Jailhouse Snitches; Questionable Informants; Cook County Jail | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Orange County, California, and South Los Angeles is best known for its wealthy suburbs, Tony Beach communities, and Disneyland, but it has lately attracted unwanted attention from California's attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice. . for the way their prosecutors use

informants

in their prisons. If used correctly,

informants

can be valuable assets to law enforcement to help bolster their cases. misusing their work can backfire, upset the scales of justice, reverse convictions, and free guilty criminals. That's what's happening in Orange County. This is the story of two

snitches

, one who remains in

jail

and the other. another is back on the streets but now he's ratting out the prosecutors he once loyally served how many times were you arrested numerous uh numerous numerous 5 10 15 over 100 let's say over 100 Mark Cleveland is a career criminal a life of addiction to drugs tape his face and I gave him a wraparound sheet with almost the same texture 40 years of petty crimes, robberies, a HIIT and run away, how are you? because I am extremely good at providing information to the sheriff's department and the district attorney's office and have been for years.

Cleveland was a

jail

house informant a snitch who snitched on other inmates in exchange for time off his sentence you were able to reduce how much of your sentence well 40 40 40 years because you were such a good informant yeah we met Cleveland at a hotel he keeps a low profile these days fears that former prison mate May will seek retaliation for betraying them during his decades behind bars Cleveland said he was willing to do almost anything the police asked of him because he wanted to get out, the problem is the desperation to get out and the will of the district attorney. use us and the propensity for unreliability is enormous, I mean, we want to get out of jail willing to do anything and willing to say anything and say anything,

snitches

will lie well, snitches lie at every opportunity, if they need, they will. from jail and what do I have to do to get out of jail that's the end of the game for everyone I'm sure it always has been did you check Cleveland ever lied about information you got from another inmate gave wrong information wrong information another inmate no, I , I am sure that much of my information was probably contaminated.

Cleveland explains that he was part of a sophisticated secret informant network closely organized and run by law enforcement within the Orange County jails. He says it worked as if

jailhouse

officers planted snitches like him nearby. high-profile targets, then agents guided the snitches to search for information that could help bolster the prosecutor's cases. Cleveland recalls that an agent asked him to target a member of the Mexican Mafia, a notorious gang that rules much of the prison territory in California, saying that I want him for a murder and, if you could give us any information on that, I would personally tell you.

I will get you out of prison, he told you that I would get you out of prison, yes, and I told him, well, I'm not there. with him he said we'll just move you and put you there with him for the most part, the people you were briefing, was it a coincidence that you heard what they said or were you placed there? I was on the spot there. it's something they do, he indicated it's something they do regularly, well, Cleveland what you describe is unconstitutional, the integrity of the justice system is based on everyone following the rules, if an inmate overhears and transmits incriminating information to prosecutors, that That's fine, but inmates can't be stood up and directed to gather information from someone who has already been charged with a crime; if you do, you are legally acting as a law enforcement officer, which is exactly how Mark Cleveland saw himself.

What you see here in this briefcase is

full

of documents. and copies of documents and notes and evidence of everything I've done. Cleveland showed us some of the meticulous handwritten copies of notes he sent to prosecutors hundreds of pages long on dozens of cases and said that whenever he needed it he could call the prosecutor. of District. office to report on his fellow inmates, you had a direct line to the district attorney's office and could talk on the phone any time you wanted, day or night. I thought you were limited in the number of phone calls you could make, oh you are, unless you're Mark.

Cleveland, it sounds like you're working for the district attorney's office. I was working there with Tony. He called him and he loved it every time he called him. Oh, you know, this is great. Really we appreciate. Tony. Tony Rakus, Orange County District Attorney Mark Cleveland, do you know who he is? Does he sound familiar to me? Yes I know who is. I remember him, uh, being an informant many years ago in one or two cases, but my memory of it isn't really like that. That clear rakus is a former judge and a veteran prosecutor who has been re-elected four times as district attorney.

