US TN: COLUMN: THE KEY TO CUTTING CRIME INVOLVES LOCKING SOME UP, BUT
KEEPING OTHERS OUT

Violent crime in the United States dropped for the third year in a
row last year, property crime for the second.

Crime is down in metropolitan counties and rural counties. It's down
in the South, in the West, in the Midwest, in the Northeast. Either
property crimes or violent crimes or both decreased last year in
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Little Rock, Jackson,
Miss., Atlanta, Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans.

Experts disagree on why. No doubt demographic issues play a role. In
"Freakonomics," a provocative best-seller, University of Chicago
economist Steven D. Levitt argues that legalized abortion began
reducing the demographic cohort responsible for most crime in the 1990s.

Conservatives maintain that we're experiencing less crime because
get-tough, three-strikes-and-you're-out, gun-time-is-jail-time,
mandatory sentencing strategies are putting so many of us in prison
for longer stretches.

But it's not just putting a lot of people behind bars. Crime rates
drop when you put the right people behind bars, says Richard
Janikowski, chairman of the Criminology and Criminal Justice
Department at the University of Memphis. That's why law enforcement
agencies are collaborating like never before in Shelby County on
metro gang units, metro DUI units, joint task forces for this, joint
task forces for that.

"It's making sure serious criminals are incarcerated," Janikowski
said. "It's innovative prosecution efforts like Project Safe
Neighborhoods, the anti-gun violence initiative. There what you're
targeting are repeat offenders on firearms. When you've got felons in
possession of firearms, those are good predictors of someone who
poses a real danger. Previously they got probation. It's not much of
a deterrent. You're seeing the effects already in decreases in
homicide and robberies. It's smart law enforcement and smart prosecution."

It's also, frankly, smart public relations -- making sure that
criminals know that their buddies are getting caught and facing swift
and sure punishment. What other reason could there have been to round
up more than 30 suspects in unrelated drug cases on the same day last
month in a highly publicized roundup? Obviously police were using the
news media to send a message.

The law enforcement and sentencing strategies are expensive. Offender
populations are swelling all over the country, in prisons and jails
as well as in probation, parole and Community Corrections programs.
The number of state prisoners in Tennessee, who cost about $50 a day
to house, feed and provide medical care for, has grown by an average
of almost 800 a year for the past five years, while the number of
parolees, probationers and Community Corrections offenders, who cost
taxpayers $2.50 to $4 a day to supervise, is increasing by almost 2,000 a year.

It's not just Tennessee. The United States has the highest
incarceration level in the world, and it's increasing rapidly. And
we're tough on people after they're released. Some jurisdictions
forbid ex-cons from voting, from receiving public assistance, living
in public housing and receiving financial aid for college. Technology
has made it easier for employers to exclude people with records.

The problem with that approach is that it makes an already tough job
- -- bridging the gap between prison and society -- even tougher.
Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell calls rehabilitation one of the
biggest weaknesses in the criminal justice system.

But even the weakest link of the system is being fortified. Lawmakers
concerned about recidivism rates among parolees, which top 25 percent
some years, have granted significant budget increases the past two
years to the Tennessee Board of Probation & Parole.

The new money will put 50 new probation and parole officers and five
new supervisors to work this year, decreasing caseloads from an
average of about 85 to about 75. The board also is expanding the
Community Corrections program, a sentencing alternative that keeps
offenders from furthering their education in crime at Bighouse U.

Helping convicts make the transition to the straight life has always
been one of the most difficult missions in corrections. But it's
obviously one of the keys to perpetuating the crime rate decrease.
Most prison inmates eventually make it out of prison alive, even with
the extra-long sentences that are being handed out nowadays.

A recent appellate court ruling put Tennessee's parole board on
notice that it had to quit dragging its heels on inmates who have
been awaiting hearings for up to 20 years in some cases.

Combine that with the knowledge that the population we're talking
about sprang from a lot of dysfunctional families, dysfunctional
school systems and unhealthy environments and one thing becomes
clear: Factors that will continue to ease our fear of crime lie
beyond what's customarily considered the criminal justice system.

That's why you might see sheriff's deputies and police officers in
places you don't ordinarily see them -- working with elementary
school principals in Northaven, for example, and addressing such
issues as boredom among children in after-school programs.

In General Sessions Court a few weeks ago I watched as a middle-aged,
red-haired woman in an orange jumpsuit began a series of appearances
she would have to make on charges related to a burglary at my home.

It happened on a mild Sunday morning in February while I was doing
yard work and my wife and daughter were inside the house. A sneak
thief had lifted a driver's license and a bank card from the
breakfast table and headed for the nearest supermarket. Charges
immediately began showing up on the account. We wrote the experience
off as part of what my wife calls the extra tax we pay to live in Memphis.

We'd been hit before: jewelry, stereos, lawn care equipment, bicycles
and stuff I can't even remember now. But this case was different. It
was solved a few weeks later when a woman with a rap sheet that read
like an Elmore Leonard novel was caught in a stolen car with the
missing driver's license on her.

Now here she was in court, looking comfortable in her jail attire,
speaking animatedly to a public defender and respectfully to the
judge. She'd done time before, and seemed like someone who'd spent a
lot of hours in this environment. She's in a revolving door, I
thought, and doesn't even seem to care whether she gets out of it or not.

How can we ever feel safe or confident about our property, our
privacy, even our safety in a community with thousands of people like
her -- people who can't seem to imagine what their lives might be
like if they made different choices?

The lock-em-up approach is without a doubt having some effect on
crime, but to keep the crime rate dropping we need to make
fundamental changes in the society.

We can get into a heavy discussion about what that means.

Is it covenant marriages? Is it vouchers that allow more kids into
religiously oriented schools?

Is it shaping a stronger economic climate that eases fears among
parents about where they're going to get the money to buy food and
pay the utility bill? Is it a universal health care system that
leaves nobody behind?

Is it better drug rehabilitation programs?

Is it even possible to get to the point where it would seem out of
the question for someone to walk into your house while you're
otherwise occupied and help herself to whatever's handy?

The crime statistics might be encouraging, but we're keeping the
doors locked for now. The time to relax, even around the house on a
lazy Sunday morning, has not yet arrived.