Violent Criminals

A bill aimed at cracking down on violent criminals was unanimously approved by the Maryland Senate yesterday.Under the measure, violent offenders would have to serve at least half of their prison sentences before parole, rather than the current one-fourth. And a third conviction for a violent crime could bring a mandatory sentence of life without parole.Other provisions would open up secret parole hearings and require the Maryland Parole Commission to deal more harshly with former inmates who are arrested while on parole.

Baltimore police moved Monday to increase foot patrols over the next month and conduct street sweeps of violent fugitives after a weekend that saw six people killed and continued a violent start to 2013. Baltimore has recorded 35 homicides this year, a 40 percent increase over the same period in 2012. The spike made for the deadliest January and February in the city in four years. The increase has been particularly alarming to residents of West Baltimore, which has been the scene of 11 killings since Jan. 1. Two men were killed within five blocks of each other there Saturday and Sunday.

Twenty-seven murder suspects were among the 126 people arrested by federal and local authorities in a 10-week search for violent criminals, the U.S. marshal for Maryland announced yesterday.U.S. Marshal Scott A. Sewell said the manhunt, dubbed "Operation Gunsmoke," landed more than half the fugitives lawmen were looking for at the outset of the searches. Another fourth either were already in jail on other charges or dead.Operation Gunsmoke was part of a nationwide hunt for violent offenders that landed 3,313 criminal suspects in 40 cities, including 224 people wanted for murder.

I have a suggestion to add to the gun control debate. As well as requiring a complete and thorough background check on anyone wanting to own a gun, we should deny gun ownership to anyone convicted of driving under the influence. That seems to me to be a pretty basic and common sense approach. It might also deter people from driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs if they know that they will automatically lose the right to own a gun. We could save hundreds or even thousands of lives right there.

The House Judiciary Committee approved yesterday an anti-crime bill that would require Maryland's Parole Commission and prosecutors to deal more harshly with violent criminals.Violent offenders would have to serve at least 50 percent of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole, rather than the current one-fourth. Violent crimes include murder, rape, arson, kidnapping and robbery.The bill resembles one passed by the Senate last week in its parole reforms, but the measures differ in their approach to the sentencing of violent career criminals.

LONDON, Ohio -- President Clinton is calling on Congress to trim back the so-called three-strikes-and-you're-out provisions of its pending crime bill, saying that life imprisonment for repeat offenders should be reserved for those whose crimes "threaten other people's lives."Speaking here at an event that closely resembled a George Bush rally during the 1988 presidential campaign -- complete with the Pledge of Allegiance and a tableau of more than 100 uniformed officers posed behind him -- Mr. Clinton yesterday outlined the provisions he hoped would be included in the crime bill now being fashioned in Congress.

A state court panel voted 11-10 yesterday against a proposal to restrict the nearly complete discretion judges have to shorten violent criminals' sentences, but sent the controversial issue to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, for a final decision. Prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers both found a silver lining in what is simply an advisory vote by the court system's Rules Committee. Prosecutors say they are closer in their decade-long quest to see time limits on sentence reductions.

Rodney Eugene Solomon was given life without possibility of parole for the auto hijacking murder of Pam Basu. He will not be able to harm an innocent victim ever again. That is one thing prison can do -- prevent the dangerous from doing harm in society. Prison may or may not be able to rehabilitate, but it sure can incapacitate. It is no coincidence that rising crime rates leveled off and even declined when a prison-building boom began.If Solomon had been behind bars last September, Pam Basu would be alive today.

FROM an editorial in the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal on the crime bill:"Spending billions on more police and prisons doesn't attack the causes of crime."The obsession in Congress with attacking violent crime is understandable. People, particularly in metropolitan areas, are fed up with crime. They are tired of being afraid to walk down their streets, and they are demanding that Congress do something."But isn't this approach -- more police, harsher penalties, more prisons -- somewhat misguided?

Maryland's top public safety official said yesterday he supports abolishing parole for violent criminals if the state can come up with the money to do it.But the official, Bishop L. Robinson, cautioned that curtailing parole will not make a significant dent in crime unless the state also tries to prevent youngsters from becoming criminals.Money must be targeted to programs that help poor and troubled children stay in school and out of trouble, he said.Mr. Robinson spoke yesterday to a House Appropriations subcommittee in Annapolis and elaborated on his views in an interview afterward.

