residence.  He was later apprehended and charged with domestic violence, interference with custody and obstructing official business. 
July 17, 2010
Ukiah, CA
The California Highway Patrol (CHP), Ukiah Area requested an AMBER Alert for a 1-year-old boy and a 6-month-old boy. The siblings were left inside a vehicle parked outside a strip mall in Ukiah and abducted by a stranger who stole the vehicle.  A regional AMBER Alert was issued.  Approximately 1 hour later, an individual who was aware of the AMBER Alert observed the vehicle and notified local law enforcement.  Ukiah CHP responded to the scene and safely rescued both children. 
July 14, 2010
Hartsville, SC
A 5-year-old girl was reported missing by her grandmother, who had custodial rights. The child had been abducted her biological mother, who had lost her custodial rights due to her history of drug use. It was believed that the mother’s boyfriend, who had a warrant for drug charges, was involved in the abduction as well. An AMBER Alert was quickly issued. The subjects became aware of the AMBER Alert and got scared.  The mother’s boyfriend asked a relative to turn the child over to authorities at Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the child was safely rescued.
June 8, 2010
Farmington, UT
The Davis County Sheriff’s Office issued an AMBER Alert for a 6-year-old boy after he went missing with a woman with an extensive criminal history.  The victim’s mother, was arrested for outstanding warrants and had asked some friends to take her son to his grandmother’s house.  Deputies feared the child was in danger after learning the victim’s mother did not give consent to the woman to take her child and the boy never arrived at the grandmother’s house.  The woman heard the AMBER Alert and made arrangements to drop the child off safely in South Salt Lake City.
May 12, 2010
New Lebanon, OH
An AMBER Alert was issued a 4-month-old girl who was taken by her non-custodial father in violation of a protection order issued by the Court. The suspect became aware of the AMBER Alert, contacted law enforcement, and threatened to leave the state with the infant.  The suspect eventually agreed to meet a friend of the infant’s mother.  Then an unknown woman drove him and the infant back to New Lebanon where he turned over the infant and was taken into custody.  The suspect is being charged with violating a protection order and disruption of public service.  The child was safely rescued.
April 30, 2010
Bronx, NY
Two siblings ages 12 and 4 were reported missing from their beds at 4:30 am by their mother. Law enforcement determined that the older girl had run away in the past, but had never taken her sister.  Since the older sister was diagnosed with a mental capacity of a 6-year-old and had no means to care for herself or her sister on the streets of New York City, an AMBER Alert was issued.  A couple of hours later, as the children walked into a school, a security guard who was aware of the AMBER Alertrecognized the girls and secured them until police arrived. The children were recovered unharmed.
April 29, 2010
Hattiesburg, MS
A mother and her 2-year-old son were abducted from home by the boy’s biological father. The mother was tied and transferred to a motel where she was raped and beaten. She was kept there for 2 days and placed in trunk of car and carried back home. When the mother woke up she reported the incident to law enforcement. Because of the violent nature of the abduction and the abductor’s apparent mental instability an AMBER Alert was issued. Within hours the abductor became aware of the AMBER Alert and turned himself in to the FBI.  The child was rescued unharmed and the abductor was charged with kidnapping, assault and rape.
April 12, 2010
Safford, AZ
An 18-month-old girl was taken by her non-custodial biological father, who is a registered Level 1 sex offender.  An AMBER Alert was quickly issued since the child was presumed to be in danger.  The suspect’s mother heard the AMBER Alert and contacted the suspect, who in turn contacted law enforcement.  He turned himself in and the girl was safely rescued. 
March 26, 2010
Zanesville, OH
An AMBER Alert was issued for a 14-month-old boy who was abducted by his biological father and mother, who are known drug users. Law enforcement considered the child to be in danger because he mother is unstable and considered a risk for her child as well as herself. A child custody order had been given placing the child in the care of the Muskingum County Children Services.  The father stated he would rather go to jail than turn in the child.  The suspects heard the AMBER Alert and called 911 in Fairfield, Ohio, to surrender to authorities.  They have been charged with interference with custody and the child was safely rescued.
February 17, 2010
Vallejo, CA
An AMBER Alert was activated for the Vallejo Police Department in the Bay Area and Sacramento region for a 12-year-old girl that was abducted by her non-custodial mother.  Authorities believed the child to be in danger so an AMBER Alert was issued. An officer in another jurisdiction heard the AMBER Alert , and based on that notification the officer investigated if the suspect had any relatives in the jurisdiction or acquaintances, and identified a possible location. Upon arrival at the location, the officer saw the vehicle associated with the AMBER Alert and arrested the suspect. The child was safely rescued.
February 12, 2010
Elkton, MD
The mother of a 4-year-old girl and her ex-boyfriend were involved in an argument when he jumped into her car and drove away, with the child still in the rear seat. The abductor was reportedly intoxicated.  Investigators from the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office made phone contact with the abductor and tried to convince him to release the child. The officer said the suspect stated that the child was his girl and was not letting her go. Fearing for the child’s safety an AMBER Alert was issued. This prompted the abductor to call his ex-girlfriend advising he was in Delaware and was going to bring the child to the Sheriff's Office due to the media attention from the AMBER Alert.  Investigators went out on the road to look for the vehicle which was spotted on Route 40 about a half mile into Delaware, pulling into a Wawa store. The suspect exited the vehicle and entered the store. Investigators approached the suspect and took him into custody without incident. The child was found sleeping in the vehicle and safely 

