Kansas City Star, July 16
The Jackson County Detention Center has been in a downward spiral.
More than 200 law enforcement officers stormed the downtown jail late last month, a show of force that resulted in two guards being charged with accepting inmate bribes to smuggle drugs, cellphones and cigarettes.
In early July, a female guard was taken to the hospital after reportedly being attacked by an inmate.
That news was followed by yet another expensive settlement - this one a $437,500 payout - stemming from a 2015 allegation of jail staff severely beating an inmate. The incident was the impetus for an ongoing FBI investigation, a deep dive likely to generate future headlines about what ails our jail.
So it might seem counterintuitive that applications for the position of corrections officer are up at the 30-year-old facility that has gained a reputation for being a filthy, unsafe, dysfunctional institution.
Nearly 100 have applied in recent weeks, the result of both a renewed push to publicize openings for corrections officers and an increased salary scale.
The applicants come from virtually all regions of the metro area, from both sides of the state line.
Previously, some weeks had passed with no applicants. So this is at least a modicum of progress amid a torrent of troubling headlines.
About a half-dozen officers have been hired so far. New hires must pass a drug test, an in-person interview and a written exam that is commonly used to assess potential guards nationally. They learn on the job and later are given classroom training with sessions led by the FBI and the prosecutor’s office.
The jail has been operating with about 30 fewer guards than it needs, just one in a long list of systemic problems at the overcrowded, understaffed detention center.
Officials are hopeful they will attract more applicants with college backgrounds and people with previous experience in criminal justice - and that the applications will keep coming.
County officials are also considering adding a polygraph test and possibly other psychological assessments to the hiring process. Those changes should be made immediately, given stresses of the work and previous problems with corrections officers taking bribes from inmates.
Many current corrections officers are surely dedicated, well qualified employees who care deeply about their work. They deserve a safe environment, the best training and leadership possible. As do inmates, regardless of pending charges or previous convictions.
An uptick in interest from potential hires is a positive sign at the jail. But it is only one incremental step toward the sweeping overhaul that is needed.
To build on this hint of momentum, Jackson County Executive Frank White and other top officials must show a sense of urgency and a commitment to making wide-ranging changes at the Jackson County Detention Center.
Continuing to attract qualified employees will grow increasingly difficult unless county officials can show measurable improvement at the jail. And hiring a handful of corrections officers won’t alter what has become and entrenched and toxic culture.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 15
t could be about time to turn the page on Backpage.com. The sleazy Dallas-based website widely used to promote human-trafficking and child prostitution has just seen its last line of defense destroyed.
The Washington Post reported last week that investigators accidentally discovered documents directly linking Backpage to a third-party contractor in the Philippines who generated advertising content for Backpage customers. For years, Backpage has dodged law enforcement, state attorneys general and congressional investigators by claiming it is merely a passive carrier of third-party content, protected by Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act. That’s a valuable First Amendment protection never meant to protect criminal activity.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., among the leaders in Congress’ investigation of Backpage, told the Post: “Backpage has been righteously indignant throughout our investigation about how we were infringing on their constitutional rights, because they were a mere passthrough.”
On Thursday, McCaskill and Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Tom Carper, D-Del., asked the Justice Department to pursue the new disclosure, which McCaskill said “is about as far from passive as you can get. This is soliciting. This is, really, trickery. … So I hope this opens the floodgates of liability for Backpage. Nobody deserves it more.”
The fight against sex-trafficking has brought Missouri Republicans and Democrats together like nothing since the glory days of pork-barrel projects. Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley has created a special sex-trafficking unit and has gone after Backpage using Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act, the strong consumer protection law that the Republican Legislature unsuccessfully has tried to gut. For his efforts, Backpage sued Hawley this week.
In the U.S. House, Missouri Republicans Ann Wagner of Ballwin and Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville have taken leadership roles in anti-trafficking legislation. Democrat William Lacy Clay of St. Louis was a co-sponsor of Hartzler’s anti-trafficking bill that passed last week.
All of their efforts could be made easier now that Backpage’s complicity in creating ads has been revealed. The findings had Missouri roots, too. In 2016, Xceligent, a commercial real estate data firm in Kansas City, was sued by the CoStar Group of Washington, D.C., which claimed data theft.
