Higher volume of 'compliance checks' done by law enforcement on felons released in L.A. County means that probation officers often aren't available to go along.
By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times
Pamela Morris, right, sobs while
discussing her problems with Susan Burton, executive director of the New Way of
Life group home in South Los Angeles. Morris, 45, was recently handcuffed and
searched by LAPD officers even though she was in full compliance with her
probation at the home. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / May 18,
2012)
The first four times Pamela
Morris was released from prison, she would go to her state parole officers or
they would occasionally make unannounced solo visits to make sure she wasn't
committing new crimes.
But after Morris completed a state sentence for shoplifting earlier this year, she reported to Los Angeles County probation officers under a new cost-cutting state program known as realignment and checked into a group home for newly released female ex-convicts.
Things were going well, Morris said, until the afternoon three LAPD officers showed up at her door, handcuffed her and searched her room.
"They scared the living mess out of me," said Morris, who added that she takes medicine for schizophrenia. "Nobody would tell me what was going on."
Rather than keeping her on the right track, Morris said the incident was so unnerving that she briefly went back to living on the streets before returning to the group home.
"It kind of set me back," she said.
The encounter at Morris' home highlights one of the new friction points created by a recent shift of responsibility for thousands of prisoners and ex-convicts from state to local authorities. Realignment was intended to relieve California's overcrowded prison system by keeping more low-level offenders in local jails rather than transferring them to state custody. And by giving local agencies more responsibility for monitoring prisoners freed on probation, the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars.
But city and county efforts to keep tabs on nearly 6,000 felons released in L.A. County alone have also prompted confusion and anger, jockeying among agencies for millions in public money and warnings that public safety employees are facing new dangers.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and LAPD officers have expanded duties for periodic "compliance checks" on the reassigned former inmates, who served time for nonviolent crimes. The volume of checks means that probation officers, who may already know the ex-convicts and be better positioned to defuse situations that can become confrontational, often aren't available to go along.
In many cases, like Morris', police or deputies working in teams roll up in multiple squad cars.
Law enforcement officials say officers may not know what they are walking into and that teams help ensure safety. Moreover, under the terms of their release, parolees and probationers generally are subject to warrantless searches at any time, they note.
But critics, including some elected officials, argue that in some cases, the tactics being used are needlessly intimidating and expensive.
"It really erodes trust when four cars and several officers pull up," said Mark Faucette, vice president of the Amity Foundation, which runs a residential treatment facility near USC.
Los Angeles County SupervisorMark Ridley-Thomas, who happened to be visiting Morris' group home when the LAPD officers arrived, expressed concerned about the amount of scarce law enforcement resources being used for the program. "It's not cost-effective, particularly when there was no imminent threat of danger," he said.
Ridley-Thomas said he was so disturbed by the scene at the group home, which was videotaped by a staff member and posted on YouTube, that he phoned LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Beck told him officers were still adapting to their new duties and that procedures were still evolving, Ridley-Thomas said.
Beck confirmed the conversation in an email. "This is a new role for us, and we are working to develop the protocols that our officers use with this population," he said.
The compliance checks top a growing list of controversies quietly brewing as realignment takes hold in communities across California. Other complaints include cuts in public transportation assistance for newly released inmates and delayed payments to nonprofit groups providing drug counseling, job training and other services intended to keep ex-convicts from committing new crimes.
The state gave Los Angeles County about $120 million this fiscal year for its law enforcement and social service obligations under the realignment program. Given the state budget shortfall, it's unclear how much may be provided next year. An estimated $10.6 million of that will be spent by the county Sheriff's Department on compliance checks. A team of 50 deputies, plus other personnel, are assigned to the effort. The LAPD estimates that checks on ex-convicts in its territory will cost the city more than $35 million a year. Thus far, it has been unable to obtain reimbursement through the county.
LAPD officials say they asked for probation officers to be assigned to each of the department's 21 stations to assist in compliance checks. But only five were assigned because of the cost.
Unions representing probation officers say the checks would be more efficient — and less risky — if their members were involved. Leaders of the groups recently wrote county supervisors, criticizing them for not hiring more staff to deal with added increased workloads.
"We are all collectively sitting on a tinderbox waiting to explode," they wrote. "It is no longer a case of 'if' an officer gets injured in the line of duty; it is a matter of 'when.'"
But supervisors say they need to move cautiously in divvying up a limited amount of realignment funding.
"There are some departments that see this as an opportunity to grab a chunk of cash," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "We should be husbanding our money and being conservative, not overly generous in how we appropriate the money."
