A FEW OFFENDERS KEEP THE COURTS LOCKED UP

Many Chronic Inmates Are Mentally Ill And Addicted, Study Finds

Chronic offenders, most charged with minor crimes, are clogging Mecklenburg
County courts, crowding the jail and costing hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year to keep locked up, according to a new study. The study says
repeatedly locking up the same people -- many of them mentally ill and
addicted to alcohol or drugs -- is not working. Finding alternative ways to
deal with chronic offenders, the study says, will free up space in jails
for people who pose a serious threat to the community. "It's frustrating
for everyone from the arresting officers to the prosecutors and others in
the court system to deal with the same people over and over and over
again," Sheriff Jim Pendergraph said. "I wanted to get some facts on paper,
so the public knows what's going on and where our resources are and are not
going."

Pendergraph asked his research staff to conduct the study with Paul Friday,
a criminal justice professor at UNC Charlotte. They studied 81 chronic
offenders -- every person arrested in Mecklenburg more than seven times in
2005. The study showed the 81 offenders had been arrested a total of 783
times and charged with 1,567 crimes in 2005. They were typically rearrested
within a month each time they were released from jail.

They spent a total of 7,440 days in jail at an estimated cost of $811,000.
Friday said it would be much higher if the cost of police, prosecutors,
public defenders, and other court time was included. The study says it
would cost less to treat their illness and addictions compared with the
price of repeatedly jailing them. It recommends a pilot program to evaluate
alternatives.

Among the study's findings about the chronic offenders: A vast majority
of the charges -- eight in 10 -- were misdemeanors. Nearly 4 in 10 of the
1,567 charges were dismissed. The average number of convictions for each
offender was eight in 2005. Offenders were found not guilty in only four of
the 1,567 charges.

Of 637 cases where the offenders were found guilty, 85 percent were
sentenced to incarceration. Thirteen percent were placed on probation. 83
percent of the offenders had mental health problems. More than 50 percent
of those also had drug problems. Nearly 40 percent also had alcohol
problems. Most of the offenders -- 85 percent -- were men. Seventy-four
percent were African Americans.

Rather do time District Court Judge Phil Howerton said that out of about
100 jail inmates who come before him in one Monday session, 20 to 30 are
repeat offenders accused of trespassing, sleeping on a bench, being drunk
and disorderly, or shoplifting a bottle of wine.He said he allows many to
plead guilty in exchange for "time-served" to make room in the overcrowded
jails. "They are in effect serving 30-year sentences -- five, 10 or 20 days
at a time," Howerton said.

The study showed the average chronic offender was arrested for the first
time at age 22 and had been in and out of the criminal justice system for
nearly 15 years by January 2005.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Lillie, who supervises prosecutors who
handle misdemeanor cases, said Mecklenburg has alternative sentencing
programs but most chronic offenders don't qualify.

And, he said, if they are ordered into a program and don't complete it,
there is little the court can do because convictions for their misdemeanor
crimes carry so little jail time.

"You are trying to coerce them into going into some of these programs,"
Lillie said. "But they've all done time. They've done a lot of time. They'd
rather just take their time. It's a tough group to reach." Helping mentally
ill For two years now, Mecklenburg has had a mental health court that
monitors severely mentally ill criminals. But its coordinator, Don Moore,
said the court doesn't have much to hold over people ordered into it -- and
it can't offer some of the help many chronic offenders need.

"You are required to get a safe place to live, but then the guy looks at
you and says, 'OK, send me there,' " Moore said. "We've got some good
shelters but this clientele has a tendency to act out if they are not on
their medication and then they get banned from the shelters." Observer
Exclusive The Repeaters Really Add Up 81 People arrested in Mecklenburg
County at least seven times in 2005 1,567 Crimes they were charged with
that year 7,440 days they spent in jail $811,000 how much taxpayers paid
for those jail stays