He heads an office of 275 attorneys who handle 15,000 felony cases a year. His office is now under investigation by state and federal authorities for the way he uses and misuses information in

county

jails, how should we take the statements Mr. Cleveland made to us about All this? I think you should assume that you're talking to an informant and if he's talking he's probably lying, but this idea that you know he was part of this informant program and he could just pick up the phone whenever he wanted and call the DA's Office. of District. What you are saying is not a real fantasy.

He told us that the agents deliberately placed him in jail next to to get information it's true, no, it's not true, they deny, they deny, they deny, they're basically saying we don't have an informant program, there's no organized informant program, this It's just a conspiracy theory by the assistant public defender for the defense that Scott Sanders first discovered. the existence of a secret jailhouse informant program in Orange County. Suspicions of him peaked in 2011, after one of the worst days in

county

history. California Highway Patrol. Hey, we've had some shootings here in Sil Beach on a bright October afternoon in '41.

Cry's one-year-old Scott Evans walked into a beauty salon and shot his ex-wife and seven other people to death. Minutes later, De Cry was arrested and quickly admitted to his crime. Da Rakus called a press conference, the only thing that could approach Justice in a case like this is for us to request the death penalty. Sanders, an assistant public defender for decades, was appointed to represent accused murderer Scott de Cry. A tough job became even tougher when he learned his client had confessed to another snitch at the Orange County jail named only as inmate F, prosecutors tried to keep the informant's true identity hidden, arguing they needed to protect him after months of relentless investigation.

Sanders finally discovered on MF that Fernando Pérez was a prolific and well-documented snitch. The representations they made were that Fernando Pérez was just a good citizen who wanted nothing in return and was basically doing this out of the goodness of his heart and you found out he was the leader of a Mexican mafia gang and he had three strikes against him and he was desperate to reduce free time. He had already been convicted, he was facing a sentence of 25 to life in prison, so he had every incentive in the world to do everything he could to curry favor with the prosecution, something Sanders had seen before anyone else.

One of his clients also accused of murder and also facing the death penalty also confessed to Fernando Pérez. I was stunned, I mean, it was one of those moments where you just look up and think what's going on here and that's really It was kind of the starting point that realizing was what propelled us forward into voluminous court documents. . Sanders, an ardent opponent of the death penalty, accused the district attorney's office and Sheriff's Department of illegally placing Perez in the cell next to De Cry and then attempting to cover it up. They hid Pérez's long resume as an informant.

Fernando Pérez was deliberately placed next to the screamer in a jail cell. Fernando Perez was deliberately not placed next to De in the Orange County Jail. The complainant was placed there on the orders of a nurse and Fernando Pérez had already been there, from the outside it seems like a huge coincidence that this guy, who is a very well-known and valuable informant, is placed next to this high-profile Target, but You're saying it was just a coincidence. just a coincidence Scott Sanders says it was a surprising coincidence in a jail with 6,000 inmates da rakus insisted there was no informant program in jail when Mark Cleveland found out he called assistant public defender Scott Sanders and went back to his old informer job, but this time he started reporting on the prosecutors he once served, what did he tell you about how the jail reporting program works?

He said we were in something really bad and then he started describing things in detail and the details made sense, what did he tell you? was that you didn't know that we were really looking at a relatively small period of time and here comes Mark Cleveland and says no, no, it's been going on for years, let me take you back to the cases, that's just not the case, that's just not the case. what are we. We process cases fairly and ethically. How often does his office use jailhouse informants? Not very often informants are not the most trustworthy people.

In fact, they are not trustworthy and everyone knows it. That's why Cleveland says he and many other inmates who gathered information were rarely called to testify, so if you weren't testifying, what were they doing with all the information they were getting? No, they didn't want to put me on the stand. They don't want to put any informants on the stand. Tony Caucus argued that his prosecutors also did not intend to put Fernando Perez on the stand, but did want to hear what Scott D. Cry told Perez about the murders. Prosecutors were concerned that Cry might plead insanity to avoid the death penalty, so they placed a microphone in his cell and began recording as Perez asked him details.

