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| If we expand it, we'll be sure to fill it. |
Three local hearings will be held over the next week about how (or whether) to expand the already crowded jail built in Harrisonburg only two decades ago. The following article by local journalist and blogger Andrew Jenner may help explain why we are needing ever more jail space in our city, designated the nation's 9th safest. We hope many will turn out for these listening sessions http://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2014/08/local-action-alert-please-share.html.
Criminal Cases In Circuit Court Have Risen 22 Percent In Five Years. Has The Friendly City Gotten That Much Less Friendly?
In 2008, a total of 2,239 criminal cases were certified to Rockingham
County Circuit Court, where felonies in Harrisonburg or Rockingham
County are tried. In 2009, that total rose slightly to 2,309. These
cases represent individual charges (mostly felonies, with some
exception), meaning a single defendant facing, say, five charges
accounts for five cases.
Except for 2010, this number has continued to rise, and by 2012,
reached 2,736. That’s an eyebrow-raising 22 percent increase over the
2008 total, and enough to make
Old South High start asking
around about what this means – 22 percent more crime? 22 percent more
prosecution? Some combination of the two? Something else entirely?
“There’s a lot of stuff [going on] out there,” said Chaz
Evans-Haywood, clerk of the circuit court. “[Those numbers] also tell me
somebody must be working really hard to get the bad guys off the
street.”
According to Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst, the explanation
for this increase has everything to do with more bad guys and more hard
work to get them off the street. She told
Old South High that
abuse of prescription drugs (oxycodone and fentanyl are two of the
biggies) accounts for the majority of the recent increase in criminal
cases in circuit court. Garst said that a combination of more people
abusing drugs and more aggressive law enforcement and prosecution have
contributed to the spike in court cases. (Her office doesn’t track cases
by the type of crime, however, and couldn’t provide figures quantifying
a recent increase in drug cases).
Property crimes like larceny and embezzlement have also risen over this period, she added, likely due to economic trouble.
“We’ve had people become really, really desperate,” Garst said.
Karen Thomas, president of the
Northeast Neighborhood Association,
which works to reduce crime and strengthen community in that part of
town, generally concurred with Garst’s assessment. A lack of good jobs
for young people, she said, has pushed more of them to use and deal
drugs – something that her association works hard to prevent.
Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson, however, was hesitant to
conclude that crime has increased as significantly as the number of
criminal cases in circuit court might suggest.
“I don’t think that there’s one thing you can really point to,” Hutcheson said, of the increase.
As much as anything, Hutchison suggested, the increasing population
of the city and county might be behind the increase. At best, though,
that seems like a partial explanation. In 2008, the combined city-county
population was estimated at 121,430; in 2012, that figure rose to
128,413, or a little less than 6 percent.
And Aaron Cook, a criminal defense attorney who previously worked in
the prosecutor’s office, disagreed entirely with the idea that crime has
been increasing at the same rate as the number of criminal cases in
circuit court. He pointed out that state funding formulas for
prosecutors’ offices are partially based on the number of felony
defendants in circuit court, giving the Commonwealth’s Attorney some
incentive to bring as many cases as possible. (The state agency that
calculates this funding will count the same person as different “felony
defendants” for funding purposes if charges are filed against that
person on different dates.)
Practically speaking, Cook said, this can mean prosecutors might file
as many charges as possible against a specific defendant with the
intention of offering a plea deal on just a fraction of those charges
after they’ve all been filed as cases in circuit court.
Regardless, he and several colleagues told
Old South High that they don’t believe crime has risen as the circuit court statistics might suggest.
“Crime has not increased [by 22 percent],” said Cook. “This is still an extremely safe place to live.”
If nothing else, that’s something that both he and Garst agree on –
and a reality reflected in a recent study that identified Harrisonburg
as the
ninth-safest city in the entire country.
Despite the increasing drug and property crimes that Garst says she’s
seen over the past several years, she believes the ninth-safest city
ranking is right on the money.
“I focus on a lot of the negatives, because that’s what I see [every day],” she said.
And the 22 percent increase in criminal cases down on Court Square?
That’s a simple, numerical fact spit out by the computers at the
courthouse. What it actually means, though, appears to depend on who you
ask.
For more recent posts on the rapid increase in our local jail population go to Jenner's blog http://www.oldsouthhigh.com/.
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Please attend one of these local hearings:
- August 7, from 6pm-8pm at Spotswood High School, 368 Blazer Drive, Penn Laird;
- August 11, from 7pm-9pm in Harrisonburg City Council Chambers, 409 S. Main St.
- August 14, from 6pm-8pm at Turner Ashby High School, 800 N. Main St., Bridgewater.
(Any ideas posted on Be Heard Harrisonburg before the August 14 hearing will be shared with the committee.)
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