Many suspects have been behind bars before
Reformer lays some blame on state's prisons, saying inmates 'have gone to a crime school and graduated with honors'
By Thomas Stauffer
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The 45 men and six women listed as suspects in Tucson homicides last year are most accurately linked not by race, age or part of the city, but rather by the presence of a criminal background.
Of the 51 suspects, 26 have criminal records. Nine served time in Arizona prisons, while 17 others had been sentenced for juvenile offenses.
Those numbers take on added significance when suspects involved in domestic violence are factored out. Unlike murders committed for reasons varying from robbery to drugs to gangs, murders between family members rarely involve people with criminal records, said Sgt. Judy Altieri of the Tucson Police Department.
Last year was no exception in the Tucson area. Of the 14 suspects in domestic-related homicides, only one had a criminal history: 27-year-old Daniel Renwick, who was charged with slaying his ex-girlfriend and her father on Oct. 5.
Subtracting those involved in domestic homicides leaves 37 suspects, of whom more than 70 percent have a criminal past.
A prison-reform advocate said that percentage is all too representative of the nation as a whole and is due in no small part to the failings of prison systems such as the Arizona Department of Corrections.
"DOC is run like a gladiator school," said Donna Leone Hamm, a retired justice of the peace and founder of Middle Ground Prison Reform. "They've gone to a crime school and graduated with honors."
Subtracting those involving domestic violence leaves 37 accused, of whom over 70% had records
|
At the age of 19, Francisco Goff, now 27, was sent to the state's prison complex in Tucson for third-degree burglary, theft and criminal damage in December 1992. Goff was written up for 13 minor violations, including disobeying orders and theft, and one major violation for rioting during his incarceration.
He was released in July 1997. A little more than 2 1/2 years later, Goff, described by police as a drifter, was charged with the Jan. 7, 2000, murder of 19-year-old Daniel Sanchez at his Downtown apartment, the first of 90 homicides reported in the Tucson area last year.
"There is a requirement to harden yourself in order to survive prison," Hamm said. "These people become very rageful for what they have witnessed and experienced in prison, and I think that's why you see some of them escalate to violence."
But Daryl Fischer, research manager for the Corrections Department, said offenders who come into the prison system nonviolent and come out violent are rare.
"When you look at those that are committing violence when they get out, most of them have violence somewhere in their background," Fischer said.
Four of the nine homicide suspects who served prison time did so for violent offenses including aggravated assault and drive-by shooting, while two more committed violent offenses as juveniles.
The department conducted an extensive study in 1996 of recidivism, or the rate of repeat crimes, of more than 38,000 released inmates over a nine-year period, Fischer said.
The study found that a variety of factors affected recidivism, the most critical being a prior history of violence as a juvenile, Fischer said.
"Narcotics is also a major risk factor, and we also find that age is a good predictor. Younger offenders tend to recidivate more than older ones," he said. "We also find that those who reside in more metropolitan counties are a higher risk than those in rural counties."
Fischer said the fact that nine of the 51 Tucson-area homicide suspects served time in Arizona prisons was "not an unreasonable number."
"That's something I would expect," he said. "It's really kind of hard to assess because homicide is often a situational-type crime."
Hamm said juvenile facilities have "a little more focus" on treatment.
"They actually allow the word 'treatment' to be used in that milieu," she said. "But there is no back pressure on the prison system. There's no punishment to DOC when they release somebody who is worse off than when they came into the system."
DOC's assistant director of programs and services, Robert Olding, argued that the system does indeed include treatment and other programs. And it recently began a pilot program to increase the number of inmates who seek job training, education and substance-abuse treatment.
Olding said that 20 years ago, prisons had a different focus. "The idea was that a happy inmate was a good inmate," he said. "What was missing was assessing and addressing the needs of these inmates that kept them from adjusting to society on release and recommitting crimes."
Olding said about 38 percent of approximately 25,000 inmates in DOC prisons in fiscal year 2000 took advantage of programs in substance abuse, education and job training.
The pilot program to increase that percentage is under way at three DOC prisons representing about 10 percent of the total inmate population. It uses incentives like higher-paying jobs and transfers to lower-security prisons to induce inmates to seek high-school-equivalency certificates and vocational training, and to get substance-abuse treatment if needed, Olding said.
"Basically, we assign need scores in different areas and then address those needs," he said.
If the results prove positive, Corrections hopes to have the program started at all prisons in the system in about a year. The cost will be projected when the pilot program is completed and evaluated in July, he said. The problem the department will face is matching the resources available with the needs assessed, Olding said. "We're not a legislative body, so we can't appropriate those funds," he said.
The goal of reducing recidivism among juveniles prompted a major philosophical change for the better at the Pima County Juvenile Court Center, spokeswoman Gabriela Rico said.
Four years ago, the center received funding from the Board of Supervisors to begin intense supervision of first-time juvenile offenders, Rico said.
Studies revealed that 10 percent of the juveniles in the program committed offenses within 12 months, compared with a recidivism rate of 37 percent of juveniles before the program began, she said.
"We used to intensify the supervision as a kid got more and more offenses, but with the community supervision program, we shifted that to kids who are just coming into the system," Rico said. "What that allows us to do is to go into the homes, to get a better grasp on what's going on with the family as a whole and work from there."
* Contact Thomas Stauffer at 629-9412 or at
stauffer@azstarnet.com.