It is not bad to obtain evidence that tends to refute madness. defense so a jury could hear him describe the murder and why he did it and what he did, but the judge threw out the confession and said Perez was acting like a law enforcement officer when he goaded him into tears to tell him about the murders being a ruse. botched case that has delayed justice for the families of Scott's victims for years and what should have been a sure case, you had a great case to cry about, you had confessions, you had witnesses, you had reasons to take a chance and use someone. since Fernando Pérez is part of his case, well, look, we had a really good case, there is no doubt about it when you listen to what he said to Pérez, it was a very clear statement of what he was doing with the intention of the. their malice their reasons under increasing public and political pressure the district attorney appointed a blue ribbon panel to investigate what happened they describe the office as a "must win" mentality they described their office as a ship without a rudder they said there has been a failure in leaders, you know, it's interesting, they said those things and they put it in writing and uh, but I talked to them personally and they didn't really have that to say personally, it's getting out there that there is some kind of conspiracy or there is some kind of will to rape people's rights or not giving people a fair trial, that's a false narrative, that's just not true, okay, so clarify it for me, so the public defender made a lot of accusations of all kinds of criminal conduct of things terrible and believe me, and if those things were true, we should be in jail, frankly, if those things were true, that would be very bad, but what about the accusations that the office withheld evidence? the office did not withhold evidence we have not withheld any evidence, he told us that even after the judge disagreed, the judge ruled that jail deputies working for the district attorney's office intentionally lied or intentionally withheld evidence material about the secret informant program, the judge went on to say that even if prosecutors didn't know the agents were hiding evidence, they should have and then the judge was even more convinced crying he couldn't get a fair trial from prosecutors. of Orange County, expelled the entire office at 275 of the Cry case has not yet been sentenced and the informant debacle has led to the Unraveling of a half dozen cases that return murders and thugs to the streets.

As for Fernando Pérez in Mate F, his denunciation bore fruit instead of a life sentence. A judge sentenced him to spend a few more years in protective custody and then he will be released. as a reward for everyoneYour Snitches, When many of us hear the term insiders or what law enforcement calls them, we think of mobsters using a wire to trap their bosses and get a better deal, but there is another type of insider out there. That doesn't quite fit the Hollywood image and may actually be much more ordinary young people, many of them college students caught selling small amounts of marijuana who are recruited by law enforcement to wear a microphone and make undercover drug purchases.

In exchange for having your charges reduced or dropped entirely is a practice that we found is carried out across the country largely unnoticed and in some cases with tragic consequences. How are you doing today? Well, today is your birthday, probably not what you want to do on your birthday, huh, what? What you are seeing is police footage of the making of a confidential narcotics informant. Narcotics officer Jason Weber is recruiting a college student who had been caught making two small marijuana sales to become a crime informant. Well, you express interest that you probably want to help. yourself outYes, we are always trying to move up the chain, so what we want is for them to buy from their supplier or suppliers.

Weber is the head of a 4C count drug task force in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. How important do you think? Confidential informants are for your assignment, yes, confidential informants are really important to law enforcement across the country, that makes our job easier just because they are already the ones who know who the drug dealers are and trust them. most of the kids you're recruiting were caught selling marijuana, the vast majority, yes, Weber's jurisdiction includes the North Dakota State College of Science campus, with about 3,000 students, marijuana is now Legal in four states and the District of Columbia, but not in North Dakota, where selling even a small amount on a campus is a felony with a maximum maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both. serious crimes, this young Andrew Sadic was recorded by another confidential informant making two sales. for a total of $80, Weber called Sadic before accusing him of presenting an option, agreeing to work as an informant, wear a wire and purchase drugs undercover from three people twice each or be charged with two Class A felonies, potentially The maximum is 40 years. in prison $40,000 F do you understand that?

