Panel: Partnerships effective against crime

After a rocky start in Southeast Minnesota, the Center of the American Experiment ended on much better footing.
The conservative think tank sponsored visits last week to Rochester, with an evening stop in Owatonna.
The plan was to discuss what the group labeled the “Crime Crisis,” featuring a panel discussion on current crime trends, an overview of the criminal justice system, the role of key officials in fighting crime and proven strategies to reduce crime.
The panelists included local representatives of law enforcement, the court system and the school district.
Instead, the Rochester visit was canceled, “after leftist activists pressured the venue with an online petition signed by 90 people,” said Bill Walsh, director of communications for the group.
The CAE immediately filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the Rochester Country Club, and plans to proceed with a claim against the club for damages.
No such drama in Owatonna, with the tone set by Mike Jensen’s opening remarks.
“What we really hope for today … is that we have an opportunity to learn from each other, get to know each other, get to know what’s happening in the law enforcement community,” he said. Jensen is president of the Owatonna chapter of CAE.
Michael Olson, outreach director, said the group is “terribly unique, in that we focus on policy as it relates to the state of Minnesota,” concerning education, healthcare, public safety and more.
The keynote speaker was Jeff Van Nest, who spent 20 years with the FBI, and is now a public safety policy fellow with CAE.
He provided an overview of the criminal justice structure, then highlighted the changes in criminal trends and data in Minnesota, which admittedly focused on the Minneapolis area – and other parts of the country.
Generational crime, for example, is “obviously not here in Owatonna, not here in Steele County, and not here in Southeast Minnesota,” he said.
Van Nest started by saying he believes the term “mass incarceration” is “offensive to me as an American.”
“We don’t round people up, like a Third World country, and send them off to prison. That’s not how things are done here,” he said, calling it a buzz word that has replaced the phrase “defund the police, and it’s thrown around by activist groups, reform-minded groups.”
It also suggests that “we should empty our prisons,” Van Nest said. “The goal that I’ve seen here is to decrease incarceration rates by 50%. So is that a good idea or a bad idea?”
He later answered his own question with statistics about recidivism and low- or no-bail cases.
“Three years after someone is no longer on supervised release … what is the likelihood that they will commit another crime? At least 4 in 10,” Van Nest said. “At least a quarter are actually going to be sent back to prison within three years.”
It’s the kind of data CAE is tracking.
“We’re finding cases where someone is likely under some form of supervised release; they commit some other kind of egregious crime, and they’re put back on the streets,” he said. “That’s an area of concern.”
Not always, said Steele County Attorney Dan McIntosh, who was part of the Owatonna panel.
“We should also be looking at what’s going on that brought that person into the justice system,” he said. “If there’s some condition or some status that we can treat in a safe way for everyone, then we should be doing that, too.
“A lot of the same factors that make you more likely to commit a crime also make you more vulnerable to be a victim,” McIntosh said. “My challenge is … crime is not always an ‘us versus them.’ For some people hearing that right now, that’s going to shock you a little bit, but we’re in a small community. It’s us. If we don’t deal with the causes of crime – and the people who are committing crimes – in a way that is effective to prevent next time around, we don’t make progress.
“There isn’t a silver bullet, it’s looking at what’s most effective for the community, for that victim to feel a sense of justice and moving to the next step, whatever that may be.”
McIntosh, Steele County Sheriff Lon Thiele, Police Chief Keith Hiller and OPS Superintendent Jeff Elstad all spoke about the sense of partnership they feel with each other and the community.
Elstad drew the only applause during the panel with his description of their interactions.
“This is the best community I’ve ever worked in when it comes to those partnerships,” he said. “When we have that in place, we can try our best to keep kids safe.”
Elstad also referred to another former FBI agent who spoke several weeks ago at Owatonna Middle School.
“One of the takeaways from that, that I think is important for community members to hear was, ‘Parents, your children don’t need any more friends. They need parents. They need people to say no, people that cooperate with the school district.’ We both have a vested interest in seeing our children be the best people they can be, and that’s a partnership – and we’re only as successful as that partnership.”
“We’re doing a lot of things right on a local level,” Jensen said after the panel discussion. “Now I encourage you to go out and build those relationships.”