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Attempt kidnapping of 15-year old girl in Palmdale

Attempt kidnapping of 15-year old girl in Palmdale. Suspect arrested by off-duty LASD deputy


A 50-year man with a makeshift bed in his car was charged with attempted kidnapping and attempted child molesting Tuesday.

Suspect Tracy Jones, an African-American man from Apple Valley, was arrested Christmas Eve afternoon in Palmdale after he was seen by an off-duty sheriff's deputy and the deputy's wife driving on the 39000 block of Summerwind Drive.  He was seen driving slowly beside a teenage girl who was walking on the sidewalk.

The teenager appeared to be frightened, so the deputy continued to follow and observe the situation.  The deputy then drove ahead of the suspect’s vehicle and pulled over in a position which would require the girl to walk past his own vehicle.  As she did so, he identified himself, displaying his sheriff's department badge and credentials, and asked if there was a problem.

The 15-year old girl said the suspect first tried to talk her into getting into his car, and then began to yell at her in an intimidating manner and order her to get into the car.  When she continued to refuse, he offered to pay her money for specified lewd acts.

The suspect drove from the location and was followed by the deputy.  The suspect pulled over several blocks later and began to approach the deputy.  The deputy showed him his sheriff's deputy badge and identification and attempted to detain him.  The suspect walked back to his vehicle and retrieved a small baggie of marijuana which he threw away a distance from the car.  He then followed the deputy’s orders and waited for uniformed Palmdale Sheriff's Station deputies to arrive.

After interviewing the off-duty deputy, victim and suspect, Palmdale deputies arrested the suspect for attempted kidnapping and booked him at the Palmdale Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

A makeshift bed was found in the suspect’s vehicle and the suspect was in possession of several Viagra pills.

He is being held in lieu of $120,000 bail. The suspect's next court date is January 10, 2011.


Partner to prevent or report crime by contacting your local Sheriff’s station. Or if you wish to remain Anonymous, call “LA Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org


To receive more detailed, up-to-date information directly from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) via e-mail, register for "Nixle" alerts at www.Nixle.com or more directly at https://local.nixle.com/register/ and register for "LASD – Headquarters Newsroom (SHB), Los Angeles County Sheriff" and your local LASD station area. Or, text your zip code to 888777 to receive text alerts only. Standard text messaging rates may apply depending on your calling plan.