Yeah, okay, obviously they're probably not going to give you 40 years, but is it a good chance that you're going to get some prison time? If you don't help yourself, yeah, there's Okay, that's probably not a way to start your young adult life and your career. Right, satic took the deal. Weber told us that most students are part of the agreement he signed. Keep the whole thing strictly to him. You can't tell anyone you're working. to me, obviously, for obvious reasons, he was not an award-winning electrical technology student, Andrew Sadic did what he was told, he never told any of his close friends that he was an informant, he never called a lawyer and he didn't tell a word to his parents, Tammy and John. satic The satics are a family of ranchers still struggling with the death of their eldest son in a train accident years earlier, leaving Andrew as an only child If Andrew had told you he was thinking about becoming a confidential informant, which one do you think What would your reaction have been?

We got him a lawyer and told him no, we had never heard of anything like this. You know, using college students as snitches or whatever you want to call them snitches or I don't know what you call them. You know there are I don't know any father who would allow or want his child to serve as a confidential informant to establish a drug business. Yeah, I mean, it's too dangerous. No, no, I wouldn't want my son to do it. Lance BL is a lawyer. in Tallahassee, Florida, which opposes using young people caught for relatively minor crimes as confidential informants, these kids are being recruited to do the most dangerous type of police work, they go undercover with no prior training or experience, they haven't been to the academy of cop.

So they are basically doing the same job as a trained undercover cop. BL says he didn't know police were using young people as confidential informants until he was hired 7 years ago by the family of Rachel Hoffman, a recent college graduate who was caught with a large stash of marijuana and a few Valium pills and ecstasy. It was her second arrest for marijuana. The Tallahassee Police Department caught her and told her that if she did not become a confidential informant, she would face 4 years in prison. She signed up and a few weeks later she was sent to make her first undercover drug purchase.

She was going to be one of the greatest in recent Tallahassee history. 1,500 ecstasy pills, one and a half ounces of cocaine and a gun. If she had ever trafficked any of those things she had a gun. she ever fired a gun. No, Rachel was a smoker and Rachel sold marijuana to her friends from her house, but Rachel did not deal in ecstasy or cocaine and much less, of course, not in weapons. Rachel drove her car alone to meet the traffickers in this park. With $133,000 in police cash and a wire in her purse, about 20 officers would watch her, but then the traffickers changed the location of the deal, so Rachel moved away from the police staging area and that's when things went horribly wrong, the drug dealer. have it on this road.

A drug dealer gets into her car with her and the 20 police officers who were near her lost her. Hoffman weighs 57,135 pounds. Hoffman was seen Wednesday night around 7:00 near Forest Meadows Park and shot five times. When the cable was found in her purse and her body was dumped in a ditch 50 miles away, Rachel Hoffman's tragic death turned Block into a lawyer, suing the city of Tallasse and winning a $2.8 million settlement. dollars for Rachel's parents and has advocated for greater openness. and increased protection for confidential informants since then do you have any idea how many confidential informants there are? of people are being killed or injured no one keeps statistics no one it's a dark underworld that's what we want to do more cases we want to do better cases that can be prosecuted the informant can do that Brian is a long time undercover narcotics officer who believes that a shady underworld is exactly what working with CI should be shady to protect the identities of informants and the underworld because that's where cops like him want the informant to take them.

Who knows more about the drug trait? Are we the ones who work in narcotics? No, who are the sellers? dopers S says he has worked with hundreds of informants and now trains police officers across the country on how best to use them if he would not have been able to personally use sensitive information. Would it have been as effective? Not nearly as effective. He really feels that he needs this. Oh, I know he wouldn't. He may have to stake out a house for days or weeks to establish probable cause. My informant comes in and makes a purchase and I have my probable cause in 5

minutes

.

You can get indicative cases faster and more easily in some respects. safer I'm surprised you say safer because we have heard of children who have been killed in these operations, it is a dangerous trade that they are involved in, yes, they are in that drug trade, they have always been facing that potential danger. Insiders estimate there could be up to 100,000 confidential informants working with police across the country and say that, with only a few tragic exceptions, it's a win-win for everyone, for society and for the IC: they've agreed to do what they're doing. to do in exchange for something that is the fundamental thing when someone comes to work for me as an informant it is their decision the police tell us that this is completely voluntary and they want to do this to get rid of the charges it is not something that college students stand up saying : I want to be a CI, it's not voluntary, they tell them they'll face prison unless they agree to make deals for the police department and there are some important things they don't tell them, what if they catch me selling $60 worth of marijuana?

