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| State cuts to criminal supervision 'are a tragedy waiting to happen' |
| By seattlepi.com |
| Published: 12/02/2009 |
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It's a Wednesday morning about 4:30 a.m. at the corner of Second Avenue and Bell Street. Nothing is open. Police say there's no reason to be wandering around, and the roughly dozen people who are try to disappear when the cops' van turns the corner. The van carries members of the Neighborhood Corrections Initiative, a group that combines Department of Corrections officers with Seattle police and local sheriff's deputies. The officers call to each of the people by name. All have criminal records, and spend most their nights wandering downtown Seattle. "Before people go to Starbucks or their bus stop or their work parking lot, we're out in front of that Starbucks, at the bus stop, at the parking lot contacting the people who have warrants and who have violent histories," NCI supervisor Leslie Mills said. "If we don't clear them out, they have more interactions with people starting their work day." But state legislature cuts have shrunk the NCI group - part of the statewide Community Response Unit - because of state budget shortfalls last year. And there's no guarantee they'll all keep patrolling the streets as the state faces another $2.6 billion deficit. Concerns about the state reducing offender supervision have been raised again this week after police said Maurice Clemmons, a paroled felon with a violent record in Arkansas and Washington, gunned down four Lakewood patrol officers. Clemmons was shot and killed early Tuesday morning by a Seattle Police officer following a massive manhunt. Read More. |
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