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Proposal pushes sharing of criminal records
The Jessica Lunsford Act addresses a startling gap: Misdemeanor probation agencies don't usually get state and national criminal records.
By JUSTIN GEORGE and ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published April 10, 2005
Legislation proposed in the wake of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford's abduction and killing would require county probation offices to search sexual offender registries and comb through criminal records to make sure they know more about who they're supervising.
Those are a few of the things Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, hopes the Jessica Lunsford Act requires. It attempts to bridge an information gap that has left many Florida misdemeanor probation departments without access to criminal records - a startling revelation brought to light after the arrest of John Couey, the registered sex offender accused of killing Jessica.
"Isn't that ridiculous? That defies logic," Attorney General Charlie Crist said Friday, adding that he plans to investigate. "It's Alice in Wonderland. It's on its head. There's got to be a way to introduce logic to the system in order to protect our people."
Couey, 46, has pleaded not guilty. Late last year, he was being supervised by the Salvation Army Correctional Department - Citrus' hired misdemeanor probation provider - for a minor drug charge. When he failed to check in with probation, workers mailed him notices at his listed address. When they went unanswered, probation called for a violation of probation arrest warrant. They never went to the house and weren't required to. The warrant sat in the law enforcement system waiting for Couey to come into contact with the Sheriff's Office.
But he didn't until March 17, when he was arrested on that warrant because authorities wanted to question him about Jessica's disappearance. If county probation officials had known his full criminal background, they would have realized that Couey was a registered sex offender.
Everyone acknowledges that the Salvation Army did its required job. But the agency's court representative, who supervised Couey's probation case, has said her office might have gone the extra mile had they known more about Couey.
They could have asked the Sheriff's Office to look for him when he wasn't responding at his registered address - months before he slipped under law enforcement's radar and moved across from Jessica Lunsford's home.
Salvation Army workers also didn't know Couey's violent past included two dozen arrests. The Salvation Army also runs misdemeanor probation services for 15 Florida counties, including Hernando, Hillsborough and Pinellas. And many other Florida probation agencies, including those operated by counties such as Pasco, similarly say they don't review probationers' complete criminal records.
They say judges don't always share that information with them. They also say they have to jump through 17 pages of guidelines before they are granted access to the Florida and national criminal information centers, FCIC and NCIC. Those centers require a law enforcement agency to partner with probation offices to obtain the records - partners, probation officials say, who aren't easy to persuade.
Whatever the reasons, Argenziano said she was "extremely surprised" that county probation agencies know so little about who they supervise.
"I found it to be very deficient," she said.
Her proposed legislation, unanimously passed Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, would:
Require county misdemeanor probation officials to cross-check the state's sexual offender and predator registries.
Require contracts with private misdemeanor probation providers to include procedures for accessing criminal history records of probationers.
Create a task force within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which controls FCIC records, to examine the collection and dissemination of criminal history records.
Jean Itzin, an FDLE planning and policy administrator, said her office is working with Argenziano's staff on the recommendations.
FDLE blames probation offices for not trying harder to gain access. Itzin said she thinks many do not know how to apply for it. The agency plans to better educate them, she said.
Itzin also disputed probation agencies' excuses. Even law enforcement agencies, she said, have to follow the stringent guidelines to access FCIC and NCIC.
In less than a year, Argenziano said, FDLE will launch "FALCON," an integrated criminal history system that would link county and state agencies and help them share information better. Her bill, she said, would also make the Department of Corrections and FDLE update and disseminate criminal records faster.
U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River, also proposed federal legislation last week that would require prisons to notify probation officials nationwide when a sex offender is released.
David McGriff, president of the Florida Association of Community Corrections, sees all these laws on the horizon and wonders whether they're going to make a difference.
"You can have all the legislation you want, but if people aren't sharing things," McGriff said, "nothing is going to help."
McGriff is also chief executive officer of the Advocate Program Inc., which is Miami-Dade County's misdemeanor probation provider. An example of problems, he said, came when his company tried to partner with the Miami-Dade Police Department on records.
Police "didn't feel comfortable" doing so, McGriff said, so the Advocate Program turned to the State Attorney's Office, which has been receptive.
The biggest problem to accessing records, McGriff said, is a lack of resources. Money is also something Brian Harper cites as what prevents county probation offices from getting the records.
He is director of program development for Pride Integrated Services Inc., which is Palm Beach County's probation provider.
"We'd love to get that information," Harper said, "but I have a sense that the cost of trying to get it would not get into the budget of many nonprofit agencies."
Probation officials wonder why county judges, who handle misdemeanor crimes, aren't doing a better job freely sharing criminal records already in their court files.
Federal laws restrict law enforcement agencies from sharing records unless partnerships are in place, FDLE officials say. But sometimes the State Attorney's Office does, anyway.
"The state attorney lets us know," Palm Beach County probation official Harper said. "It's kind of a wink, wink, nod, nod. So we're not exactly blind."
Sometimes judges verbally share a criminal's past in the courtroom, something a probation worker might catch. But not always.
Citrus County Judge Mark Yerman couldn't be reached for this story.
Circuit judges, who handle felony cases, also have access to the criminal backgrounds of the accused. But it wasn't always that way.
The killing of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in February 2004 in Sarasota and slaying of six people in August 2004 at a Deltona home led to both tighter enforcement of probation violators and to better access to criminal backgrounds for probation officials and judges.
The state Department of Corrections handles felony probation.
Both crimes were allegedly committed by felons who weren't sent back to jail after violating probation.
Since the crackdown, Citrus County Circuit Judge Ric Howard has been privy to criminal background information from the FCIC. Printouts from the database are included in a person's case file, so judges are aware of that person's criminal history.
"You can never have too much information," Howard said.
Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com
[Last modified April 10, 2005, 00:39:14]
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