What do you tell me to inform me? I will say this is the charge This is a felony Do you want to help you? Are you telling me that I have the right to talk to a lawyer? No, I'm not telling you that you have the right to talk to a lawyer. I'm going to ask you incriminating questions. If we're talking about you becoming an informant, I don't have to tell you that you have the right. to a lawyer, okay, that's because since police often recruit confidential informants before charging them and without arresting them, they are not required by law to read them their rights and Weber didn't do it with Andrew Saic, he told us that Sadic did three successful infiltrators.

He buys drugs like CI, they demanded half the amount they had told him, but then he stopped. Weber says they warned Saic that they would soon charge him if he didn't continue, and then one night a few weeks before graduation, security cameras take these photos of Saic leaving his dorm room at 2 a.m. m. On a Thursday morning, a day and a half later, he had not returned, we received a call from campus around noon on Friday. He left, miss, still completely unaware of his son's work as a confidential informant Andrew's parents were soon on campus making a public plea for his return we love you and we love you we need you to come home everything will be okay there were searches prayer vigils and then 2 months later, the worst possible news was Andrew's body was discovered in a river near campus, his backpack loaded with rocks, his straps tied across his chest, did they tell you what the cause of death was? , shot in the head, a year and a half later, that's all they've been told, no one has been charged with Andrew's death and the gun that killed him has not been found.

Police deny that he was involved in any CI operation the night he disappeared and have suggested to his parents that he may have shot himself, a possibility they say is inconceivable. They are convinced that their son was murdered as a result of his work as an informant and they want the confidential recruitment of young criminals like CIS to stop it is ridiculous ridiculous stop doing it slap their hands fine them put them in jail expel them I don't care to stop using our children to do their jobs The death of Andrew Saic is still an open investigation, so neither the state agencies in charge of the case nor Jason Weber spoke about it, but we did ask about putting these children at risk.

Andrew Stic was caught selling $80 in Marijuana People have told us that it's just not worth it and it's not worth putting the child in any kind of risky situation for how little you know that a drug dealer is a drug dealer. drugs, whether you smell a large or small amount, whether you do it. Do it once or if you do it 100 times while it's still illegal, part of our duties as law enforcement officers is to get drugs off the streets and get drug dealers off the streets, so how successful are you? doing well? I think it goes back to the point that if we don't try something or if we don't do it, then we're really losing the War on Drugs, isn't it more important to go after heroin and meth?

C pain, yes, our agency is after them all. I'm still trying to come to the equation, you know what I mean, is it worth it for the marijuana? Yes, again, I have to know again, as long as it is a crime, it is. my duty as a police officer to enforce criminal law we have talked to college students who talk about how they were pressured to become confidential informants it felt like I had a gun to my head that part of the story when we came back we wanted We know what they are laws across the country regarding the use of juveniles as confidential information and we were surprised to discover that in all but a handful of states there are no laws or age limits on who can become a CI.

We know rules about how or even whether informants should be trained, there are no guidelines about their protection policies, which are generally left to the individual police departments that recruit and use the information and which, critics say, can and have resulting in overly aggressive recruiting tactics, traumatization and even suicide. CIS and situations in which it is handed over to children. incentives to catch other children we look at a case a narcotics unit where those charges have been made is in one of the best known college towns in the country with the university itself a partner involved and mortician the University of Mississippi at Oxford famously called Old Miss is known for its football, school spirit, and southern charm, but less than amile from campus, located in this municipal building, is an anti-drug task force focused on the darker side of life.

It's called Metro Narcotics here and one of its confidential informants was an old lady. The student will call Greg, who agreed to talk to us in disguise. He was finishing school one day. His life as a CI began one day when he returned home from class. Halfway there I was met by men with bulletproof vests, guns and badges on their next My initial reaction was to just move on, this has nothing to do with me and then until they showed a piece of paper with my name on it saying I sold LSD and I thought: what the hell had nothing to do with this Greg who had nothing?