Lieutenant K.F.Wright
Palmdale Sheriff's Station
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
(661) 272-2400



Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
(323) 267-4800
www.lasd.org

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

HOW PARENTS CAN KEEP CHILDREN SAFE WHILE SHOPPING AND TRAVELING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

HOW PARENTS CAN KEEP CHILDREN SAFE WHILE SHOPPING
AND TRAVELING
 THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
“The Mentalist” Actor Tim Kang Tells Parents 
What To Do and What Not To Do  
ALEXANDRIA, VA – November 16, 2010 – Parents need to be careful not to let their guard down or become distracted while traveling or attending public functions during the 2010 holiday season.  Tim Kang, actor from the hit CBS show The Mentalist has partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help educate parents about what they should be telling their children to keep them safe while shopping and traveling this holiday season. 
Parents need to talk with children about safety before heading out to a busy shopping mall or boarding a plane, train, or bus this holiday season. Crowds are greater this time of year and children may easily become separated from their parents, causing confusion and fear. If that should happen, parents need a plan and children should know what to do. 
 “Unfortunately many adults and children don’t know what to do if they lose each other in a public place or are faced with other unsafe situations,” said actor Tim Kang.    “That’s why the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is offering advice on how to remain safe and avoid panic and potential dangers.”
ALWAYS:
  • Keep children with you at all times while shopping.
  • Accompany and supervise children in public facilities, including restrooms.
  • Have a plan in case you become separated, including a pre-designated spot to meet.
  • Teach children to look for people who can help, such as a uniformed security officer, salesperson or mother with children.
  • Remind children to remain in the area where they become separated.
NEVER:
  • Dress children in clothing that displays their first or last names, prompting unwelcome attention from people looking for an opportunity to start a conversation with your child.
  • Leave children in toy stores or public facilities expecting supervision from store personnel.
  • Go shopping or attend a public event with a child if you feel you’re going to be distracted. Make other arrangements for child care ahead of time.
     
  • Allow younger children to shop on their own to purchase surprise gifts for friends or family members.
  • Drop off older children at a mall or public place without agreeing on a clear plan for picking them up, including: where, what time, and what to do in case of a change in plans.
If your child is flying or riding a train or bus alone this holiday season, NCMEC urges parents to remember the following travel safety tips:
  • When you make reservations for your child, specify that the child will be traveling alone.
  • Whenever possible, book a non-stop flight or direct route.  Avoid booking the last flight of the day.
  • Plan to visit the airport, train or bus terminal prior to departure. Let your child know what to expect, so the experience will not be so intimidating.
  • In case of delay or cancellation, remain at the station or gate until the train, plane or bus departs.
  • Make sure children travel with proper identification and parents or guardian contact information.
  • Always have a back-up plan for the person or people meeting the plane at the destination, in case they are delayed.
  • Encourage children not to become too friendly with other passengers or to reveal any personal information. 
Additional safety tips can be found at www.missingkids.com
About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.  Since it was established by Congress in 1984, the organization has operated the toll-free 24-hour national missing children’s hotline which has handled more than 2,475,300 calls.  It has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 151,300 children.  The organization’s CyberTipline has handled more than 964,750 reports of child sexual exploitation and its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 40,048,550 pornography images and videos.  The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  To learn more about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.
About Tim Kang 
Tim Kang is a sought after and versatile actor in both television and film.  He can currently be seen on the hit CBS drama The Mentalist where his character “Kimball Cho,” the straight-arrow investigator, has emerged as a fan favorite on the show. The Mentalist won a 2009 People’s Choice Award for “Favorite New TV Drama,” and was nominated for a 2009 Television Critics Association Award for “Outstanding New Program of the Year.”   Other television credits include guest-starring roles in popular TV shows, such as The Ghost WhispererThe OfficeThe SopranosMonkChappelle's ShowLaw & Order: Criminal Intent and  Law & Order: Trial By Jury, and reoccurring roles in NBC’s Third Watch and CBS’s The Unit.   Tim was also seen in the films Rambo, The Forgotten, Two Weeks Notice.and most recently the lead in the indep
These guys removed their GPS or didn't report.  Please be aware out there.  Provided by www.StopSexPredators.org.

