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 |  Subject: 6,000 fugitives are expected to turn themselves in at Newark  Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:46 pm | |
| Charles Scott woke one morning to pounding at his front door. A dozen federal marshals armed with shotguns and wearing bulletproof vests were looking for his daughter, Sonia Scott, who had long since fled to North Carolina to avoid six warrants for offenses she committed in Gloucester and Camden counties.
For two years she was on the run, Charles Scott said. Then, last fall, the father found out about a federal law enforcement initiative that gives fugitives with open warrants for non-violent crimes a second chance to surrender, with little risk of jail time.
Initially hesitant, Sonia Scott turned herself in at the "Fugitive Safe Surrender" Camden program last November, cleared her warrants, was given a year probation and began to pay off her fines.
"It gave the whole family a new start," her father said. "It was a trauma that no family should have to go through."
Federal, state and local law enforcement officials are to announce Monday that next month fugitives will again be able to turn themselves in and face less risk of going to jail.
This time, the program will be in Newark, which, like Camden, is struggling to control crime.
As many as 6,000 fugitives from across New Jersey are expected to turn themselves in between Nov. 4 and Nov. 7 at Bethany Baptist Church, making it one of the largest operations of its kind in the nation, officials said.
More than 50 agencies -- representing law enforcement, government, education, health care and community outreach -- will take part in the initiative. Fugitives from Union and Essex counties are targeted, but no one will be turned away, officials said.
Roughly 9,000 people have outstanding warrants involving criminal offenses in Essex County alone, most of them from Newark, East Orange and Irvington, Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said. Union County has more than 1,000 people with warrants, the prosecutor’s office there said.
At Bethany church, there will be waiting areas with refreshments. Because New Jersey strictly adheres to church and state separation, court proceedings will take place at the nearby Priory, a secular facility that houses a restaurant and a neighborhood organization, said Neal Buccino, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Parole Board.
Only about half of those who show up at the church will likely have their cases heard, said Essex County Assignment Judge Patricia Costello. The rest will be given a court date and a voucher, (a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card) which can be shown to police in the event of a minor traffic stop or other infraction.
The initiative helps the courts, local municipalities, police officers and the people who live in fear and in hiding because of outstanding warrants.
James Plousis, U.S. marshal for New Jersey, said public safety is a key part of the program. A motorist who has a warrant and is approached by police may think "fight or flight," Plousis said. "And most police chases don’t end well." Fugitive Safe Surrender in fact began after Cleveland police officer Wayne Leon was shot and killed in 2000 while trying to arrest a fugitive on a parole violation.
Judge Costello points out that thousands of warrants that "would have had to be executed in the future," are cleared. Municipalities receive money from fines that may have otherwise taken months or years to collect, "and we’re putting people back on track."
It was that "promise of a brighter future," said the Rev. William Howard Jr. of Bethany church, that led his congregation to agree to host the program.
"There are so many social benefits, like a driver’s license and Social Security, that these people are exempt from utilizing because of the outstanding warrants," Howard said. "It’s pretty fundamental stuff."
From exit surveys with the fugitives in Cleveland, Kent State University researchers found that only 53 percent graduated from high school, but only 16 percent had attended any kind of higher education. Fifty-one percent didn’t work at a job with a paycheck.
Harry Green turned himself in last year in Camden, after discovering he had a warrant for not paying a $3,200 housing violation on a rental property he owns. Green, 67, couldn’t afford to pay the full amount, so he worked out a payment plan through the safe surrender initiative. Otherwise, he said, "I might have been sitting in jail."
For Sonia Scott, whose offenses included riding in the back seat of a stolen car, forgery and violating her probation, surrendering lifted a heavy load from her shoulders.
"It’s great to be able to see my family again, to not have to be worried I’ll get caught. I’m free to be me now," she said from her home in North Carolina. The 37-year-old remains there but now visits her relatives in South Jersey, something she couldn’t do when she was in hiding.
In the four years since its inception, Fugitive Safe Surrender has been staged in 15 cities across the country, including Phoenix, Philadelphia and Detroit, where 6,578 people turned themselves in, the highest so far. Camden was second with 2,245. Of those, just nine people were arrested, and 83 who surrendered had no active warrants, officials said.
In total, nearly 21,000 people have surrendered through the program.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/newark_church_to_host_federal.html |
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