CoStar got Philippine officials to cooperate in a raid on an Xceligent contractor named Avion, not knowing Avion’s other major client was Backpage. The raid netted 6.5 million files; CoStar turned the Backpage data over to the FBI.
Avion workers scoured the Internet for sex ads and then offered the people who posted them free space on Backpage. Avion created phony sex ads (“Let a young babe show you the way” or “Little angel seeks daddy”) and then redirected interested parties to Backpage.
So much for the third-party content claim. Backpage projected revenue of nearly $250 million by 2019. It doesn’t look like they’re going to make it. Good.
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Joplin Globe, July 14
Want a model for true leadership?
Just read the Globe’s Thursday story about the service Jan Tupper gave to his community. Tupper, who died on Wednesday at age 81, was a true example of a civic leader who did not seek gain or glory by giving his time to the Joplin School District, the city of Joplin, the Tri-State Water Resources Coalition and the Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties.
He served on boards and held club memberships not because he thought it would gain him a political appointment, but because he wanted to make Joplin a better place. And not just for his children and grandchildren - although they were near and dear to his heart - but because, as a real leader, his priorities were about finding solutions.
Here are some comments about him from our readers:
“A very good man indeed who served his community with energy and passion. He will be missed.”
“Mr. Tupper was a good man, and I’m glad I knew him.”
“I worked for Jan for five years, and he was a loving and compassionate man. He did a lot of kind things for people that may not ever be known, but God saw them all.”
Tupper was elected in 1974 and served a term on the Joplin City Council, and then he was elected to serve on the Joplin School Board. He served six years and was appointed in 1990 to fill a vacant term on the board.
In addition to being a geologist, he was a professional engineer, and he had rare skills that served him well in solving problems. Some who worked closely with him said he wasn’t one to let a project get too far off course nor did he give up easily on problems. He was apt to dig beneath the surface to look for answers.
One of the reasons we mention Tupper’s service and selfless qualities is because we think they exemplify exactly what is needed today among our local, state and national leaders.
We will miss him.
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Jefferson City News Tribune, July 12
As journalists, we learn that regardless of how cut and dried a story initially seems - despite the obvious guilt of one side and obvious innocent of the other - there’s always two sides to a story.
A good reporter will recognize this from the beginning, and seek out the other side to give readers a true picture of what’s happening. By the time the story hits print, a reporters’ stories often change as they gather new information.
The public, as well, should be open-minded when hearing initial one-sided allegations, especially with the advent of the internet and social media. A healthy dose of skepticism along with some fact-finding from the other side goes a long way toward an objective assessment.
A recent incident involving the Jefferson City Animal Shelter is a good illustration.
In the local Facebook group, “Jefferson City, MO Lost & Found Paws,” a woman posted that she found a dog on June 4 and took it to the shelter the next day. She said the dog was euthanized nine days later.
According to the petition, the family of the dog contacted the animal shelter but was told there was not a dog matching the description.
The community was outraged. A petition started, calling for the shelter director and other employees there to be repositioned. More than 3,400 people signed the online petition.
But wait. As the late broadcaster Paul Harvey was famous for saying: “Now, the rest of the story.”
City officials said the dog had a collar, but no identification and no microchip. It was overly aggressive and not adoptable. The shelter policies state that it can euthanize unclaimed stray animals after five days, but it waited nine days in this case. (If an owner is located, they have 10 days to pick up their pets.)
The Jefferson City Animal Shelter is not a “no-kill shelter,” and having such a city-run shelter is not practical financially or legally.
Anyone who has talked to the staff or volunteers at the shelter can vouch for their love of animals. No one there enjoys putting down an animal; it’s a tough, but necessary, part of the job.
What’s sad is that the whole ordeal could have been easily prevented if the dog was kept on the owner’s property or on a leash, as required by city ordinance.
Occasionally, a pet may still get away, through no fault of its owner. That’s where microchips serve as safety nets.
Microchipping pets isn’t mandatory, but it’s a good idea. When the shelter takes in a stray animal, one of the first thing employees do is scan the pet, hoping to get the owner’s contact information.
We’re confident the dog in question would still be alive today if it had been kept confined or microchipped.
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