Those money concerns underscore the need to reexamine the tactics employed in compliance checks, some say. "They're having four people do the job of one person," said Jeff Christensen, the project director of the nonprofit Sober Living Network, which advocates for group homes. Christensen said he's heard more complaints in the last five months about compliance checks than he received over the previous decade.
Realignment, officials say, is limited to ex-inmates whose last conviction was for a nonviolent or nonsexual crime.
Morris, 45, said she has spent the last decade bouncing in and out of jail and prison for shoplifting or violating her parole by not taking her medication.
She said she had a troubled upbringing with her mother's family in Gardena and only occasionally saw her father, who lived in New York. At 12, she recalled, she was so distraught leaving him after a visit that she got a teardrop tattoo under her right eye.
She first went to jail in 1999, for stealing clothes from a Target store. Ten years later, she said, she was arrested for the same offense: taking baby clothes from an Old Navy in Manhattan Beach.
While serving a three-year sentence at a state prison for women in Chowchilla, Morris said she decided to turn her life around, which led her to the New Way of Life group home in Watts after her release in January. There, she underwent drug testing, attended several counseling sessions a day and took a daily round of medications.
"For the first time, I really wanted help," Morris said.
On the day of the LAPD compliance check, she said, she had just finished telling Ridley-Thomas and other visiting county officials about the progress she was making. When she was approached by three officers and placed in handcuffs, she said, "I thought I was getting arrested."
She said little during the incident, Morris said. The video shows New Way of Life's executive director, Susan Burton, angrily confronting the officers in the street afterward. Burton demanded their business cards and asked why they had handcuffed Morris.
"This is a waste of taxpayer money," Burton tells the officers at one point.
"I agree," one officer responds. LAPD Capt. Phil Tingirides later viewed the video at a community meeting in South Los Angeles where complaints about the tactics were aired. An online video of the meeting shows Tingirides telling Morris he was sorry she felt embarrassed but that the officers acted appropriately.
In a Times interview, he said that the same team had found guns during other compliance checks. "It is not like we can go into these checks knowing beforehand that one person is a big deal and another isn't," he said.
Still, Tingirides said he hopes officers can undergo more training because the searches are creating tension. "If we keep going as we are, we are going to alienate people," he said.
Morris said she appreciated Tingirides' apology. But she worries about her next compliance check.
"I don't want to get handcuffed again," she said. "I've done my time and trying to start a clean slate."
jason.song@latimes.com
Staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.
But after Morris completed a state sentence for shoplifting earlier this year, she reported to Los Angeles County probation officers under a new cost-cutting state program known as realignment and checked into a group home for newly released female ex-convicts.
Things were going well, Morris said, until the afternoon three LAPD officers showed up at her door, handcuffed her and searched her room.
"They scared the living mess out of me," said Morris, who added that she takes medicine for schizophrenia. "Nobody would tell me what was going on."
Rather than keeping her on the right track, Morris said the incident was so unnerving that she briefly went back to living on the streets before returning to the group home.
"It kind of set me back," she said.
The encounter at Morris' home highlights one of the new friction points created by a recent shift of responsibility for thousands of prisoners and ex-convicts from state to local authorities. Realignment was intended to relieve California's overcrowded prison system by keeping more low-level offenders in local jails rather than transferring them to state custody. And by giving local agencies more responsibility for monitoring prisoners freed on probation, the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars.
But city and county efforts to keep tabs on nearly 6,000 felons released in L.A. County alone have also prompted confusion and anger, jockeying among agencies for millions in public money and warnings that public safety employees are facing new dangers.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and LAPD officers have expanded duties for periodic "compliance checks" on the reassigned former inmates, who served time for nonviolent crimes. The volume of checks means that probation officers, who may already know the ex-convicts and be better positioned to defuse situations that can become confrontational, often aren't available to go along.
In many cases, like Morris', police or deputies working in teams roll up in multiple squad cars.
Law enforcement officials say officers may not know what they are walking into and that teams help ensure safety. Moreover, under the terms of their release, parolees and probationers generally are subject to warrantless searches at any time, they note.
But critics, including some elected officials, argue that in some cases, the tactics being used are needlessly intimidating and expensive.
"It really erodes trust when four cars and several officers pull up," said Mark Faucette, vice president of the Amity Foundation, which runs a residential treatment facility near USC.