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Former women prisoners face longer odds staying out after aid programs slashed


Former women prisoners face longer odds staying out after aid programs slashed

SF Public Press
 — Dec 24 2010 - 5:36pm
By the time Sunshine Schmidt was 19, her rebellious streak led her to prison in Wisconsin for violating probation on a forgery charge. But it was just the beginning of her troubled young adulthood. As she tells it, the uncaring reaction from a criminal justice system on autopilot put her back in prison for minor violations, only driving her further into the life of small-time crime as she racked up drug and theft-related charges.
“Every time, I was released back into homelessness or an abusive partner,” she said. “I didn’t have the resources or tools to get back on my feet.”
It was only three years ago, after leaving a California prison at age 27, that Schmidt was able to pursue legitimate jobs and an education. After living in transitional housing, she became a client of Way-Pass, a City College of San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that helps female ex-prison inmates adjust to everyday life.
But young women in Schmidt’s situation now may have a harder time getting on their feet. Leaders of re-entry programs in San Francisco say state budget cuts in 2010 drastically reduced their ability to help parolees.
Collectively, California’s prison rehabilitation programs took a nearly 45 percent cut — $250 million — in fiscal year 2009-10 as legislators and the governor grappled with the state’s budget crisis.
The 2010-11 budget, passed in October after a 100-day delay, cuts $1.1 billion from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. State officials said they expected most of this to come from staff cuts, reductions in medical care and early release of prisoners. The previous year’s cuts are not expected to be reversed anytime soon.
Way-Pass lost two of its four paid positions and no longer has funds to provide scholarships, schoolbooks or cash stipends to clients.
Karen Shain, policy adviser at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, said life in California’s female prisons is worse than ever. The reduction in education and drug treatment programs has led to violence and unrest. 
The female prison population soared eightfold nationwide between 1977 and 2007, double the rate of increase for men. Mounting evidence points to economic factors, addiction and abuse as the primary causes of criminal behavior among women. Women respond much better to rehabilitation and drug treatment programs than men do, according to a corrections department study.
Schmidt said programs such as the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and City College’s Second Chance Program, both operated by and for the formerly incarcerated, are particularly effective. “We empower each other to lift each other up,” Schmidt said.
Women in prison struggle with issues distinct from those affecting men, including reuniting with parents and children, sexual abuse and trauma, gender-specific health needs and the social stigma of a felony record, said Edith Guillén-Núñez, an adviser to the Way-Pass program. But because 90 percent of released prisoners are male, many rehabilitation programs target men only.

FRAYING NETWORK OF SERVICES

San Francisco’s Walden House — Schmidt’s first stop after prison — saw a huge reduction this year in the number of female ex-inmates it was able to serve.
 
“That cut happened essentially overnight,” said Vitka Eisen, the nonprofit group’s chief executive officer. They were given little more than a month to prepare for a major decrease of staff and services at the beginning of 2010.
Walden House offers rehabilitation for substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual trauma, mental health services and family reunification at locations scattered around San Francisco. The organization also offers treatment inside prisons throughout California.
Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla and the adjacent Central California Women’s Facility together house most of the state’s 10,000 female prisoners and are often mentioned as the world’s most populous women’s prison complex.
Walden House this year had to reduce the number of women it serves in these prisons by more than 75 percent. “There were 750 women that we saw in the Central Valley,” Eisen said. “Now we have 175.”
The last year and a half also saw the San Francisco treatment centers downsize to 427 employees from 689 last year. Of those, 125 were laid off one day in January.

FAILED REFORM EFFORTS

A state law that had made the transition out of prison easier for offenders with drug problems was undermined by another bill three years later.
Senate Bill 1453, introduced by then-state Sen. Jackie Speier in 2006, allowed prisoners to reduce their sentence by one day for every two days spent in drug treatment in prison, provided that they also completed 150 days of an “aftercare” program upon release.
When Schmidt got out of prison, this law mandated her release to Walden House, where she completed a four-month residential treatment program.
Parolees were guaranteed a spot in a treatment program and a place to stay, rather than being given a phone number, a bus ticket and a “good luck getting in.”
“That was huge,” Schmidt said. “They would actually transport you to the program.”
She added, “Senate Bill 1453 saved my life.”
 
