Five Myths about Crime Today

Myself and a prosecutor (I’m a criminal defense lawyer working in a public defender office in Minnesota) spoke to a group of mystery writers last night.  The prosecutor was actually the featured speaker although as we got into issues of criminal justice, the questions flew at both of us.  Here are some of them:

1.  We should just put the criminals in prison and throw away the keys.

Easy to say and it certainly makes us feel good.  People have the impression that most criminals are “getting away” with their crimes and aren’t paying the penalty.  The media feed this idea since they only report the few cases where someone does beat the system.  The reality is that the majority of people charged with crimes are found guilty and do pay the penalty.

Question is, what should the penalty be?

My prosecutor friend brought up several recent empirical studies that show short, intensive punishment combined with rehabilitation efforts tend to have the best results.  Why?

Putting aside the serial murderers and career criminals, I believe it’s because simply locking people away can be counter-productive.  For many of them, the hardest part is when the doors to the jail slam shut.  After months or even years, the deterrent effect of incarceration drops off.  So, it makes sense to send people for a limited amount of time–with supervised probation and release afterward.

2.  Criminals will never change–there’s no hope they’ll reform themselves.

Some psychologists maintain that criminals are people who have chosen to live a life of crime and will continue to do so no matter what we do to them.  I’m not sure this is true all the time.  I think that most criminals balance the risks of getting caught with the rewards of crime.  I believe some can be persuaded to go straight.  The best persuasion is a combination of prison and probation.

3.  Many criminals are drug addicts who commit crime to feed their habits. No.  I would say in my own experience that the majority of crimes are committed when people are high–by far alcohol is the most prevalent–when they commit crimes but they’re not doing the crime to make money to supply themselves with drugs.  And for all the attention to dangerous drugs, alcohol still remains the most widely abused chemical substance that leads to crime.

4.  The crime news in the papers never seems to end–crime is up.  It’s definitely down, especially since a peak during the 1980’s as measured by the FBI.  Violent crime and all types of crime are down significantly.  Why does it seem the opposite?  The news media report criminal acts–not the drop in crime.

5.  “Get tough on crime” laws and longer prison sentences deter crime. I don’t think so.  In my experience dealing with defendants charged with crime, the last thing they think about is getting caught and certainly, they never think about penalties.  The one area that’s different is in drinking and driving crimes.  People do think about that when taking another drink.  But particularly for crimes of passion and anger, very few people stop to think about the penalties–therefore, I don’t think tougher penalties act as a deterrent.

What are you ideas?  Get tougher?  More probation?  More community service?  What can we do?

Something Worse Than bin Laden

People think the death of Osama bin Laden stopped one of the biggest killers in the world.  He’s nothing compared to one of the oldest, most widespread killers in the history of humans—the disease of small pox.

Found in the remains of Egyptian mummies and all over ancient Asia and China, the virus has probably killed more people than wars, famine, and terrorists have done.  Epidemics in Europe during the Middle Ages affected the course of western history.  Outbreaks of small pox started the decline of the Roman Empire and, once transported to the New World, succeeded in wiping-out most of the native population.  During the early 1700’s in Europe as many as 400,000 people died annually—about the population of Minneapolis.

The war on small pox started with the practice of inoculation against the disease.  Medical practitioners took the practice from Istanbul to Western Europe and then to the United States by the mid-1700’s.

The process involved pricking the skin of a person and infecting them with a small amount of pox.  It caused them to become slightly ill but also made them immune to the more serious disease when it struck.

During the American Revolution the Continental army attacked the British city of Quebec.  They came close to succeeding until an outbreak of small pox stopped them. The British army had been inoculated, avoided the plague, and repulsed the American’s attack for good.

Edward Jenner didn’t actually discover the vaccine used against small pox, but he was the first scientist to attempt to control an infectious disease—and he was successful.

By the 1950’s small pox had been effectively eradicated from Europe and North America, thanks to public sanitation efforts and the widespread use of the vaccine.  In 1980, after a world-wide campaign, the World Health Organization announced the official end of the disease in the world and recommended that countries cease vaccination—which meant that today no one has immunity to the disease.  (Even for those of us who received vaccine years ago, the protection has decayed.)