His criminal record insists that his only encounter with LSD was when a friend asked him to leave some at his apartment and then says another acquaintance stopped by using a wire and happened to pick up the LSD. I was on the couch watching TV and he said, oh. thanks and I just said I have nothing to do with this, no more than I do, but at the Metro office Greg says two officers threatened him with over 20 years in prison and a felony on his record for life unless that he agreed to become an informant. and making drug purchases using a 10 person wire that he had to find himself felt like he had a gun to his head have you already told them you had nothing to do with this?

They almost convince you that you are guilty. He was so scared that he was just putting putty on their hands. Did you think about the idea that you would become a snitch? I mean, I knew what I was signing and I absolutely hated it. He just made me sick, but what made me sicker was the thought of spending 20 years in prison. Did you know 10 people you could buy drugs from when you signed that document? No, but you don't care the moment you sign it, it's like I'm sure you know, please don't ruin my life. Ken Cogan is a defense attorney in Oxford who has represented many Old Miss students who became confidential informants.

He says that because there are no standardized rules, police officers can request any number of purchases as Metro 10, which he says is so high that it creates a perverse incentive for kids to incite other kids to break the law, he told us he's seen it time and time again, they don't know the drug dealers and they're so desperate that They'll go to their friend or their roommate or their fraternity brother and they know this person smokes marijuana and they'll say, I don't have marijuana anymore. Can I get $10 worth of marijuana from you? Your personal things. cheating and that's not allowed under the cheating law because that frat brother with his own marijuana was only guilty of possession, a misdemeanor under Mississippi law, but if he says yes, gas and sells some to his friend, Now he has become a trafficker, a criminal facing a possible crime. time in prison and at that time we are not catching criminals, we are creating criminals.

Have you ever had the feeling that you were asking someone else to commit a crime that they otherwise wouldn't have committed? Yes, I just knew someone who would help me. with an amount I wasn't selling but I knew they would because we knew each other and you did, yes when you say they are creating criminals this is what you mean. I don't think the police say get out. and talking someone into doing it, who otherwise wouldn't do it, is just what kids do and look, there are some hard drugs out there, but the vast majority of cases are the sale of two grams of marijuana, three grams of marijuana, but those small ones. sales can add up to a lot of arrests and the numbers say Tallahassee attorney Lance Block helps drug task forces get grants who want to increase arrest numbers and it doesn't matter if they're going after a college kid with a couple of joints in his pocket or if they are chasing a drug lord and the more arrests, the more money, the rest, the higher they are, the better the financing.

I mean, law enforcement is addicted to drug war money, like the crack addict is to the street. His drug use is a heavy charge, we put it on undercover narcotics agent and instructor Brian. What they say is that the police are in this to raise their arrest statistics to justify the grants and money they are receiving. I'm in this to do it. what is best for my community and if having higher statistics gives me more money and allows me to do more cases to then impact drug trafficking in my community, then that is a benefit as well.

Metro Narcotics got nearly $55,000 in federal grants last year, but the majority of its budget comes from the city police, the county sheriff's department and Old Miss $100,000 each, Metro's narcotics chief for the past 5 years. has been Keith Davis seen here on a Miss Old student newscast defending his unit's work with the students as information these are adults these are 18 19 20 years old yes I get it they have young minds whatever it is they are here creating serious crimes and harming our communities. We requested our own interview with Davis or any Metro narcotics representative, but they rejected one thing we wanted to ask Davis about.

There were charges that he and other agents in the unit abused the CIS, they call you and in these calls they are very aggressive and threatening and they say well we are going to come pick you up and you are going to go to prison to the point where I was terrified when Every time the phone rang we heard similar statements from another Old Miss student who became a confidential informant after Metro Narcotics accused him of selling marijuana, they say your life is over if you're like you know it if not No, if you you tell someone, if you don't help us, did they specifically say you can't call your parents?