But this year, on top of the budget cuts, another reform added to the complications for programs offering rehabilitation to women. State Sen. Denise Ducheny’s SB 18 implemented a non-revocable parole policy in January. Those who qualify are, in effect, on parole in name only. They have no parole officers and no drug tests, and can’t violate their terms of parole. Any new offenses are treated as crimes, not parole violations.
California enacted SB 18 to comply with a federal mandate to reduce the state’s prison population to 137 percent of design capacity by 2012. Prisons have nearly double the number of inmates they were built to contain. This order is being contested before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Eisen said the reform is a step forward because it spares people from returning to prison repeatedly for minor offenses. At 70 percent, California has the highest recidivism rate in the country.
But those who have not committed sexual, violent or serious felonies, and who would be aided by the support services and early release that SB 1453 provides also qualify for non-revocable parole. This “unsupervised community release” blocks access to services provided by the parole system, such as housing, education funding and job opportunities.    

CUTTING TIES TO CRIME

Schmidt’s story testifies to a system designed for punishment, not necessarily rehabilitation.
When Schmidt turned 12, she took her birthday money and ran away from home in a Wisconsin suburb. She wasn’t having any real trouble at home, but her best friend had an abusive step-father, so they took an early jump at independence.
Schmidt didn’t think it amounted to much at the time. She was just rebelling. Her mother felt differently. After she was picked up by the police and returned home, she was placed in a mental institution.
“I’ve been going through the incarceration system my whole life,” Schmidt said. “I was institutionalized in one form or another from a young age.”
At age 24, having been in and out of prison in Wisconsin, she moved to San Francisco, looking for a fresh start. Her only job experience as an adult was doing make-up in a Wisconsin beauty shop. She applied for jobs at local department stores with no success.
Unable to find work, she sold drugs again to pay her rent. One offense led to another, she got evicted, went to jail a few times, then found herself homeless and pregnant on the streets of San Francisco. In 2007, she lost custody of her 2-year-old daughter the day before her release from Valley State Prison for Women.
Schmidt knows from experience and from talking to people on both sides of the walls that once you’re in the system, it can be very difficult to get out.
Upon release, Central Valley prisons’ female inmates without family to pick them up receive $200, a pair of flip-flops and a muumuu. The downtown Fresno bus station is said to be crawling with pimps and drug dealers on the lookout for those cheap, flowered dresses.
“They’re going to do what’s comfortable and what they know,” Schmidt said. “A lot of people end up right back in the system.”
For her, the turning point was access to treatment programs, and a place to stay once she was free.
Way-Pass offered her case management, peer counseling and referral services for clothing, food vouchers, health care and housing. Schmidt is now a case manager there.
She is getting A’s in school as she counsels other formerly incarcerated women and works toward a bachelor’s degree in legal studies or public policy. She wants to work to change legislation regarding incarceration.
When she has time to talk between five classes and her jobs at the college and an environmental non-profit, she speaks somberly about her experiences and the challenges facing incarcerated women. Though talking about these things is part of her job and her studies, it never gets easy, she said.

Friday, December 24, 2010

State budget held hostage by prison costs


Viewpoints: ostsState budget held hostage by prison c

Special to The Bee                                                  


The budget passed by the Legislature last month revealed the toxic relationship between California's financial crisis and California's prison crisis.

In a move that truly turns logic on its head, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $820 million for prison health care from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, crippling a system that has been placed under federal receivership because of gross patient neglect. Cutting nearly half the budget is an unlikely guarantee of basic, humane service provision, and harms those already suffering in already deplorable conditions.

With regard to sentencing and prison overcrowding, the Legislature is seemingly unable to make decisions that make fiscal or moral sense. The budget eliminates state funding – $18 million – for the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2000, which provides drug treatment for people convicted of nonviolent, low-level drug crimes, despite the fact that drug treatment has been proved to be more effective and cheaper than incarceration.

Even a modest realignment proposal by the Senate to give counties block grants to keep people convicted of "wobblers" – offenses that may be charged as either misdemeanors or felonies – at the local level and require counties to pay for sending them to state prison failed to attract any Republican support necessary for passage.

The cuts to prison services and programs are mirrored by nearly $1 billion in devastating cuts made throughout education, health and social services outside of prisons.

The state has deferred critical, long-overdue payments to schools and community colleges. The governor's line-item vetoes chopped 700 social work jobs and leave 20,000 children without mental health services. The cuts are a crippling hardship for Californians in a time when residents already face high unemployment and difficult economic times.

