Leadership Tomorrow Workshop #8

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The Scales of Justice/Keeping the Public safe

Thursday April 15, 1999

Superior Court of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa Police Department

Coordinator: Heather Somers ' 96-Costa Mesa City Council

Board Liaison: Jim Turner, Operations Lieutenant, City of Newport Beach

Before filing charges, be they misdemeanor or felony, the district attorney asks two questions pertaining to the investigative report given him/her by the police. One, was there a crime committed? Two, if it goes to trial, can it be won? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, formal charges are filed. Mr. Rakaukas pointed out that only 4-7 per cent of felony cases actually are tried in front of a jury. And, half of those end with a guilty verdict. In the others, some disposition is reached between the DA's Office and defense counsel more commonly known as a plea bargain. You can do the math, well over 95 percent of those charged with a felony, are either found guilty or plead guilty.

"...the system is still failing us!" ....Orange County Public Defender Carl Holmes

Next to speak was Orange County Public Defender Carl Holmes. As you might have guessed, the Public Defender and the District Attorney do not always share the same perspective on the criminal justice system. One of the first points that Mr., Holmes made was "the system is sill failing us!" He pointed that 60 per cent of all "Three Strikes" cases are either filed against drug users or the crime is associated with drugs sales. Only 5 per cent of a Three Strikes cases are filed against violent criminals, which Mr. Holmes finds particularly troubling because he believes the public supported the initiative because they believed the law would rid the streets of violent criminals. He also pointed out that it costs approximately a million dollars to house one Three Strikes offender for his/her lifetime.

According to Mr. Holmes. public defenders are committed to the idea of helping people. He concedes that with the election of Mike Corona as Orange County Sheriff, the DA's Office, the Sheriff's Department and the PD's Office are all working more towards helping people and things are changing for the better. The emphasis is moving more towards addressing the things that are "root" causes of crime rather than the "lock 'em up" mentality.

Mr. Holmes pointed out that the state of California went from one of the most liberal sentencing states in the 1970s and 1980s to one of the most stringent sentencing states in the 1990s. For example, there is only "One Strike for violent sex offenders. There is an automatic ten years added to a sentence if the crime was committed with a gun. And. then of course, the Three Strikes law.

On the issue of the Three Strikes Law, I expected Mr. Rakaukas and Mr Holmes to have polar opposite positions. As it turned out, the two had strikingly similar criticisms of this controversial law. Mr. Rakaukas had two basic criticisms of the law. One, there is no "washout" period for previous felony offenses and two, the seriousness of the "trigger" offense. Mr. Holmes pointed out that that the voters were misled on the Three Strikes Initiative. In his view, the public believed that in voting for Three Strikes, they would be removing violent felons from society. In fact says Holmes, for most felons serving lifetime sentences for Three Strikes, the trigger felony was a non-violent crime. He also believes  the law is inherently cruel and unfair citing 60- 70 per cent of the Three Strikes convictions are handed down to Hispanics or Blacks. The inference? That socio-economic status of the Three Strikes defendant plays a significant role in conviction rates.

"...Three Strikes did not reduce crime overall, if it has had any affect at all, it was a demographic reduction"    Public Defender Carl Holmes

Next to speak was Orange County Sheriff Mike Corona. He began is short visit with us by saying that the Orange County Sheriff's Department is the second largest in the state and the fifth largest in the United States. It has the sixth largest jail facility in the United States as well.

"There are 1.8 million people in jails across the country, the largest inmate population of any industrialized country in the world...do you feel safer?"  Sheriff Mike Corona

Sheriff Corona was just recently elected. He is trying to achieve three goals as Orange County Sheriff. 1. Drug users arrested will get behavior modification treatment 7 days a week 24 hours a day while incarcerated. 2. All mentally ill offenders will be provided the treatment they need. 3. To get the private sector to work with the Sheriff's Department with no risk to them. His point? Invest in kids today before they get into the criminal justice system. Sheriff Corona also praised the District Attorney, the Public Defender and the Judges within the county court system for their eagerness in trying to help him reach these three goals.

