Fla. Sheriff Gives Inmates Cold Case Cards

[DoYouEverWonder]

March 3, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- First came celebrity poker for charity. Now, there is inmate poker for closing cold homicide and missing persons cases.

Figuring no one knows more about crimes committed than criminals, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office plans to deal out playing cards to jail inmates displaying information about unsolved murder or missing persons cases.

The reward for inmate tips: a potential $1,000.

"Who knows better where and who these criminals are than the people they deal with, the other criminals," said Wayne Cross of Heartland Crime Stoppers, who worked with law enforcement in Polk County to roll out the first batch of cards.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-inmate-poker,0,2900205.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines


Wow, you mean torture isn't the only way to get info from prisoners? :sarcasm:

[truthisfreedom]

1. you apparently get what you pay for.

bush-style.

[Maraya1969]

2. This sounds like a great idea to me. Very innovative.

[Journeyman]

3. Certainly worth a try. . .

From the article:

Sheriffs there have arrested two murder suspects and four fugitives based on tips generated from the cards.


I'll be curious to see how successful such a program will prove. Very innovative, to be sure.

[ovidsen]

5. Why not?

Nobody's being tortured. Nobody has to look at the cards.


I have no objections.

[HuffleClaw]

4. bwaahahhahahahaaaaa

i can just imagine the FLOOD of completely useless 'tips' they are gonna have to deal with. what a complete waste of money.

[Orsino]

7. No more so than with any other similar program.

The payoff is only for useful tips, and I imagine that inmates would generally keep their mouths shut, anyway. They may be less inclined than ordinary citizens to involve themselves further with authorities, considering what happens to known snitches.

[noonwitch]

14. Yeah, but once in a while you get one who will offer information

Or who can identify a body, or who knows some information that can lead to better information, etc. There are situations that they can help that don't necessarily involve snitching, too.

[Orsino]

16. That's why I like the idea, too. n/t

[LostinVA]

11. They've gotten great leads and made arrests

Sounds like a success.

[wakeme2008]

6. I like it

Maybe some bad tips, but you get those anyway.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Plus there are numerous ways

to make life less comfortable for a prisoner who lies and wastes your time.

[AzDar]

8. If it results in even ONE murderer being caught, it's worth it. n/t

[graywarrior]

10. The word "rehabilitation" comes to mind.

[LostinVA]

12. Right -- and, not all people in prisoner are sociopaths

Some really are just people who lost their way and made some bad choices. Many have families they're close to, etc.

[VaYallaDawg]

13. Sounds like a reasonable effort to me.

In some cases, maybe even a bad tip is better than nothing at all. At least it's a start.

[baby_mouse]

15. ...

... uh. Yeah.

I do hope that these criminals really ARE part of some sort of criminal community and he's not dealing out diamond heist info to dope smugglers or paedophile photofits to fine defaulters. Cos he's going to like like a complete dolt if, as I suspect, these communities form mostly in prison and there's no crossover pre-conviction. If they're return offenders they might know something about someone they knew from their last sentence, I suppose.

Also, there's some meat to the phrase "thick as theives", I believe...