These attacks on the fundamental quality of life of all Californians fly in the face of basic prison spending reductions that would result in more savings and would actually benefit the people of California. Independent agencies such as the Legislative Analyst's Office and community groups across that state have found over and over that changes such as eliminating the governor's discretion to veto parole recommendations, abolishing or amending the three-strikes law and discharging people over 60 to parole would save the taxpayers millions and take important steps to reduce our prison population.

While prison and jail construction is a deep drain on our state's budget, our bloated prison system is nationally notorious. Over the past 30 years, we have watched our prison population skyrocket to 170,000, while conditions inside and outside have plummeted just as quickly. Inside, people face severe overcrowding and neglect of medical and mental health services.

These conditions have led to at least one death a week inside. Outside, fractured families and communities struggle to stay in contact with their loved ones and struggle with progressively harsher sentencing laws. As a result of this crisis, a federal court has ordered California to reduce the prison population by 43,000 over the next two years.

What California doesn't include in its budget projections for 2011 are the operating costs and debt accumulation/repayment for new construction that it has proposed to address these issues of overcrowding. If the state wants to create 40,000 new prison cells, and is allegedly going to provide better medical and mental health care and more programming, operating costs will be at least $800 million a year. Add in debt service and we are looking at almost $2 billion more in spending a year that is not being accounted for in the 2011 budget.

Instead of choosing cuts that would save taxpayers millions, comply with intent of the federal court order and provide positive change for Californians, the Legislature is cutting services in a program that is already a human rights disaster while debilitating basic living, working and educational conditions for residents, both inside and outside prisons.

Cutting mental health services or drug treatment programs while prioritizing prison and jail construction will not solve California's prison crisis, just as cutting education, social and health services will not solve California's financial crisis. It is clear: more prisons and more arrests do not make California a safer place. Californians have pointed out time and time again that access to decent education, health care, jobs and job training are things that have always made their communities safe, sustainable and thriving places to live.

Generations of people, from our youth to our elders, are being denied basic education and social services that will have long-lasting impacts on their health, education and our state. We will never give Californians the conditions to thrive until we stop consuming the state budget with the expansion of prisons.

Friday, March 12, 2010


EXCLUSIVE: Policing the crime labs

No government bodies regulate forensic labs



By TERI FIGUEROA - tfigueroa@nctimes.com

Forensics, the use of science to answer questions of law, play a vital role in the courtroom. Using tools such as blood tests, DNA and ballistic evidence, science establishes fact in legal cases.

Though the work is reliable in the vast majority of cases, forensic laboratories and their results are not flawless, critics say. Take the series of questionable drug and alcohol tests that cropped up in North County criminal cases in recent months.

Hundreds of toxicology tests done by a private lab, Pacific Toxicologies, had to be reviewed after mistakes were found. Eleven people were released from jail; at least seven of them saw their criminal cases dismissed.

The incident raises the question: Who polices the labs the police use? No governmental body, no state or federal agency oversees the forensic labs that run tests on DNA, fingerprints, ballistics, even on the blood of drunken driving suspects.

Some labs voluntarily seek accreditation from private professional organizations.

But nobody who checks the labs has the power to shut one down.

"It is very hard to challenge ... if there was a problem with the lab. If they screw up, you are out of luck," said Justin Brooks, the director of the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego.

Flawed tests found

The problems with faulty tests in local cases came to light after puzzled San Diego County sheriff's deputies started questioning test results, according to the county district attorney's office.

It generally came up, prosecutor Damon Mosler said, in instances where a deputy felt strongly that a suspect had been under the influence of drugs, but the test came back clean.

Mosler said that prompted officials to review cases and ask questions.

Then a teenage defendant tested positive for morphine; the boy's attorneys asked for a retest. The second test showed no morphine in the boy's system.

That false positive sent the review of work done by Pacific Toxicologies into overdrive, Mosler said. Within a week, prosecutors notified defense attorneys about the problem. Officials said faulty training of two new laboratory technicians at Pacific Toxicologies was to blame.

