Innovative program cracks down on entire gangs
Published: January 17, 2006
A criminal justice program that uses a carrot-and-stick approach to disrupt gangs and keep a tight rein on paroled felons has led to a dramatic reduction in gun crime in one of Detroit’s most violent neighborhoods.
The Joshua Project, initiated by Attorney General Mike Cox in 2004, keeps gun crime offenders on a short leash by targeting members of gangs or groups of suspects and pressuring all of them if one is suspected of a crime.
The program also helps probationers and parolees develop life skills and find jobs to help them keep from falling into old habits.
In the first full year of the program, the rate of gun-related homicides in the city’s 3rd Precinct, now part of the Detroit police’s reorganized Southwestern District, dropped 35 percent in 2005, compared to a 6 percent reduction in gun crime citywide. At the same time, nonfatal shootings in the 3rd Precinct (Vernor) dropped 29 percent compared to a 5 percent decline throughout the rest of Detroit.
“This decrease in (these crimes) in the 3rd Precinct represent the largest reductions of any precinct in the city of Detroit in 2005,” said Assistant Attorney General Tom Cameron.
Law enforcement officials say some other city precincts had nearly as dramatic decreases in gun violence. They credit other programs in place for the past two years that use some of the same techniques adopted by Joshua.
Gun-related homicides in the former 8th Precinct (Grand River) dropped 29 percent last year while shootings declined 6 percent. In the 12th Precinct (Palmer Park), homicides caused by guns fell 17 percent while nonfatal shootings dropped 32 percent.
Task of biblical proportions
The Joshua Project is named for the biblical hero who broke down the walls of the promised land. It’s the joint effort of four state assistant attorneys general; three officers from the Michigan Department of Corrections; three Detroit police officers; and the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, a self-help organization for youths that also helps former offenders find jobs and move back into civilian life.
The attorneys general prosecute the cases, the Detroit officers provide street information on gangs and groups, the Corrections officers keep check on parolees and probationers living in the area, and the community organization offers a chance for employment to former offenders who otherwise may be tempted to go back to crime.
The team presses felons for information on crimes while warning of the severity of penalties that the men will face if they commit crimes or are involved with those responsible. They also impress on them that more than one-third of the 374 homicides in Detroit last year were victims who at some time in their life were on parole or probation.
One of the tools Joshua uses is an investigative subpoena to pick up informants or reluctant witnesses to shootings or other crimes and force them to give truthful information under the threat of perjury charges.
“The truth is that the majority of crime in either Detroit or any other city is not typically acts of random violence,” Cameron said. “You have relatively small groups, sometimes gangs, sometimes groups that are loose associations, on the street. Those groups are responsible for the majority of crime. We identify those groups and focus on them.”
The group approach was used to arrest and convict two violent 19-year-olds, Eliseo Galvin Jr. and Alex Acosta, who terrorized the southwest community and intimidated potential witnesses against them with at least 20 shooting incidents in 2004-05.
Cameron said the attorneys general combed through all the old police reports on shootings in which the men were suspects, looking for potential witnesses.
They settled on a case in which Galvin was suspected of shooting a 13-year-old whom he believed had shot him earlier in August 2004.
“After we identified that case, we used investigative subpoenas to bring in Galvin friends and got a witness to testify,” Cameron said. Galvin was charged with assault with intent to commit murder and with possessing a firearm. He was found guilty in July and sentenced to 20-40 years in the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, plus two more years for using a gun.
Acosta had fled to Saginaw in April 2005 after he was involved in a gunfight in a doughnut shop on Cadet where he fired at a rival and hit an 8-year-old girl in the head.
Using numerous investigative subpoenas to force Acosta’s friends to testify, the Joshua team built a case against him and arrested Acosta for assault with intent to murder and felony use of a firearm.
At his arraignment, he sneered at the charges and bragged to a Wayne County Circuit Court judge that he would never serve a day in prison, nor would the judge be able to affect what he did on the street.
But in September, Acosta was found guilty of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm and felony use of a firearm. He was sentenced to five to 10 years in the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater. He also drew two additional years for the gun.
Each agency pays the salaries of its participating members as well as expenses they incur. Assistant Detroit Police Chief Walter Martin said the department is very impressed with this approach. When budget restraints under which the department operates ease, Martin said he will recommend extending the program to other troublesome precincts.
‘A nonstop commitment’
Even as Galvin and Acosta represent the heavy stick Joshua wields, Taurus McBride, 36, is benefiting from the carrot the program offers in the form of counseling and training.
McBride served 16 years in prison for using a gun in an assault. Upon his release, he heeded the pleas of Urseal Ward of the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation. Ward counseled McBride at a Joshua intervention meeting, where parolees are brought in to be reminded of their obligations to remain law-abiding and to be offered self-help programs and job-search assistance.
McBride spent 5 months in the program learning how to adjust to life on the outside and how to prepare for interviews before he landed full-time employment with a national maintenance and janitorial company. He says he is now planning a future with his fiancee.
“They make every endeavor to put you on the right track even though they don’t owe you anything,” McBride said of the Hispanic group’s efforts for former offenders. “It’s a nonstop commitment to help you get on with your life.”
One Joshua component Cox’s assistants cite for helping reduce shootings are the regular weekly home visits their three state Corrections officers conduct daily on parolees, checking for weapons, ammunition and drugs.
It’s a method with a track record of good results.
Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlin points out that Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans created a team three years ago of three deputies and two Corrections officers who make 40 to 50 unannounced home visits weekly.
Together with another unit that tracks absconders, the sheriff’s department has apprehended dozens of violators.
Marlin also said a zero-tolerance program Gov. Jennifer Granholm approved in July 2004 for parolees found with weapons has returned 98 persons to prison for five-year terms.
Evans said one of the most effective crime-fighting tools he has ever been involved with in his career is the 30-plus officer fugitive-apprehension team his department and Detroit police formed three years ago. The team was created in response to a series of stories in The Detroit News in December 2002 that revealed that more than 26,000 suspected felons with outstanding warrants against them, mostly from Detroit, were roaming the streets with no one looking for them.
That team has arrested 9,042 fugitives since January 2003, including 2,576 last year.
“There are a lot of components at work fighting to bring down the violence in the city, and I think it’s safe to say the successes we are seeing in some areas is a reflection of those efforts,” Evans said.
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