Everyone in the world is vulnerable.

With that scary thought in mind, I’ve written a suspense novel about terrorists who steal samples of small pox from a repository in Russia and intend to infect American school children with it—creating hundreds of “weapons of mass destruction.”  It’s called Reprisal.  It takes place in Minneapolis where several Somali boys have disappeared in the past few years.  In my book, they’ve been kidnapped to be used by the terrorists to carry small pox back into the schools and start a pandemic.

What really scares me—and readers also—is that the “enemy” here is something you can’t see, touch, feel, or smell…how do you defend against it?  Also, once the population learns about the spread of small pox, I think the panic will be worse than the disease itself.

Luckily, I can tell you the heroine in my book succeeds in stopping the terrorists and preventing an outbreak—at the last-minute, of course.

Check-out the book at my web site and tell me what you think.

Measles Outbreak in Minneapolis

Health officials are battling an outbreak of measles spreading in the large Somali community in Minneapolis.  In Pennsylvania a case of measles is traced to an Indian child.  There’s a measles outbreak tracked to Maryland.  A potential measles outbreak is brewing in Boston.

What’s going on?

Measles has almost been eradicated from the United States.  So why is measles suddenly threatening to breakout?

Health officials point to a simple problem: in recent years, fewer parents chose to vaccinate their children.  It creates a cycle that applies to many infectious diseases like small pox.

Over the years, scientists and people worked together to develop vaccines to kill the disease and, as more people used the vaccine, the disease retreated.  The world-wide campaign against small pox. for instance, succeeded in eradicating the disease from the world–because it no longer had humans hosts to live and spread among.  Measles was close to being eradicated in the U.S.

Ironically, as the disease retreated and fewer people got sick, many others decided they, and their kids, didn’t need to be vaccinated anymore.  As a result, when infected people returned from Africa or Europe, many American citizens didn’t have an immunity to the disease.  Measles seems to be getting a foot-hold here again.

Serious?  Yes–people can die from measles.

Health officials warn that since measles rates are low in the U.S. it wouldn’t take many infections to cause an epidemic.  That’s because of something scientists call the “R-factor.”  It’s a way of measuring how fast the disease will replicate itself in other hosts and, therefore, how fast it will spread–especially if few people were protected by vaccination.

In Minneapolis and Boston, the main fight is to try to contain the outbreak to prevent the spread from growing into a full epidemic.

But…what if terrorists tried to use a disease to kill American citizens?

Defense experts say the biggest hurdle for terrorists would be the “release mechanism.”  How would they release it for infection of the maximum number of people?

Disease like small pox and measles would be easier to release because the viruses are airborne and passed like the common cold.  At least with measles, we have vaccines in great quantities.  That’s not the same for small pox.

My book, Reprisal, is a story about terrorists who use small pox as a weapon of mass destruction by trying to infect many school children to start an epidemic.  If you’re intrigued, or scared, by the idea, check it out at my web site or Amazon books.

Is your family vaccinated against measles?  Are you doing anything to protect yourselves?  Should the government step in and do anything for the people who refuse to get vaccinated?  As doctors warn:  even if you don’t want to do anything for yourself, think of all the other people you will infect if you’re not vaccinated.

Public Employee Unions=Too Expensive?

Is a Public Employee’s Union in California raising the cost of the prison system?  Should the prisons be sold to private companies to save the states money?

In my last post, I explored the movement across the country to privatize the prison systems in many states.  We looked at the high cost of maintaining prisons and one of the major reasons why the cost is suddenly so high–longer prison sentences and less chance for parole.

Starting in the 1980’s legislatures across the U.S. decided to “get tough on crime” by adding prison sentences to crimes that previously didn’t call for them and lengthening existing prison sentences, reducing the time on parole.

As a consequence, the prison populations in most states have sky-rocketed and so have the costs.

Before I look at an NPR story, I have to disclose that I am a member of a public employee union along with the prosecutors and public defenders in the county where I work.

