PROSECUTORS TAP COMMUNITY OUTRAGE TO HELP PUT LAWBREAKERS BEHIND BARS

KANSAS CITY- Joseph Arwine's neighbors wanted him gone - if not forever,
then for a long time. And they were ready to tell a judge why.

So when it came time for the convicted methamphetamine dealer to be
sentenced June 15 by Circuit Judge William F. Mauer, plenty of residents
were in the courtroom, ready to testify, if needed, about the effects of
Arwine's activities on their south Kansas City neighborhood.

Mauer, who sentenced Arwine to 10 years, said he had never seen such
citizen support for prosecutors in such a case.

He'll probably see more.

The neighbors had been enlisted by a special new team in the Jackson County
Prosecutor's Office that taps community outrage against repeat criminals.
The Neighborhood Justice Team calls on residents to tell judges at
sentencings how criminals disrupted their neighborhoods.

Virginia Woods, 73, was among those on hand for Arwine's sentencing, the
Neighborhood Justice Team's first case.

Woods told The Kansas City Star that two neighbors had moved out because of
Arwine and that others had been afraid to testify. Now she is pleased with
the court system and ready to testify in other cases.

"By golly, it's time somebody did something," Woods said. "Courts need to
know people are interested."

More and more, other prosecutors nationwide are involving residents in
cases against drug dealers, burglars, muggers and prostitutes. They say
these criminals destroy neighborhoods but often get probation or a few
months behind bars.

Called community prosecution, it's becoming a movement.

"It's going to be the buzzword for the late '90s and into the next
century," said Newman Flanagan, director of the National District Attorneys
Association.

"Neighbors have stopped moving out," he said. "Today they're fighting back.
It's a tremendous benefit."

Some defense lawyers, however, say prosecutors are going beyond their role.
One is Dan Viets of Columbia, Mo., past president and board member of the
Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"It's not their job to go out and be touchy-feely and warm and fuzzy with
those in the community," he said. "It's probably totally ineffective at
anything other than public relations."

Jackson County Prosecutor Claire McCaskill countered: "What these people
have been getting for years is public relations - people who go to meetings
and say they understand, and nothing changes."

Her office started assigning prosecutors to each of the city's four police
patrol stations last fall.

Assistant prosecutor Shannon Taylor said she and ultimately Judge Mauer
knew of Arwine's effect on the neighborhood only because she worked in the
Kansas City Police Department's South Patrol office.

At each of the police patrol headquarters, prosecutors are creating lists
of the 10 most-wanted criminals in each district.

Authorities say they want to focus the effort on only the worst offenders.
They say that if they try to get harsh sentences for too many, their
efforts will fail.

Judges can expect to see residents of other neighborhoods soon at
sentencing hearings.

"People want to come to these; they really want to come," said Wendy
Henderson, president of the Manheim Park Neighborhood Association.

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