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CENTER ON JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PRESS RELEASE |
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| www.cjcj.org |
| Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 54 Dore Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 | Tel: (415) 621-5661 | Fax: (415) 621-5466 |
For Immediate Release: March 9, 1999
CONTACT: Daniel Macallair
E-mail: [dmacallair@cjcj.org]
Tel: (415) 621-5661 x310
WASHINGTON, D.C. Prompted by reports of escapes from halfway houses in the media in January and February, two public interest organizations released a new report challenging the information underlying media accounts. The authors are concerned that media accounts portray halfway houses as homes to dangerous and violent felons who receive little supervision, escape regularly, and avoid punishment. The results of the report will discussed tomorrow, at hearings chaired by Councilmember Harold Brazil, at One Judiciary Square, at 2.p.m.
"Media accounts had us worried about Jack-the-Ripper," stated Vincent Schiraldi, Justice Policy Institute director, and co-author of the report. "But our halfway houses are really full of the gang that couldn't shoot straight."
The report, which analyzes new and existing data from the D.C. Trustee for Offender Supervision and the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, suggests the threat to public safety may have been exaggerated. The vast majority of people in District halfway houses committed or were accused of non-violent crimes, and the reported "escapes" were often trivial latenesses, or were recorded improperly. For example:
The Washington Post stated that "at least 50% of those in halfway houses are pretrial violent offenders." In truth, about one in ten (12%) of all people held in halfway houses in 1998 were held for the FBI Index violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery or aggravated assault.
The Post reported that 376 people escaped during a three month period, and that "about 250 are still on the loose - 60 of whom are charged with violent crimes." However, in analyzing the Trustee's pretrial data, the authors found only two pretrial placements- less than one percent - accused of a violent felony who remain at large.
Only one pretrial detainee who "escaped" during the period in question was arrested for a violent felony (robbery).
The new report questions the broad definition of "escape" that makes abscondences sound like more serious threats than they really are. Halfway houses are a mid-point between total confinement and total liberty. They permit people to leave for work, provided they return at a certain time. If not, it can be technically characterized as an "escape," but is more properly viewed as an abscondence or walkaway.
However, among the 236 pretrial people reported as having "escaped," 77 returned to custody within 24 hours, and more than a third returned within three days. Reported escapes also included people who were in custody in other jurisdictions and people who were late for the evening curfew because they were in court on the charges that led them to be assigned to the halfway house in the first place. There are reports that one person counted as "escaped" was actually dead.
Robert Lee Kendrick was alleged by the Post to have escaped, and then get rearrested on new charges in Arlington County. A review of Mr. Kendrick's court records revealed that he never escaped, but left his halfway house during release hours, crossed the Potomac River, and turned himself in to the Arlington County sheriff on outstanding charges.
More typical among D.C. halfway house abscondences are:
Eric Lotke of the D.C. Prisoners Legal Services Project contends that intermediate sanctions such as halfway houses should be expanded, not restricted. "Murderers might belong in prison, but everyone who commits a petty crime does not," he contends. "We need to develop other ways to handle people at the low-end of the criminal spectrum." Approximately 25% of the District's prison population committed low-grade, non-violent crimes, primarily related to drug addiction.
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