A fascinating report from National Public Radio investigated the prison system in California.  See their story at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?

storyId=111843426

Besides the increased prison sentences, they found a curious connection between the California Correctional Peace Officers Association–a public employee union–and the rising costs of the prison system there.  The union has become one of the most powerful political forces in the state.  Over the years, it’s contributed millions of dollars in support of tougher laws and longer prison sentences.  Since these laws passed, the number of union correctional officers has grown from 2,600 to 45,000.  The average salary in 1980 was $15,000.  By 2009 one out of ten officers made over $100,000.

Talk about an increase in costs!

NPR found that most of the funding to support new laws that increased prison penalties came from a political action committee that the union created for the purpose of  promoting a “Victim’s Rights Group.”  Question: why is a public employee union of correctional officers supporting victim’s rights?  And why should locking people away for longer time do much to help victims?

Today in California, most of the Corrections Department budget goes for salaries and benefits of the union employees. (70%) While just 5% goes for education and vocational training for inmates to give them job skills so that when they’re released, they don’t have to commit crime to support themselves.  To me, investing in job skills is actually going to help potential victims since the paroled inmates won’t be committing as many crimes.

I’m not saying that public employee unions have caused the same result in every state–but it sure looks like it in California.

What should we do about it?

Privatize the Prisons?

There has been talk about states selling their prison systems to private companies and allowing them to run the correctional system.  Is this a good idea?

At first, it looks great: the taxpayers can reduce the high cost of building, maintaining, guarding, providing medical care, and programming for offenders.  Why not let a private company take-over the costs?  The state would probably agree to some fee per inmate–which would be much lower than the present costs.  All the laws about incarceration and parole would remain the same, determined by the legislatures.

At present, because of the “Great Recession,” many states are looking at cutting this high expense.  But there are two factors that may have raised the cost of prisons beyond what anyone expected.

A couple of years ago, National Public Radio reported on Folsom Prison in California.  When Johnny Cash gave his concert there in 1968, it was a model for the entire nation.  See story at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111843426

Today, it’s a disaster which may actually be making the public less safe than ever.  Even as most of the progress and programs have been cut at prisons like Folsom, the costs are higher than ever.  Why?

The NPR report suggests two reasons that may apply to prisons in all states:

1.  The “get tough on crime” laws of the past twenty years.

2.  Strong public unions of prison workers.

Let’s look at the first reason.

In the years since 1968 legislatures across the country decided to “get tough on crime.” That meant, usually, more incarceration penalties for more crimes and longer sentences for existing crimes.  The result has quadrupled prison populations–which states have to pay for.  Promoters of the get tough idea didn’t anticipate the consequences of putting significantly more offenders behind bars.

Though many people have the opinion that criminals should be locked-up and “throw away the key,” that’s not realistic.  Almost all offenders, except the most dangerous, are released at some point.  Without adequate programming for education, job skills, chemical dependency treatment, and mental health treatment these lower-level offenders come out with the same criminal tendencies they entered with–or worse.

People say, “So what?  I’m not going to spend tax dollars for social workers to help criminals.”  Those same people fail to realize that an “unimproved” offender coming out of prison poses the greatest threat to public safety.  Besides the heightened incidence of re-offending, the costs of police, courts, lawyers, jurors, and prisons is far greater than the cost to tax payers of the prison programs.

At some point, we must decide as a community how much we want to imprison people.  Most studies have shown that except for the violent, most dangerous offenders, close supervision by probation officers as the offenders live in the community not only is the best prevention for further criminal activity, but it is also the cheapest.

Of course, show me a politician that is courageous enough to point out these costs to the taxpayers and say, “let’s put fewer people in prison.”  Instead, we’re looking at privatizing the prison system.  It will reduce the direct costs to the taxpayer but won’t reduce the recidivism rate–since prisons like Folsom Prison in California now have some of the highest rates.  In 1968 they had the lowest rate.

What should we do?  In my next post, I’ll look at California and the power of the public employee union and its effect on the costs of the prison system there.

400 “Criminals” in One Room!

I just returned from a national writer’s convention in Santa Fe.  It’s called Left Coast Crime and I sat in the middle of almost 400 mystery writers.  Spooky…the only thing that could be worse would be sitting among 400 lawyers!

