Published: February 13, 2009 11:34 pm      

Helping solve crimes

Crime Stoppers seeks assistance of MCF inmates

BUNKER HILL — Offenders at the Miami County Correctional Facility now have the opportunity to anonymously assist law enforcement.

The prison on U.S. 31 near Bunker Hill is the second in Indiana to team up with Crime Stoppers for a project that runs a live video stream containing slides with information on a number of unsolved crimes throughout the state. Offenders watching the closed-circuit televisions are encouraged to submit tips on the cases they see by calling a special telephone number and entering a code.

“This is an opportunity for the inmates at this facility to give back to their communities,” Superintendent Mark Sevier said at a news conference on Friday

If a tip leads to a felony arrest, offenders may be eligible for a monetary reward that will be paid to their designee outside of the prison.

The Miami County Correctional Facility houses more than 3,000 inmates, each of whom can purchase their own TV that shows closed circuit television programing. Positive results are expected.

Lt. Thomas Kern, program director at Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana, reported arrests from tips generated from the pilot project, which kicked off in December at Pendleton Correctional Industrial Facility.

“This is an initiative that I hope will help bring all the Crime Stoppers programs closer together,” Kern said. “We can all start putting the faces of the people out there diminishing the quality of life in our communities in here where the inmates can look at them, and maybe help us figure out who are robbing our banks, cashing those bad checks, and causing misery throughout our state.”

Inmate Patrick Pendleton, 41, said at first he heard mostly negative feedback from fellow prisoners. The Crime Stoppers program has been running 24/7 for about a month now. Pendleton says attitudes may be changing.

“We haven’t heard it as much anymore about that, so I think it’s coming around,” he said.

According to Pendleton, it’s about 50/50 on those who seem receptive and those who are not interested.

“The people that are actually trying to change their lives are more receptive than the ones that are not,” said Pendleton, who is in the PLUS program.

The PLUS program teaches participants to become more responsible and make better decisions. Pendleton, who was convicted in 2002 of two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and a single count of child molesting, has a projected release date of March 2014. While incarcerated, he says he is trying to better himself.

“You used to be a snitch,” he said of providing tips to authorities. “In here (PLUS program), we are learning that if you see something, you want to protect your community by alerting the authorities and letting them do their jobs.”

Someone recently shot and killed Pendleton’s younger brother in Elkhart. He wants the person caught and knows Crime Stoppers could lead to an arrest.

“They still haven’t caught the guy so something like this, me and my family have to be grateful for so they can catch the person who did that,” Pendleton said.

The Indiana Department of Correction is the first state corrections agency in the nation to pilot such a program. If it’s successful, the program could be expanded to all IDOC facilities.

“This partnership between the DOC and Crime Stoppers creates an innovative program aimed at increasing public safety,” DOC Commissioner Edwin Buss said in a news release. “I am confident that this program will yield positive results and be expanded to all IDOC facilities.”

Kern expects the DOC partnership to strengthen and looks forward to future developments.

“It’s just going to grow from here as we keep expanding into all of the other facilities,” Kern said.

Kevin Lilly can be reached at (574) 732-5117, or via e-mail at kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com