After Sheriff Corona departed, our group heard from several judges. The first was Judge David  Velasquez who presides over the Orange County Drug Court. The Drug Court is sometimes referred to as "Therapeutic Jurisprudence". The Drug Court tries to address the causes for criminal behavior which as we all know, much of the time it is drugs. In order to be eligible for Drug Court, the defendant must be an addict, admit to being an addict, admit guilt for the crime for which he/she has been charged and it must be a second offense.

Instead of doing "hard time" for the conviction, the offender is enrolled in a VERY stringent drug treatment program. Should the offender fail the program, what would have been their original jail sentence is doubled. To offer this program, the courts, the Probation Department, Orange County Health Services, the District Attorney and the Public Defender all have to work co-operatively. There is in place a system of graduated sections before failure. The first relapse requires an essay as to why it occurred. The second relapse will require a number of community service hours in addition to the treatment, and for the third relapse, there is jail time. On the "up" side. the case and complaint are dismissed once the offender completes the program. We were privileged to meet one of the participants in the program. He spoke to us briefly about what his life was like prior to this program and what his life is like now, It was encouraging listening to him and realizing how committed he was to turning his life around.

"...blight breeds blight." Judge David Velasquez Drug Court

California State University at Long Beach is conducting a long term study of the effectiveness of the drug Court Program. Early finding show that 10 per cent of those that complete the program are rearrested on similar charges verses 65 per cent of re-arrests for those who are not in the program. The estimated costs to house an inmate in the County Jail is $35.65 per day. The costs of one participant in the Drug Court Program is $11.35 per day. There are 300 participants in the Drug Court Program county-wide. It was also pointed out that the Drug Diversion program that is mandated for first-time drug arrests has only about a 25 per cent success rate.

Although the program seems to be showing positive results, it is still not available everywhere in the county. It is limited by the number of probation officers. By law that ratio can not exceed four to one. The Drug Court was established by Janet Reno in Miami in 1985. There is an effort underway in Orange County to start a Juvenile Drug Court which would operate in a similar way for teenagers.

Next to speak was Judge Robert Hudson of the Juvenile Court. He was critical of the Drug Court only because he felt that it turned Judges into drug counselors. In his view, that was beyond the scope of their duties and training. Judge Hudson explained that his court really has two roles. One, in the case of juvenile delinquency, to protect the community from the juvenile. Two, in the case of dependency, to protect the juvenile from the community. What do they have in common? According to Judge Hudson it is substance abuse.

Judge Hudson provided our group with a number of astounding statistics. For example it is estimated that of the 1.8 million people now incarcerated in this country, 60 per cent of them were from broken homes. On the dependency side, in three fourths of all cases brought before him, the mother is poor and trying to raise her children with no support from the father. The Three Strikes Law has dramatically impacted Juvenile Court. Judge Hudson pointed out that when "mom" and "dad" are arrested on a trigger offense, their children are immediately sent to the Orangewood Home for children and now the criminal justice system is responsible for their welfare.

"...foster parents can now adopt. Today a lot of "yuppie" couples are now applying to become foster parents who would have never wanted to do that before."   Judge Robert Hudson of the Orange County Juvenile Court

The mentally ill also dramatically impact the Juvenile Court according to Judge Hudson. He points out that many of the homeless are having children who they are unable to care for and many of these children eventually end up being part of the "system" making them a large percentage of the cases on the dependency side of the Juvenile Court.

Finally, Judge Hudson brought up for discussion a little known law called the "Six month Rule". Essentially what this law dictates is that once a child under 3 years is removed from the custody of the parent, the parent has exactly six months to correct whatever the cause was for the Juvenile Court to intervene. If the parent does not comply, the Judge must choose between adoption, foster care or long-term residency in Orangewood or a facility like it. Blood relatives of the child are not given preference if the Judge chooses adoption.

After lunch at the Newport Rib Company which was provided this month by Rick Ruiz LT Board Member, we met at The Costa Mesa Police Station to hear a panel discussion on City  Problems, Policies and Programs. The panelists were the three Police Chiefs from Costa Mesa, Irvine and Newport Beach. The first to speak was Chief David Snowden of Costa Mesa. He talked about the organization of the Costa Mesa Police Department and what the different divisions were responsible for. He also talked about its Mission.