What would be most interesting for you is the wide variety of people who write mysteries/suspense stories and their ideas.  Almost any crime you could imagine has been written about.  The heroes/heroines include cops, private investigators, archeologists, little old ladies, female NASCAR drivers, cowboys, secret agents, bumbling professors, and even long-dead historical sleuths.

If any of you would like recommendations for books or writers beyond those I’ll list at the end of this post, please let me know.

The quality of the authors also impressed me.  They ranged through all ages and backgrounds.  One writer worked during the Viet Nam war as a  correspondent in Bangkok and was married to an engineer who was supposed to be building military bases in Viet Nam.   She learned from her journalist friends that he was really in the CIA!  (They remained married)  Another writer lived on a catamaran off the coast of England for a time.  Most of them are very intelligent and, even more importantly, curious about the world around them.

This fascination comes through in their writing, making their stories even deeper and more engaging.

Here are some suggestions for your mystery/suspense reading:

Western–  Murder for Greenhorns, Rob Kresge

Historical mystery–  City of Silver, Annamaria Alfieri

Humorous–  The Pot Thief Murder series, Mike Orenduff

Historical mystery–  SPQD, John Maddox Roberts

International mysteries–  The Charlie Fox series, Zoe Sharp

Gritty, street thriller–  Boulevard, Stephen Jay Schwartz

Humorous–  The Albuquerque Turkey, John Vorhous

Medical thriller–  Bone Dry, Bette Golden Lamb/J.J. Lamb

Archeology– Smoking Frog Lives, Pete Goodman.

NASCAR–  Dead Man’s Switch, Tammy Kaehler

Hope you enjoy some of these great authors!!  I can assure you that each one of them is an interesting, dedicated writer.

Let me know your recommendations for favorite authors!

Public Employees–Cut Back??

With all the national discussion about Public Employees, should we cut back on them?

Before you decide, I’ve got a short story to tell.

I have to disclose from the beginning that I am a public employee and anything I post in this blog is my own opinion and not that of any employer.

Several years ago, many studies were conducted in order to determine the costs/benefits of imprisoning convicted criminals.  After all, the United States puts more people in jail per capita than most other countries in the world.  Through the 80’s and 90’s there was a loud cry from the public to “get tough on crime.”  That meant increasing incarceration penalties for many offenses.

The federal government and many states passed legislation called “three strikes and you’re out,” which meant after three convictions for particular offenses, the criminals were committed to prison.

After several years of incarcerating more criminals, studies revealed the high cost of imprisoning people–and many citizens thought the costs to the taxpayer were too high.

Consequently, in the past ten years, many states have relaxed their imprisonment rules and have relied more on closely monitored probation sentences for many offenders.  Of course, the most hard-core murderers, robbers, drug sellers, and rapists still go to jail.  But those convicted of less serious offenses have been moved to probation status.

It made sense to many people since the costs of probation are minimal, particularly compared to prison where the taxpayer picks up the tab for room and board, education, health care, mental health services, and recreation.

However, to place people on probation and be assured the offenders will not re-offend requires a program of close supervision by trained probation officers.  Although the taxpayer pays for the salary and benefits of probation officers, including health and pension benefits, the total cost is a fraction of that spent on jails and prisons.

Makes sense, huh?

The current political move to “down-size” government and cut back on public employees means that a certain number of probation officers may have to be laid-off.  Or if not, no new hires in the coming years.

At the same time we are letting more people out of prison to be monitored by probation officers, the government is threatening to reduce the number of  public employees–which could include probation officers.  For several years, the judicial branch of government has seen drastic cut-backs in funding which translates to cut-backs in the supervision of offenders.

From my own perspective working in the court system, I’ve seen the results of these cut-backs.  Fewer probation officers labor under larger case loads–meaning they have less time to effectively pay attention to those offenders the officers are responsible for supervising.

I guess the easiest way to say it is:  you can’t have your cake and eat it too!  If taxpayers don’t want to pay for keeping offenders off the streets in prison, then they should be willing to fund for the close monitoring of criminals who are living in our communities.

