Sunday, August 02, 2009
News, Atlanta

Back on the street again

Midtown battles the same offenders over and over 

The corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Boulevard, home to an “abundant drug supply” just two blocks from Atlanta Police headquarters at City Hall East. The APD is in the process of moving to a new facility downtown.
Photo by Stephanie Ramage

“Unless they are caught with a gun or drugs on them, the judges are not going to do anything and the suspects know that.”—APD officer who spoke on condition of anonymity

 

By Patrick Bray and Stephanie Ramage

Midtown resident Kim Bannerman was attacked in her minivan while stopped at a traffic light at the corner of 5th Street and Peachtree Street one day in June. 

Her attacker, Kim Paige, a Midtown vagrant with mental issues, stood in the street obstructing traffic and then climbed on the hood of Bannerman’s van, maneuvering around to the driver’s side window and attempting to pull Bannerman out of the van by her hair.

              “I have a handgun, but in that incident it wouldn’t have been appropriate,” Bannerman explained at a recent meeting of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance (MPSA). “There were people around.”

              Instead, Bannerman laid on her horn. Pedestrians and other motorists came to her rescue. A local chef followed Paige down the street and assisted police in the arrest.

              The MPSA believes that Paige will return to Midtown after being released from jail.            
 
Besides Paige, the MPSA is keeping an eye out for several other vagrants they don’t want to come back. One is Kenneth Lamb. Known as the “barefoot panhandler,” Lamb has spent most of his adult life in prison for rape, aggravated assault and robbery. He frequently panhandles aggressively, using a story that he has no shoes. “He is drawn to the abundant drug supply at Ponce [de Leon Avenue] and Boulevard just two blocks from [Atlanta] police headquarters,” a recent MPSA newsletter stated. (The APD is in the process of moving to a new facility Downtown.)

              Yet another concern is Ricky Love, who is currently in jail after years of terrorizing people in Midtown. The Fulton County Superior Court convicted him in September 2008 for aggravated assault. Love was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment but credited with two years already served in pre-trial detention. The judge suspended the remainder under two conditions:  Love must undergo treatment for mental health issues and banishment from Fulton County.

Although crime is down overall in Midtown, according to the MPSA, recidivism remains a constant source of worry. Some residents have seen the same faces in the backs of police cars so often they can identify the offenders and rattle off their rap sheets.  

    The issue of recidivism is so pressing that Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves showed up at a very heated press conference held by Mayor Shirley Franklin and Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington last week to point out the role that it might be playing in Atlanta’s disturbing crime problem. Eaves said a majority of the occupants of the Fulton County Jail will be re-arrested within three years of their release. He also pointed out that the jail is the metro area’s leading provider of mental health services, since most public mental health resources have been cut over the past few decades. Eaves said he was tired of seeing the mentally ill, substance-addicted, poor and homeless incarcerated.

             The MPSA does not cast the blame on Atlanta City Hall or the police department, but on the judges who release the offenders, who then return to Midtown and commit the same crimes again.

              “Unless they are caught with a gun or drugs on them, the judges are not going to do anything and the suspects know that,” says one policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Judges typically do not speak to the press, and District Attorney Paul Howard could not be reached for comment. A staffer says the DA’s stable of attorneys were all attending a conference last week.

But, according to Clayton County Juvenile Court Judge Steve Teske, it’s the district attorney—in any court—who has the most control over things like recommending that bail be denied, or offering a plea bargain, two things that often determine whether repeat offenders wind up back on the street.  According to Teske, immediate past president of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges of Georgia and former delegate to the assembly of the American Correctional Association representing adult community corrections, most serious crimes in Atlanta are bound over to Fulton County Superior Court from Municipal Court.

At that point, the district attorney would tell the presiding judge why an individual may or may not be a threat to the community. The district attorney, says Teske, has the responsibility to tell the judge whether he would recommend that bail be denied or set high enough to reflect the seriousness of the offense. The idea is to make sure the accused person shows up for trial. Someone who owns no property and has no job is more likely not to show up than someone who has a lot to lose. 

“We live in a free society, not a police state. Almost everyone has a right to bail,” says Teske, “or to be bonded out.” Some are released on what is called an “OR” bond—that’s “own recognizance,” which means they don’t pay a dime to be let out. “But, if they are a danger to the community, they can be denied bail or bond.”

It’s during that time between arrest and court date that neighbors may be seeing previously nabbed criminals back in their neighborhoods. That’s also when police may be picking up the offenders for yet another crime.

While some point to jail overcrowding as a culprit, Teske said that really should not figure into a judge’s sentencing equation.

              The Fulton County Jail normally holds 2,250 inmates and is one of the largest in the country. But according to Chief Jailer Riley Taylor, because of a jail renovation project currently underway, it holds fewer inmates than usual.    

               Under the Master Jail Complex Plan, the Fulton County Jail will be expanded to hold 5,035 inmates. Until then, inmates are being outsourced to the DeKalb County Jail, Hall County Jail, and Union City Jail.           
  
Instead of keeping them locked up, Taylor believes the key to stopping repeat offenders is to intervene in their lifestyles of crime, violence and chemical dependency.

                “Breaking this cycle would lower crime, reduce the crime effect upon victims, prevent future victims, and enhance overall public safety,” says Taylor. “This is what community policing and crime prevention is all about.” SP