Two recent, violent incidents allegedly involving parolees have focused attention on the issue of former prisoners returning to Rochester’s streets.
Michael Caruthers is accused of raping a teenage girl downtown last month, the day after he got out of prison. And Thomas Johnson III has been charged in the shooting death last week of Rochester Police Officer Daryl Pierson. Johnson is also a recent parolee. Caruthers and Johnson have pleaded not guilty.
Almost immediately following Pierson’s death, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren publicly vowed to work with state officials to examine the issue of former prisoners returning to the Rochester community — re-entry. Acknowledgement of the problems associated with re-entry goes back to at least the administration of former mayor Bob Duffy.
Approximately 20 prisoners a week are released from state prisons into the city, says a 2009 paper from the Center for Public Safety Initiatives at the Rochester Institute of Technology. These individuals often have histories of unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse.
And most will return to neighborhoods that are already struggling with crime, poverty, unemployment, and related issues. In the troubled 14621 ZIP code in Northeast Rochester, for example, one out of every 3.9 males between the ages of 20 to 49 is either on parole, probation, incarcerated, or otherwise under the supervision of the criminal justice system.
The effect is to further destabilize neighborhoods. The concentration of former prisoners influences everything from teen pregnancy, the paper says, to the sexual victimization of younger women and girls.
It also seriously hinders any chance of reform for the former prisoners.
Any serious discussion about parolees in city neighborhoods must include the concentration issue, says John Klofas, professor of criminal justice at RIT. Also important: lack of re-entry resources and the heavy caseloads carried by parole agents.
But at least people are talking about re-entry now and the needs and public safety issues that go along with it, Klofas says. That wasn’t always the case.
“The funding was never adequate to begin with and never expanded the way it should’ve been,” he says. “But you can’t complain about the early days, because we at least recognize the whole question of re-entry.”
Something to keep in mind: though many parolees — 39 percent — will find themselves back in prison, for most, it will be for parole violations, not violent crimes.
According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, 256 parolees were arrested on felony charges in Monroe County from 2004 to 2013. That’s 5.5 percent of the total felony arrests over that time.
In total, there were 598 parolees arrested from 2004 to 2013 in Monroe County — making up 3.5 percent of overall arrests.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
Don’t forget; the West Webster shooter murdered his grandmother and only served 17 years in prison. Then he laid a trap for firefighters on Christmas Eve so he could murder them. Why he only got 17 years for murdering his grandmother is a good question and I haven’t heard a satisfactory answer. You can get more for insider trading. I don’t understand the logic of our justice system if someone can break the law and go to prison for a violent crime (a murder of a family member no less) then eat their vegetables, do their laundry, get a GED and get time knocked off their sentence because while they couldn’t follow the law outside, they followed the rules inside, so they should be released early. If he had been put away for good, he wouldn’t have been released and murdered two volunteer firefighters and wounded three others. You shouldn’t be incapable of following society’s rules OUTSIDE PRISON and get time knocked off your sentence for being good INSIDE PRISON. It makes no sense whatsoever. If you follow society’s laws and mores you won’t go to prison. If you go to prison, you should be there for the entirety of your sentence. The thug who murdered Officer Pierson was weeks out of jail and wanted on a parole violation. Enough is enough.
Our prisons are overcrowded, and my guess is, understaffed. Who can know who will repeat their crime? Perhaps if we had fewer people incarcerated for crimes involving drugs that harm no one, we COULD afford to have sufficient staff to make better parole assessments.
September 5th, 2014
To the family of Officer Pierson and the Rochester Police Department : I am deeply sorry for the tragic loss of a husband, father, son, brother and more.
Officer Pierson, a decorated Rochester Police Tactical Officer, was murdered yesterday by a “career” criminal in an exchange of gunfire on Hudson Ave. near Avenue D in Rochester, NY. The officer was shot at close range by the accused. This “career” criminal was already a felon; on supervised parole by the State of New York; and, just released from serving a 3 1/2 year sentence in the Wyoming Correctional Facility.
I am OUTRAGED by this senseless, tragic, and cowardly act of violence against the Police Officer, the department and the Greater Rochester Community. And, I intend upon personally seeing to it… that justice is served to the fullest extent of the law. Recently, five RPD officers in our police department have been shot and seriously wounded in the line of duty… the majority of these police officer shootings have been committed by career criminals and to the best of my knowledge only one of the police officer shootings in the past were committed by two young men that were not career criminals. Officer Pierson was murdered by a “career criminal ” in illegal possession of a handgun in the progress of fleeing an officer of the law for a second violation of probation. When a convicted, served felon flees his/her probation someone has to find them wherever they may be and this is no easy task for NYS Probation or the local police departments where it is believed that the person is hiding.
All of Rochester knows that illegal handguns on the street are a big problem…but where did the murderer get the handgun ? How can this still be possible…to buy an illegal handgun as a convicted felon in 2014 ? Where are the handguns coming from in the States of our Union ? Why do young men of our Greater Rochester Area and career criminals continue to shoot, kill, and murder each other as well as police officers without any concern for life or consequences ? Why does a young wife and mother have to live the rest of her life with this terrible burden…the murder of her husband ? What will become of the children without a father ? And… more so, how can we help the entire community and the Pierson Family ?
Can we, as a community, help this family through this terrible tragedy… I know I will help the Pierson Family in any way possible. I will also, again and again…and over and over…until this entire community in Monroe County and Rochester finally realizes that all of us need to find solutions to this on going plague of violence and murder in Rochester toward Police ( the last line of defense). Until we remove illegal handguns …not legal handguns, however, from our streets the murder and violence will continue. Until we change the” mindset” of young men and career criminals the murder will continue.
We can make change by demanding a group meeting of the NYS Dept. of Parole and Corrections as well as the Monroe County Sheriff’s Dept.; The Rochester Police Dept. ; The Monroe County Dept. of Probation, Maggie Brooks of Monroe County and Lovely Warren of Rochester. Together we can and will hasten the process of finding strategies to take the handguns off the streets for illegal sale and possession. The next step would be to build probation and staffing personal to its highest level, in our communities’ histories, that would be humanly possible, in the NYS Probation and in the Monroe County Probation. The next step would be to intervene with young people at the early ages ( 7-16 years old ) of a young person’s life to attempt to change the “mindset” that shooting someone out of fear; or because of poverty; or because there is no father present in the home; or because there are no jobs available would not be the right choice to make and that poor choices will have negative, life long consequences for all families and our community.
There are already intervention programs in Rochester but these programs are underfunded. One of many programs, Teen Empowerment, can and will be expanded to a total of three locations. Central Ave., Genesee Street., and Hudson Ave near Ave D. As well, we need to elect City, County and Supreme Court Judges that will impose proper sentencing without plea bargaining.
The most important change or requirement of probation, in my opinion, could be that those that are released back into society on probation, after serving ” their time “, can and will be ordered into mandatory attendance in our area churches to learn how to better live moral lives with respect, dignity, hope, trust and care toward all people.
I am going to make sure that these changes do occur in Rochester / Monroe County and I will hold all elected and appointed officials accountable in every way legally possible.
THAT IS MY PROMISE TO THE ENTIRE PIERSON FAMILY AND THE RPD…
CRAIG R. MOFFITT
81 FINNEGAN WAY
HENRIETTA,NY 14467
585 755 8821 CELL
CRAIGM590@HOTMAIL.COM
We need a moratorium on releasing parolees into our community until the problem is fixed!
Actor-director Tim Robbins is leading an effort to provide offender rehabilitation in prisons. Anger management is taught through arts programs.
AND, as a society, can we seriously afford to let our schools CUT such programs?