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On every business day, Criminal Justice Journalists (CJJ) provides a summary of the nation's top crime and justice news stories with Internet links, if any. Crime & Justice News is being provided by CJJ with the support of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Open Society Institute. The news digest is edited by Ted Gest and David Krajicek. Other resources were provided by the Butler Family Fund, Police Executive Research Forum, and MN-8 Systems.

New York City has thousands fewer police officers than it had in 2001. New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly does not subscribe to the idea that there was a strong connection between a city's financial fortunes and its safety. In Los Angeles, Police Chief William Bratton said California had been struggling with an ailing economy for some time but had seen no appreciable rise in crime. In Providence, R.I., police chief. Dean Esserman has seen a shift for the worse. "I see poverty as having a tremendous impact on both spirit and crime, and it is palpable," he said after attending Wednesday's Police Executive Research Forum meeting on crime and the economy in Washington, D.C.

Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman said posting public information - the name and photo of a person who's been arrested - on the county's Web site is "not a punishment. These are public documents being given a public airing." Griffin said whether or not his client is acquitted, people who type her name into an Internet search engine will know about her arrest for years to come. Legal experts said the law is unclear on whether the Wall of Shame is constitutional. Eric Freedman, who teaches constitutional law at Hofstra Law School, said there's nothing wrong with telling the public who's been arrested. He said Suozzi would have been on firmer ground if he had not called it the Wall of Shame. Law Prof. Bruce Winick of the University of Miami said it is important to look at how much a person who is acquitted has been harmed by a name and photo posted. Griffin's claim that Bursac could be harmed when potential employers and others find her name and photo on the Internet is a gray area, he said.

A Tribune analysis found that one-sixth of the 19,000 domestic violence cases brought each year in Cook County now result in convictions. That dismal record feeds a vicious cycle: With so few convictions, victims lose faith in the courts, and the violence continues unabated, advocates say. "It looks like there isn't anyone holding abusers accountable," said Dawn Dalton of the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network. The Tribune analysis found that nearly 14 percent of defendants countywide faced domestic violence charges multiple times over just a three-year period. Frustrated by the bureaucracy and long delays between arrest and the start of trial, many women choose to drop cases, victims and advocates say. In August, Chief Circuit Judge Timothy Evans named a panel of judges, lawyers, advocates, and civic leaders to find solutions.

Dart told a judge that too often his deputies are evicting renters who have not been given notice the property is in foreclosure. The sheriff suggested that the court require banks to file an affidavit saying the homeowner and potential renters all have been given notice of the pending eviction before calling on deputies to evict residents.

The largest facility targeted for closing, the original part of the Southampton Correctional Center, which opened in 1938, means the loss of 116 jobs. "It's going to have a very deep impact," said Jay Randolph, assistant county administrator. The prison is one of the area's largest employers. Farming is the chief industry and other jobs are scarce. Other cutbacks: less money for drug treatment and counseling; delaying $7 million for planning a new prison; and the elimination of 11 day-reporting sites used by some of the 60,000 probationers and parolees. State prisons hold 33,300 inmates at an annual average cost of $22,830 each. Almost two-thirds of the more than 50 state correctional facilities are 20 to 65 years old.

In the 1980s Congress again turned to mandatory minimums to combat a growing and frightening problem involving another relatively unknown drug, crack cocaine, and the crime wave that accompanied it. The result: Judges were forced to sentence first- time nonviolent offenders to unconscionably long prison terms. In an editorial, the Post says that next year, Congress "should revisit mandatory minimums and consider their repeal, as their predecessors did in 1970, once a new administration takes over."

Participants must remain sober for at least six months. Judge Kristin Sweeney said the idea is to eliminate the adversarial nature of traditional court custody proceedings. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are studying the program and trying to identify how to make it stronger. So far, they can't say that the majority of participants enrolled are successful, but the ones who succeed are reunited with their children more quickly. Federal studies from the first decade of drug courts say they saved money because participants have fewer trips through the criminal-justice system after completing a program.

A person can be subject to an injunction if he or she admits gang membership, has been identified by a reliable informant, displays gang tattoos or signs, or is associated or arrested with known gang members. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said city leaders have come to realize that the injunctions cannot be a one- way street, and those who reform need a second chance. "We need an exit ramp for those who want to turn their lives around," he said. "If you're a member of a gang, you'll likely end up dead or in jail. We want you to leave the gang life behind. We can get you out from under injunction."

Officials are seizing thousands of cell phones nationwide. Some are brought in by visitors, who may hide them in body cavities. Most are supplied by guards, often in exchange for bribes. The going price: $500. At Pennsylvania's Graterford prison, four guards were indicted last year on federal charges of supplying cell phones and drugs to inmates in exchange for bribes. The newest threat behind bars is the SIM card, a tiny, portable memory chip that allows lots of prisoners to use a single phone. "Cell phones become a huge threat to [] the officers inside the prison, the prisoners themselves, and the public," said Terry Bittner of EVI Technology, a Maryland company whose cell phone detection system is used in one Pennsylvania prison, some federal facilities, and elsewhere.

County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt says he has hosted assemblies at schools to educate students on the legalities and risks of this conduct. Oswalt met with school superintendents yesterday -- a meeting planned before this case came to light -- and the cell- phone issue became one topic of discussion. There isn't a whole lot schools can do about cell phones, aside from enforce their own policies.

The corrections officers union one of the two units not in current negotiations. The union has fought with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over pay and prison policies and has worked without a long-term labor contract since 2006. The personnel department's out-of-state comparison considered wages of federal corrections officers and those in 10 states - neighboring Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Nevada and those with large populations: Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

The number of jury trial requests spiked from 7,388 in fiscal 2007 to 8,470 in fiscal 2008 as the overall caseload decreased. Now, more than one in every 10 criminal cases is a misdemeanor moved to the higher court on a jury trial request. Chief Judge Keith Mathews of Baltimore's District Court attributes the increase to former Mayor Martin O'Malley's "zero- tolerance" arrest policies, which resulted in more defendants being put on probation. That means more is at stake when they get arrested again, even on a minor charge. As the volume grows, justice for misdemeanors becomes quicker and dirtier, with attorneys making judgments with less than a day's preparation and often without meeting, much less interviewing, victims or witnesses. Public defenders sometimes meet their clients for the first time when they arrive in court for trial.

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