Los Angeles County SupervisorMark Ridley-Thomas, who happened to be visiting Morris' group home when the LAPD officers arrived, expressed concerned about the amount of scarce law enforcement resources being used for the program. "It's not cost-effective, particularly when there was no imminent threat of danger," he said.
Ridley-Thomas said he was so disturbed by the scene at the group home, which was videotaped by a staff member and posted on YouTube, that he phoned LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Beck told him officers were still adapting to their new duties and that procedures were still evolving, Ridley-Thomas said.
Beck confirmed the conversation in an email. "This is a new role for us, and we are working to develop the protocols that our officers use with this population," he said.
The compliance checks top a growing list of controversies quietly brewing as realignment takes hold in communities across California. Other complaints include cuts in public transportation assistance for newly released inmates and delayed payments to nonprofit groups providing drug counseling, job training and other services intended to keep ex-convicts from committing new crimes.
The state gave Los Angeles County about $120 million this fiscal year for its law enforcement and social service obligations under the realignment program. Given the state budget shortfall, it's unclear how much may be provided next year. An estimated $10.6 million of that will be spent by the county Sheriff's Department on compliance checks. A team of 50 deputies, plus other personnel, are assigned to the effort. The LAPD estimates that checks on ex-convicts in its territory will cost the city more than $35 million a year. Thus far, it has been unable to obtain reimbursement through the county.
LAPD officials say they asked for probation officers to be assigned to each of the department's 21 stations to assist in compliance checks. But only five were assigned because of the cost.
Unions representing probation officers say the checks would be more efficient — and less risky — if their members were involved. Leaders of the groups recently wrote county supervisors, criticizing them for not hiring more staff to deal with added increased workloads.
"We are all collectively sitting on a tinderbox waiting to explode," they wrote. "It is no longer a case of 'if' an officer gets injured in the line of duty; it is a matter of 'when.'"
But supervisors say they need to move cautiously in divvying up a limited amount of realignment funding.
"There are some departments that see this as an opportunity to grab a chunk of cash," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "We should be husbanding our money and being conservative, not overly generous in how we appropriate the money."
Those money concerns underscore the need to reexamine the tactics employed in compliance checks, some say. "They're having four people do the job of one person," said Jeff Christensen, the project director of the nonprofit Sober Living Network, which advocates for group homes. Christensen said he's heard more complaints in the last five months about compliance checks than he received over the previous decade.
Realignment, officials say, is limited to ex-inmates whose last conviction was for a nonviolent or nonsexual crime.
Morris, 45, said she has spent the last decade bouncing in and out of jail and prison for shoplifting or violating her parole by not taking her medication.
She said she had a troubled upbringing with her mother's family in Gardena and only occasionally saw her father, who lived in New York. At 12, she recalled, she was so distraught leaving him after a visit that she got a teardrop tattoo under her right eye.
She first went to jail in 1999, for stealing clothes from a Target store. Ten years later, she said, she was arrested for the same offense: taking baby clothes from an Old Navy in Manhattan Beach.
While serving a three-year sentence at a state prison for women in Chowchilla, Morris said she decided to turn her life around, which led her to the New Way of Life group home in Watts after her release in January. There, she underwent drug testing, attended several counseling sessions a day and took a daily round of medications.
"For the first time, I really wanted help," Morris said.
On the day of the LAPD compliance check, she said, she had just finished telling Ridley-Thomas and other visiting county officials about the progress she was making. When she was approached by three officers and placed in handcuffs, she said, "I thought I was getting arrested."
She said little during the incident, Morris said. The video shows New Way of Life's executive director, Susan Burton, angrily confronting the officers in the street afterward. Burton demanded their business cards and asked why they had handcuffed Morris.
"This is a waste of taxpayer money," Burton tells the officers at one point.
"I agree," one officer responds. LAPD Capt. Phil Tingirides later viewed the video at a community meeting in South Los Angeles where complaints about the tactics were aired. An online video of the meeting shows Tingirides telling Morris he was sorry she felt embarrassed but that the officers acted appropriately.
In a Times interview, he said that the same team had found guns during other compliance checks. "It is not like we can go into these checks knowing beforehand that one person is a big deal and another isn't," he said.
Still, Tingirides said he hopes officers can undergo more training because the searches are creating tension. "If we keep going as we are, we are going to alienate people," he said.
Morris said she appreciated Tingirides' apology. But she worries about her next compliance check.
"I don't want to get handcuffed again," she said. "I've done my time and trying to start a clean slate."
jason.song@latimes.com
Staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.
Nice post, thanks.
ReplyDeleteAwesum Post Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeletedoor supervisor