Safe Surrender program ends
When the U.S. Marshal's Safe Surrender program rolled through Baltimore last summer, the city's law enforcement community jumped at the opportunity to clear their books of old cases. Tens of thousands of people were wanted on old arrest warrants; the amnesty program of seemed a sure way of helping out.
About a 1,000 people took advantage -- coming to a city church (at left, in a photo by The Sun's Kim Hairston) and meeting with prosecutors, who either dropped the cases or got the suspects together with lawyers and in front of a judge for an immediate hearing. It was designed for nonviolent offenders, many with cases so old that witnesses and case files had all but disappeared.
Now, there's a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the feds are pulling the plug on the program, which police departments all over the country had joined, resulting in 34,000 fugitive surrenders in 20 cities. Officials told the newspaper that Safe Surrender didn't fit the agency's mission of targeting violent offenders.
For more details:
You could argue that clearing the books of old files frees up cops everywhere to concentrate on the criminals who matter. Here's part of reporter Justin Fenton's story on one of the surrender days at New Metropolitan Baptist Church:
For nearly four years, Nakia Parrine had difficulty getting a job to support her family. Wanted on minor drug charges, she said she constantly looked over her shoulder, aware that any interaction with police might result in her arrest and hours at Central Booking.
But in less than a few hours Wednesday, that was all behind her. As part of a program called Safe Surrender, she turned herself in, was booked, faced a judge, had the charges dropped and began the expungement process."Dismissed!" Parrine, 26, told her brother over a cell phone after public defender Cynthia Christiani informed her that the charges had finally been cleared.
"I've been on pins and needles all this time," Parrine said. "It worked out for me. It's a blessing."
Diana Pilleris said Jeff Cupp broke into her apartment and stole $200. Baltimore police arrested him, charging him with burglary and destruction of property, and he spent three days in the city jail.
The day after he posted bail, Cupp jumped on an airplane and flew to Germany with his girlfriend. He failed to appear for his trial, and a judge promptly issued a warrant seeking his arrest.That was Sept. 15, 1981.
The warrant was never served, and most of the paperwork appears to have been lost. But the basics of the case linger in court computer systems. And Cupp, who now lives in Munich, wants to return to America for his mother's 80th birthday.
But he said in a telephone interview Thursday that he's scared to come back as a fugitive from justice. "I don't want to spend any time in jail," the 51-year-old program manager for a German Internet company said. "It was unpleasant."
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
Comments
Officials told the newspaper that Safe Surrender didn't fit the (US Marshalls) agency's mission of targeting violent offenders.
OK. I'll agree that it doesn't.
That still doesn't explain abruptly discontinuing a program that works and actually accomplished some good.
Clear the dockets of the deadwood: any charges petty enough to allow amnesty or some similarly minor adjudication should have that done anyway. Do so.
Posted by: MrRational | March 7, 2011 12:08 PM