MCAO Law Enforcement Liaison JANUARY 2010

JANUARY 2010
MCAO Law Enforcement Liaison

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office (MCAO) Law Enforcement Liaison is a monthly newsletter informing law enforcement officials about new case summaries, relevant statutory changes, and important MCAO policy updates. Any suggestions on how to improve the newsletter should be made via a reply to this email.

STATUTES
FISCAL CUTS THREATEN SAFETY AND SECURITY

Over the past two decades, Arizona law enforcement officers have had the ability to use mandatory sentencing laws to insure prison sentences for targeted offenders. As a result, crime rates in Arizona have been dropping. This drop in crime, in large part, is attributable to the use of incapacitation as a crime prevention technique. In spite of the overwhelming successes of mandatory sentencing, the looming state financial crises may be the greatest threat facing the security and safety of the citizens of Arizona.

In the next year the Arizona State Legislature will have to make difficult financial decisions as it attempts to balance the budget. Some areas of the budget are protected by federal rules and regulations governing the distribution of economic stimulus money; however, Department of Corrections funding is not protected by such federal policy decisions. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office anticipates that some legislators will attempt to balance the budget at the expense of prison funding. Cutting Department of Correction funding will require changes in state criminal code sentencing provisions. And such changes in mandatory sentencing will remove invaluable crime fighting tools from law enforcement officer's tool belt.

For details on the Arizona Crime Trends and the success of mandatory sentencing laws in Arizona, please see the attached special report on crime rates. Law enforcement officers at all levels need to make their voices heard on this very important issue if we are to protect and defend the security of the citizens of Arizona.
CASES
9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Greene v. Camreta __ F.3d __, 2009 WL 4674129 (9th Cir., Dec. 10, 2009)
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a decision which will be of interest to any police officers who handle child abuse cases. The court held that the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures apply when child abuse investigators seize and interrogate a minor suspected of being a victim of child abuse.
Seizing and interrogating a minor at school in connection with a criminal child abuse investigation, without a warrant, court order, exigent circumstances or parental consent, violates the Fourth Amendment. A court order authorizing an agency to seize a child in connection with a child abuse investigation is equivalent to a warrant for Fourth Amendment purposes. Furthermore, the court held that parents and minor children have mutual Fourteenth Amendment rights for the parent to be present while the child is receiving medical attention.

POLICY
Crime rates, both in Arizona and nationwide, have been dropping. This is, in a large part, attributable to the use of incapacitation as a crime prevention technique.
• Criminal justice literature indicates that violent and repeat offender crime is committed by a small group of offenders responsible for a large portion of reported crime.
• Repeat offenders account for a majority of crime. Nationally, recidivism rates have remained at 60% - 70% for decades; two of every three prisoners who are released, get arrested for committing new offenses again, regardless of the correction programs in place. 1
• The national re-arrest rate for violent offenders is 61% and 73% for property offenders.1
• Releasing offenders early may save the State the cost of incarceration, but research indicates that failing to incarcerate criminals is more costly to tax payers. The Rand Offender study found that if a probationer stays out of the criminal justice system, he/she will likely commit 8-15 more crimes before being arrested resulting in a minimum of $1,496,000 spent in victimization costs, lost earnings and public programs. Of course, these numbers do not include the stress and trauma that are inflicted upon the victims of the additional crimes that are being committed.

When offenders are incarcerated, they will, at least for some portion of time, be prevented from committing crimes in the community. The end result is that when incarceration rates go up, crime rates go down.

By incapacitating the violent and repeat offender Arizona reaps many benefits; increased quality-of-life, safer communities, increased economic and business attractiveness, and reduced medical, auto and homeowner insurance claims.

1From Bureau of Justice Statistics 2004 special report: Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1983, by A.J. Beck, and B.E. Shipley,  April 1989, NCJ 116261, and Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994, by P.A. Langan and D.J. Levin, NCJ 193427.

The following funnel demonstrates that only a small proportion of criminal offenders ever see the inside of a prison. The transition of offenses through the criminal justice system highlights the severity of the crime problem and leniency of the criminal justice system. Of all reported offenses in Arizona, less than one percent of those who commit crime in Arizona are ever sentenced to the DOC.

Caveat: Transitions of the funnel occur over time. Reported offenses do not always occur in the same year as arrest, filing or sentencing. Each funnel piece, therefore, is not representative of a one-to-one case comparison.
Proposition 200 mandates that first and second time drug offenders be placed on probation if the defendant accepts probation and participates in appropriate treatment. In fact, to go to DOC for the personal possession of drugs a defendant must have done at least one of the following:

• Refused to participate in drug treatment while on probation.
• Committed a second or third drug offense while on probation.
• Rejected an opportunity to be on probation.
• Committed an offense involving the use of Methamphetamine.
• Have been convicted of a violent offense.