Think about this when you hear people urging cut-backs in public employees.

An Undiscovered Crime

I’m thrilled because my new book Reprisal will be published September 1 and available for purchase in early September.

It’s a thriller/mystery about an undiscovered crime–terrorists plan to use American children as weapons of mass destruction.  Do you remember all the Somali young men who disappeared from the Twin Cities in the past two years?  They were kidnapped by terrorists in order to carry out their plot.

Small pox was eradicated from the planet in 1979.  As a result, no one has been immunized since then and earlier  inoculations have decayed in effectiveness.  Everyone in the world is vulnerable to the disease.  In 1979 two repositories were set up to store active, lethal viruses for future reasearch needs.  One is at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the other is in Russia.

When a radical Islamic terrorist group steals samples of the virus from Russia, they need human hosts to carry the disease into the schools and infect the entire community.   Led by a brilliant scientist embedded in Minnesota, the release is about to explode until one of the conspirators murders a Somali boy.

The lawyer for the accused murderer is a progressive, feminist American who’s a mainstream Muslim woman.  She hates everything her radical client stands for.  As she investigates the case in preparation for trial, she’s entangled in a race against time to save hundreds of children and the whole community.

One of the themes of the book is religious tolerance; the other is a call to action to mainstream Muslims to speak out against the hijacking of their faith.   The story will educate you about what it’s like to be an American citizen and a faithful, moderate Muslim fighting against the popular impression that all Muslims are extremists. In addition to the story, the defense lawyer goes through her days in court, representing a hilarious group of clients.  You’ll see the back room things that go on regularly and the crazy criminal things people really do.  The characters are based on real-life events, although it would be difficult to put these on reality TV since they’re too real for anyone to believe!

Check out my website to see my upcoming events and book signings.  You can also contact me and let me know how you liked the book.  I look forward to hearing from you. 

Enjoy the book!!

I just talked with my publisher over the weekend and they’re excited about the manuscript I sent them. We’re hoping to get my new novel out by this Sept. Thanks to all my friends who are helping me with the effort!!

What Made Tom Petters Run?

 

In Minneapolis last week, business mogul Tom Petters was found guilty on all 20 counts for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded people out of over $3 billion.  What kind of a person would do this?

Although I don’t know Mr. Petters, I’ve worked as a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years and have represented/defended a few criminals like Petters but never anyone stealing such big. amounts.   Unlike other criminals types, these guys have a unique personality type that’s fascinating.  In addition, I had an uncle (long dead) who operated several scams and Ponzi schemes in the Twin City area before he was chased out of town.  I remember him well.

SKILLS;  Most of these types are very attractive–physically and personally.  You can’t help but like them.  They’re wonderful salesmen with all the skills of the best.  Charming and persuasive, they could lie big–without even a tug from their conscience.  Almost all were smart even if they weren’t well educated.

ATTITUDE:  My uncle and others I’ve represented, shared an attitude that combined arrogance with ambition–not unusal in many people.  The difference was the con men couldn’t wait for their ambiitons.  They couldn’t take the time and effort necessary to build a legitimate business.  Instead, they deserved immediate success.  Most thought they were smarter than others, therefore they didn’t have to wait like the rest of us to grow their businesses. 

Many came from poorer backgrounds and I suspect they harbored a deep suspicion that since things were stacked against them anyway, they may as well steal to get what they deserved.  Each sucker or victim they conned represented a score against the “system” the con men were trying to beat–like a game.  Another skill was the ability to lie convincingly to anyone.  The more intimidating the challenge, the greater the “game” was to the con man.

SECURITY:  Obviously, they coudn’t invest the money they stole so they spent it lavishly.  Security was irrelevant to them–they didn’t have any except for their brains and guts to pull off the next con.  I can’t think of many friends who could live peacefully without some security.  Imagine the type of person who has only their ability to score another con for tomorrow’s food.

Surprisingly, the defendants I’ve represented readily admit their crime when confronted but have always had an excuse or a lie about how things happened to avoid the penalty.

Do you know anyone like this?  What’s their story?  Tell me about the personalities.

Go to my web site at www.colintnelson.com