DRUGS DRIVE REPEAT OFFENDERS

Substance Abuse Seen By Law Officials As Common Thread

NEW BEDFORD -- Robert Perch was led away in ankle chains and handcuffs
yesterday, to spend at least five years in state prison for stealing a
jacket, a gold chain and $10 at knifepoint.

The crime mirrored one the 29-year-old committed just three years ago.

Mr. Perch is one of thousands nationally and locally who, while on
probation for one crime, commit yet another.

"It's the same people over and over again, committing the same
crimes," Acushnet Police Chief Michael Poitras said.

And studies back up that thinking.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a study of 108,580
persons released from prisons in 1983 found that 62 percent were
arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years, 46
percent were reconvicted and 41 percent were sent back to jail or prison.

"Some people keep making the same mistakes and it's hard to learn any
new modes of behavior when you are in jail in a social structure very
unlike anything you might find on the street," said Alan Zwirblis,
regional supervisor for the Committee for Public Counsel. "They find
themselves in the same predicament that they were in when they went in."

Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh said prosecutors see
the same faces over again -- sometimes for the same types of crimes.

"Particularly on the small-fry cases, the poorly planned crimes of
opportunities, they never seem to learn," Mr. Walsh said. "As prosecutors,
we shake our heads and say, 'I just sent him to jail two years ago.'"

Wareham Chief Probation Officer Thomas Cummings said substance abuse
appears to be a key factor in recidivism.

"What brings them back before the court very often is the substance that
they are using," Mr. Cummings said.

According to the Sentencing Project, an independent criminal justice policy
group, 57 percent of those sentenced to jail in 1989 said they were under
the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time they committed their offense.

Gene Monteiro, Bristol County chief probation officer, said probation
officers try to "stem the tide, so to speak" of recidivism by intensifying
supervision.

"We use various techniques to put people on the right track, address
certain minor violations, conduct administrative reviews, give the
probation a booster shot" he said.

But with some people that just doesn't work.

"I'm optimistic that a great deal of them will succeed but we don't have a
perfect system here," Mr. Monteiro said.

Mr. Walsh said probation departments in the past two years appear to be
taking tougher stands on those who violate probation. "Going back 18 months
to two years ago, probation was nowhere near as effective as it could have
been," he said.

But a proposal by the governor's office to move probation from the
judiciary to the executive branch shook things up, Mr. Walsh said. "They
are much more aggressive now."

And it may be getting even more aggressive.

Mr. Cummings said a committee of district court judges, clerks and
probation officers put together a 50-page draft for surrender procedures
recently and statewide officers are getting tougher.

"The goal is to give a person an opportunity to change their behavior, but
if they can't, to protect the community and have that person taken off the
street," he said.

In the case of Mr. Perch, substance abuse appears to have contributed to
his crimes, said Stewart Grimes, his attorney.

Mr. Perch was convicted in 1995 of robbery in connection with the theft of
hats and given a 4- to 6-year suspended state prison term.

But while on probation, he was arrested on two counts of armed robbery --
charges he pleaded guilty to yesterday.

In one case, he robbed a man at knifepoint of a gold chain, on the street
at midday; in the second case, a month later last year, he robbed a man at
knifepoint of a jacket and $10, said Assistant District Attorney Cynthia
Vincent.

"He knew the victims and the victims knew him," Mr. Grimes said. "What does
that tell you?"

He said offenders who commit street crimes must be identified at an earlier
age to prevent recidivism.

"We need to look at these types of crimes much earlier and have
intervention at an earlier age," Mr. Grimes said.

Mr. Perch -- in a plea bargain -- was sentenced yesterday by Judge Phillip
Rivard-Rapoza to a 5- to 7-year state prison term. His probation was also
revoked and is also serving -- concurrently -- the
4- to 6-year prison term imposed in 1995.

Judge Rivard-Rapoza stayed execution of the sentence until Monday,
keeping Mr. Perch at the Ash Street jail until then, at the request of
the defense attorney.

That will allow Mr. Perch -- who hadn't been allowed visits -- to see
his 12-year-old daughter for the first time in months, his attorney said.