A 28-year-old Columbia man sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering two people in Howard County in 2007 was found dead and bloodied in his Allegany County prison cell early Thursday morning, according to Maryland State Police. Charles David Richardson IV, who was known as "Face" when he was arrested in May 2007 in the murders of an acquaintance and a 7-Eleven clerk, was found about 5 a.m. under a blanket in his cell bed with trauma to his head, police said. Guards at the North Branch Correctional Institution in Cresaptown rushed into his cell after observing his cellmate "in possession of clothing that appeared to be bloodstained" outside the cell on an upper-level tier, police said.

Halfway houses ease re-entry into society Halfway houses such as Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center are not intended to restrain violent criminals ("A halfway house full of holes," Feb. 17). As the photograph that accompanies The Sun's article demonstrates, a halfway house is not a jail. Jails are built to separate criminals from society, while halfway houses are designed to integrate criminals into the community. Many halfway house occupants are authorized to leave the facility during working hours, and these facilities feature no razor-wire fences or sharpshooters.

Facing increases in homicides and shootings and a dip in police morale, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon outlined yesterday her plan to reduce violence in a closed-door presentation before roughly 500 city officers who were ordered to attend. "You hear rumors that people don't understand the [crime] plan," she said in a briefing to reporters after her 30-minute meeting with officers at the downtown police headquarters. "I just wanted to make it very clear what the plan is. ... Communicate the mission.

Mayor Martin O'Malley's campaign for governor began airing a television commercial last night that defends his crime-fighting record and accuses Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of failing to keep violent felons behind bars. What the ad says: O'Malley's 30-second spot, set to melodramatic music, directly responds to accusations in recent Ehrlich commercials that the Democratic mayor has manipulated crime statistics "to make the city look safer." "A desperate Bob Ehrlich has turned to misleading attacks on a city that's dramatically reduced violent crime and murders," the male narrator states.

James Eric Olsson, a psychologist who in more than four decades of practice was called upon to evaluate violent offenders and was called as an expert witness in two nationally noted trials, died of cancer Monday at his Mount Washington home. He was 70. Dr. Olsson, who specialized in forensic psychology, had been director of a sex offender clinic at University of Maryland Medical Center and was chief psychologist for the medical office of Baltimore's Circuit Court for 28 years. Born in Washington, he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master's and a doctorate from Catholic University of America.

WASHINGTON - Law-enforcement authorities arrested 582 alleged gang members and associates, most of whom could be deported for immigration violations, in a two-week period last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday. "Many gang members come to this country from overseas, or from other parts of the North and South American continent, which means that they are subject to our immigration laws," Chertoff told a news conference at the headquarters of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. "When they violate those laws, we can take action against them."

Amid a national outcry for safer guns and stricter legislation, three state delegates from rural Maryland counties have introduced legislation they say will help keep all firearms, including sporting rifles, shotguns and antique guns, out of the hands of violent criminals. And the three -- Republicans Carmen Amedori and Joseph M. Getty of Carroll County, and Anthony J. O'Donnell of St. Mary's and Calvert counties -- are proposing stiffer mandatory sentences for previously convicted violent offenders caught possessing the weapons.

Pay attention, voters, because we are approaching Electio Day, the day when you, in a glorious affirmation of the democratic process, will exercise your precious constitutional right to elect some goober to Congress.But before you vote, you should familiarize yourself with the issues. This year there are four of them:1. Health CareThis issue got started when the Clinton administration stayed up for 168 straight nights and produced a massive and extremely detailed National Health Care Plan.

A state court panel voted 11-10 yesterday against a proposal to restrict the nearly complete discretion judges have to shorten violent criminals' sentences, but sent the controversial issue to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, for a final decision. Prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers both found a silver lining in what is simply an advisory vote by the court system's Rules Committee. Prosecutors say they are closer in their decade-long quest to see time limits on sentence reductions.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court hinted broadly yesterday that a state might have to provide mental health treatment for violent sex offenders if it confines them indefinitely after they finish serving prison sentences. Four years ago, the court had ruled by a 5-4 vote that the Constitution allows states to put such criminals away for long periods - perhaps many years - after their prison terms end. But the justices have never spelled out the conditions that must exist in the state facilities that hold those inmates.