The next to speak was Robert Mc Donnell, the Chief of Police in Newport Beach. I was particularly interested in what he might say, not just because I live in Newport Beach, but also because I am going to begin the Citizen's Police Academy in the NBPD in June. Chief McDonnell talked about the problems facing Newport Beach because it is a resort community. People come to Newport Beach to vacation, on long weekends and to do a number of things associated with the ocean and beach. Unfortunately, gang members like the beach as well and sometimes problems arise here in Newport Beach because of that. Most of the time it is when rival gang members meet up with each other somewhere on the sand. Another problem with Newport Beach, being somewhat of a resort, is the number of places that serve alcoholic beverages. Problems associated with public drunkenness are very common on the streets and the boardwalk.

Chief Charles Brobeck from Irvine had an interesting comment about gang activity in Irvine. He said that his community is somewhat of a "haven" for gang members who live in other parts of Southern California. Many of them come to Irvine to escape it for the weekend. Most of the time, the only problems caused by gang members in Irvine are complaints by residents about their demeanor or their dress.

"Wan'na'be gang members present a greater risk to the general public than do the gangs."    Charles Brobeck, Chief of Police for the City of Irvine.

All three Chiefs spoke about the co-operation that these three departments have. It seemed that all three men new each other well and and saw the need for police departments of neighboring cities to work closely together.

After the Panel Discussion with the three Police Chiefs we walked behind the City Hall Chambers to the Costa Mesa Fire Department Station No. 5. There we were greeted by Battalion Chief Jim Ellis. After some opening remarks he turned the program over a team of fireman who spoke about what the fire department offers to the residents of Costa Mesa. Those services include:

Community Relations (Information, Community Map and Community Volunteers)

City Services (Public, Private and Non-Profit)

TIPS (Trauma Intervention Program)

Citizens Helping Citizens (training for citizens to provide emotional and practical support)

CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Train and prepare citizens to survive 72 hours following a disaster.

Color Honor Guard (pays tribute to "fallen" fireman, various dedications and parades)

Explorer Post 400 w/ Boy Scouts of America (designed for young adults to see what fire service is like before deciding on it as a career)

CPR Training (it is possible in the near future that in order to get a California Driver's License, one will have to be trained in CPR)

Future Programs will include:(SHIP [Senior Home Inspection Program]; Community Volunteer Program; Safety Preparedness Trailer).

Next was a demonstration of the K-9 Team. This team really just consists of an Officer and his/her dog. But the dog is amazing. The Costa Mesa Police Department purchases the dogs in Europe already trained. They have found that it is more efficient and well as economical to purchase a trained dog over training them "in house". The dogs are used primarily in narcotics and search and rescue. We were told that although the dog will pursue and is capable of disabling someone suspecting of a crime, this is the exception rather than the rule.

It was explained that the dog probably has the equivalent intelligence of a two-year old human being, and that it does not respond to reason but rather incentives like "treats" or chewing rags. After the task is completed, the dog must be rewarded or it will cease to perform. The officer teamed with this K-9 removed a packet of heroine from his shirt pocket and out of sight of the dog placed in a single locker in a wall of lockers behind him. In order to be rewarded with a chew rag, the dog located the packet of heroine in a couple of seconds.

I asked the question what happened to the dogs after they reached the age where they could no longer perform at the level expected. The response was that the department makes them available to the officer that has worked with him over the years at a nominal cost and the officer usually buys the dog from the department. Thinking about this now, I wonder whether the sex of the dog makes any difference as to their ability to perform as a police K-9 dog?

The last demonstration was the made by the Helicopter Unit. I already knew something about this because I play racquetball with a member of the Helicopter Unit in the OC Sheriffs department. But, there is always something exciting about a helicopter. The one we saw was brand new and had all of the current technology. The pilots eagerly explained how much of it worked while in flight. I know all of us were wishing for a ride, but, of course, that was not possible. Instead we just imagined what it might be like to patrol the skies looking for the "bad guys". One of the questions that I asked, after a story was relayed to us by one of the officers about a suspect shooting at the helicopter, was whether or not the glass was bullet-proof? To my surprise it is not, but it didn't seem to concern the officers, they said that rarely is one hit by gunfire. That did not seem reassuring to me, but then I don't have to fly in it either.

The Helicopter Unit is a co-operative endeavor between the Costa Mesa and Newport Beach Police Departments. The Unit also serves the Santa Ana Police when needed.