GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | OUR COLUMNISTS A6-7 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A10-11 | BUSINESS A12 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B
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halls / fountain city
VOL. 50, NO. 33
AUGUST 15, 2011
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Parrotts’ paradise lost Welcome back! HPBA treats area teachers to breakfast See page A-12
Clowning around Glenwood Baptist hosts family festival See page A-9
FEATURED COLUMNIST LYNN HUTTON
Science vs. God See page A-6
ONLINE
Pristine lake another casualty of Copper Ridge detention pond collapse By Betty Bean The lake behind Chuck and Mandy Parrott’s house is fed by a couple of clear-running streams that bubble up from the north flank of Copper Ridge. It is bounded on the other end by an earthen dam that Chuck and his father, Ernest, built more than 20 years Chuck Parrott ago. They also built a wooden deck and set a big outflow pipe to keep the water moving into the natural creekbeds and on down Brushy Valley to Bull Run Creek. It worked to perfection. Tucked into a secluded hollow and surrounded by the heavily forested folds of the ridge, the lake is stocked with bass, bluegill and catfish. Wild ducks and geese stop over on their seasonal migrations and deer make their way down to drink. A beaver family is building its own dam at the far end, and occasionally Chuck comes down in the morning to little piles of crawfish claws left over from a raccoon’s dinner. The water used to be clear 7 or 8 feet down and the Parrotts’ grandchildren loved to fish and swim and picnic and camp there. But all of that has changed since the June 28 detention pond collapse at the Rufus Smith Properties construction site on top of the ridge sent a wall of muddy water roaring down on the homes and woods below, sweeping up garbage from an illegal dump and depositing it along the way. The Parrotts’ property is at the foot of the ridge. Now, iridescent blue dragonflies flit among plastic bottles and tires and clumps of Styrofoam insulation in the shallows. Old propane tanks are barely visible through the heavy sediment in
Balancing the crime budget
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attached, three propane tanks, numerous cans and bottles, and aerosol containers on the bottom of the lake. At left, the “It’s just ruined our property,” Parrotts’ pond Mandy Parrott said. “The force of before the the water came down and washed deluge. Above, over the side of our pond and cut a after the huge gulley. It looked like somebody detention pond had taken a dump truck and dumped collapse. trash in there. There were a lot of Photos submitted dead fish and quite a few dead animals – possums, mice, raccoons. It just washed them out of the woods.” Chuck Parrott’s father died in 2000, and Chuck says seeing the ruination of the project that he and The Parrotts had a certified div- his dad worked on side-by-side has the deeper water. The drainpipe is plugged with muck and the water er take a look at what was under been painful. is lapping at the top of the deck the water and he reported finding “It was as pretty as the prettiest that Chuck and his father built on at least 26 old tires, large chunks day you’ve ever seen on Norris Lake. of brown plastic with insulation the steep side of the bank. To page A-2
Prison is a growth industry, one of the few that can make such a claim in the sour U.S. economy. And while local governments from Knox County to New York watch
Analysis treatment resources dwindle or remain stagnant, drug addicts and their suppliers add to the rising inmate population. The longterm consequences are too expensive to ignore, but the immediate costs for a solution are a hard sell for already strained budgets. John Gill is a special prosecutor in Attorney General Randy Nichols’ office. Gill characterizes the dilemma as “a real balancing act” in which the safety of the community must be weighed against the choice of incarceration or treatment. Gill says property crimes in Knox County are “almost always” drug related, and a dangerous trend has
developed. Some addicts are now so desperate they will enter a home that may or may not be occupied during the day. Even these bold burglars may not be locked away immediately, however. In Knox County, Gill says, nonviolent offenders “probably get two or three bites at the apple” (probation) before they serve time, and those who do end up behind bars have earned it. “There is almost nobody in jail in the U.S. for simple possession of drugs,” Gill says. It can be difficult for local governments to tally the social costs of drug addiction when deciding how to allocate resources, but those costs are substantial. Gill says some studies estimate an offender may rack up $400,000 in thefts before being caught the first time. Criminal Court Judge Bobby McGee routinely deals with the violent and nonviolent crimes spawned by drug addiction. McGee says probation or judicial diversion in lieu of jail time is a “case by case” decision. Among other issues, the trial court
considers whether judicial diversion serves the interest of the public as well as the accused. From his days as an attorney, McGee recalls what he a calls a “classic example” of judicial diversion that was right for the community and the offender. A University of Tennessee student majoring in nuclear physics with a 4.0 GPA was admiring a ring in a jewelry store when “he snapped” and grabbed the ring. Security guards quickly apprehended him. McGee successfully argued for judicial diversion for the student. As the judge notes, there is a need for nuclear physicists. But the judge’s student is the atypical offender. “The criminal justice system is costly and it will probably continue to become more costly,” McGee says. “It’s fueled by drugs.” McGee served on the Sessions Court bench before moving over to Criminal Court. He recalls how the appearance of crack cocaine on the streets “changed everything.”
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McGee and Gill agree that administering a justice system bloated by drug related crime is expensive. Gill notes the recidivism rate is high even with competent treatment for addiction. Adding the chronically mentally ill who weave in and out of the county jail to the ledger creates a recipe for looming fiscal and social catastrophe. The proposed safety center for mental health crisis intervention needs a commitment of about $1.7 million for 10 years in order to secure a $1.5 million HUD construction grant. The project has stalled. “We are spending the money now,” Nichols said last fall. “We can build more jails or (do something that will) actually help people.” Inaction isn’t a choice. The cost of expanded treatment for addicts and the mentally ill pales when stacked up against new $20 million jail pods and dozens of Gill’s $400,000 career burglars. We can pay now, or we can pay (much more) later.
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