by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Three weeks and three days after he was re-elected for the second time, Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford addressed the Downtown Council of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce at its meeting Friday at the Aetna Building on the Southbank.
Rutherford began by sharing the latest statistics on crime in Duval County, then turned his attention to a subject often discussed in connection with living, working and visiting Downtown – homeless people.
“It’s not a monolithic group and we can’t treat it as such,” said Rutherford.
He explained that homeless individuals belong to one of three categories.
There are those he called “houseless,” who have lost their homes because they lost their jobs.
It’s a temporary moment in their life, he said. They want help to escape the situation. They need the Sulzbacher Center. Rutherford said the center needs to be where it is to provide access to public transportation and other services essential to people who are actively seeking employment.
The second group consists of those who are mentally ill or abusing drugs and alcohol. They need treatment, said Rutherford, but access to those services should not be located Downtown because that’s where the mentally ill can be victimized by the third group of homeless people.
He then talked about that third group.
“We need to start calling them what they are – bums and hobos. They don’t want a job. They don’t want any responsibility. Put them in a house and they’ll run away. We can’t put our value structure on that group,” said Rutherford.
He associated those individuals with committing most of the nuisance crimes Downtown and “creating an atmosphere of fear.”
Rutherford said the “bums and hobos” are the largest group of homeless people Downtown. “They are the people you see playing checkers in Hemming Plaza and bathing in the public library.”
The solution would be to have a facility at the Duval-Baker county line where homeless people who have been arrested on suspicion of committing a crime could be incarcerated and even adjudicated.
That way, when they are released, Rutherford said, “if they want to come back Downtown, they’ll have a 12-mile walk.”
He’d also like to see the place where police officers take suspects they’ve apprehended for processing be located near the new county courthouse. Those charged with serious and violent crimes could be held at that location as well.
For those charged with less serious crimes, Rutherford said he’d like to have a detention facility near the Prison Farm on the Northside. It would be a single-story building with two tiers and would replace the existing Pretrial Detention Facility on East Bay Street.
“After I’m dead and gone, don’t let anybody build another high-rise jail in Jacksonville,” said Rutherford.
He said the operations and maintenance costs are prohibitive, including elevators that are in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Plumbing problems on one floor can often affect all floors, said Rutherford.
On his first topic Friday, Rutherford said he attributes the 10.5 percent reduction in total crime in 2009 and the 11.5 percent reduction in 2010 to three factors.
First, JSO was able to put 128 additional officers on the street.
Second, JSO was able to “engage the public in community problem-solving.”
Rutherford said that membership in the 19 Sheriff’s Advisory Councils has grown from 600 to more than 2,800 citizens who meet regularly with JSO representatives to identify neighborhood law enforcement issues.
“We didn’t go out and just start putting people in jail. We engaged the community to tell us who the bad guys are, then we put the bad guys in jail,” said Rutherford.
The third factor, he said, was eliminating what he called the “revolving door” that allowed criminals to be released back into the community after serving little, if any, jail time.
For that he credited State Attorney Angela Corey and her staff.
“In 2009, Angela Corey slammed that door shut,” said Rutherford.
He said in Corey’s first year in office, 600 fewer felony charges were dropped than the year before. Others arrested for serious crimes weren’t allowed to plead their charges down to minor offenses.
“The criminal element doesn’t worry about going to jail. They call it ‘three hots and a cot.’ Local jail time is like a vacation. What they don’t like is going to prison. Angela Corey is why crime is down in historic numbers. It’s due to aggressive prosecution,” said Rutherford.
The next meeting of the Downtown Council is scheduled May 6 at The University Club. For details, visit www.downtowncouncil.org.
356-2466