The mistakes led the Sheriff's Department to end its use of Pacific Toxicologies, based in Chatsworth. Sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said the department now uses Bio-Tox, a Riverside lab recently in the news for problems of its own.

Last year, hundreds of tests done by Bio-Tox had to be retested after former lab tech Aaron Layton reportedly admitted to falsifying lab results while working in another state. Bio-Tox officials, who responded immediately when alerted to the problem, said the review turned up no mistakes in Layton's work for them.

Oversight lacking

Last year, the National Academy of Sciences issued a congressionally funded report on the state of forensic labs. Among the findings: "... oversight and enforcement of operating standards, certification, accreditation, and ethics are lacking in most local and state jurisdictions."

When questions about a particular lab or analyst's work come up, no agency is in charge of looking into complaints, said defense attorney Gary Gibson, a senior official with the San Diego County public defender's office.

"If we are seeing a repeated problem, we take it to the DA (district attorney's office)," Gibson said. "We bring our problems on an informal basis, and overwhelmingly the problem is resolved by the DA."

Another problem noted in the National Academy of Sciences report is that crime labs are often part of the law enforcement agencies, as opposed to independent agencies. The implication is that the possibility exists for bias, no matter how unintentional, toward the prosecution.

Brooks, of the Innocence Project, called it "one of the most frustrating things about being a defense attorney."

"The structure is wrong," he said. "You put a crime lab with one side of the investigation."

The Sheriff's Department runs its own crime lab, though it sends some evidence ---- about 7,500 blood and urine tests a year ---- to private labs for testing.

In-house at the sheriff's lab last year, the five analysts in the controlled substances analysis section reviewed about 7,500 pieces of evidence, including powders, tablets, liquids and the like.

Local police can send evidence to the sheriff's lab. The Oceanside Police Department sends much of the physical evidence from crime scenes to the sheriff's lab for testing. Carlsbad's Police Department sends some evidence there, but also has an in-house unit that handles fingerprint analysis and other areas.

Sheriff Bill Gore said his department "couldn't disagree more" with the National Academy of Sciences recommendation to divorce labs from law enforcement.

"To imply that laboratories operated by law enforcement agencies are predisposed to seek outcomes that are anything other than true and objective is a disservice to the men and women who perform this important function throughout the country," he said.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said the sheriff's lab "has a number of internal procedures to assure quality in the laboratory."

Among them, she said in an e-mail, are technical and administrative reviews of reports, reviews of procedures, internal audits, and proficiency testing of analysts. Courtroom testimony by lab workers also is monitored, she said.

Innocent errors

The sheriff's lab is accredited by an organization known as the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, or ASCLD/LAB.

The private, nonprofit body has given its tough-to-get seal of approval to the country's premier crime labs, including those run by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service.

Ralph Keaton is the executive director of the accrediting organization, and he said labs that get its approval are held to a very high standard, and must have checks and balances in place.

And, he said, labs with the ASCLD/LAB accreditation are expected to take immediate corrective action when mistakes are uncovered.

"It is a matter of public trust," Keaton said. "The labs really are the final say in a lot of decision-making in the courtroom. ... The accused and the accusers really are at the mercy of good science."

And even the best labs can make mistakes. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology landed at the center of the high-profile case of Cynthia Sommer, a widow convicted in 2007 of poisoning her Marine husband, who was based at Miramar when he died in 2002.

Sommer's attorney, Allen Bloom, said the military lab was wrong when it found arsenic in Todd Sommer's organs. Later testing, at a different lab, revealed no arsenic. Prosecutors dropped the charges, and Cynthia Sommer was freed after spending more than two years in jail.

Bloom said "the real scary situation" comes when lab workers trying to do the right thing make blunders.

Innocent errors "are among the greatest systemic problems in wrongful convictions," Bloom said.

The Innocence Project's Brooks said jurors might rely too heavily on forensic findings.

"Jurors are just so easily manipulated," Brooks said. "In this 'CSI' age, as soon as there is some science involved, they are dazzled. ... There is always going to be human error as long as humans are involved."

Call staff writer Teri Figueroa at 760-740-5442.

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