They said if you call your parents we will take you to jail once he agreed, says one of the first things the officer says. I asked him if he could buy meth or heroin. He told her no for the first 8 months. He called every day at about the same time. He called you every day for eight months. Every day we had heard repeated accusations about the aggressive tone. from Metro agents and then we were able to hear for ourselves when we obtained a recording of Keith Davis and another Metro agent yelling at a CI recruit that they heard that he had made a threat to find out where they lived.

The first voice is that of Agent Tommy Knight. I don't care where you are, yes sir, I will deliver this. I will come to beat him, you, yes, sir, get it in your head. Wow, the tape was faked by the CI recruit who took it to Ken Coglin. We listen. with him like Keith Davis made his own threat if the boy ever came to his house it would be the last place he would ever go yes sir you feel me 100% it took everything I had not to come see him last night yes sir to hunt You get depressed, but I'm trying to call him.

Keith Davis is the head of this narcotics unit and he is making a death threat. Know? I'm going to let the tape speak for itself. Cogin sent the tape and a letter to The Old Miss chancellor and attorney more than two years ago thought that as a Metro narcotics mortician they should know how the unit treated its students, he got no response and we could find no evidence that they were made changes to the program at that time. You know, let's go to the store. Greg told us that as he continued to make secret purchases he became anxious and paranoid.

He would have to hide it. I'll be shaking because, first of all, he completely hated what he was doing. He didn't want to get anyone. in trouble you feel absolutely ashamed for turning in other kids, yes, but Keith Davis told the Old Miss campus reporter that these kids don't deserve so much sympathy. Let's be clear that these people are not these innocent little college kids, plain and simple. Those who sell drugs are not innocent people, they are selling poison. That may be true for many confidential informants, but it turns out that it's not Greg after a year and a half and he says he made six of the 10 required purchases.

Greg was charged and arrested anyway. That's when his parents found out and hired Cogin, who investigated the original evidence against Greg and concluded that the friend who brought the LSD to Greg's house in the first place had been a CI, so a CI he brought the drugs and a CI bought the drugs. drugs, that's how I understood it, cogin says after he brought the situation to the district attorney's attention, the charges against Greg were dismissed, all charges were dismissed completely and it's really important for the public to understand what's going on . because he is a perverted Justice.

I'm told that a lot of these kids aren't really thinking about going to jail. In the vast majority of cases, these children would be diverted to a drug court program, be on probation for six months to a year, and at the end, if they have done everything success

full

y, then the cases are dismissed. Lance Block has been advocating for laws regulating the recruitment and use of confidential informants across the country, but he says law enforcement lobbyists have opposed the reforms they want to maintain. The CI system as it stands, authorities have told us we see it as a win-win situation: the kids get a reduction or the charges are dropped entirely and we can arrest the drug dealers, but the kids They are killing them and arresting small holders.

That's a loss, we asked the old lady for an on-camera interview while we were reporting our story, our request was rejected. We received a letter months later saying, "Thank you for her part in encouraging a deeper look at Metro's narcotics unit and telling us." that due to increased attention on 60 Minutes and the news organization BuzzFeed changes were being made, including more direct oversight of the program, an audit of the program by a third-party organization, policies to ensure suspects have the option to becoming a confidential informant and a leadership change in late September Keith Davis resigned as head of the unit he now works for the Chicago Sheriff's Department with the highest number of murders last year of any major city in the country has a of the largest jails In the country, an average of 70,000 men and women pass through the Cook County Jail each year, many more than once, and, as with other big-city jails, most of the inmates for the who pass by are poor, mentally ill, or gang members, one of the few things.

Republicans and Democrats agree on the need for prison reform, and Cook County is leading the way almost by necessity with a new approach to help break the cycle. County Sheriff Tom Dart is getting much of the credit from a former prosecutor who has been elected and re-elected. Sheriff since 2006, Dart, as he will see, is unconventional. It was a cold day at the Cook County Jail when we met Tom Dart. He has redefined the role of the sheriff. He sees the job as not just keeping people in jail, but also helping some get out. He says many behind bars shouldn't be there.

Well, how do you guys do several times a month? Dart mixes with the men in the jail's minimum security division, all of whom have been charged with low-level, nonviolent crimes. Which is responsible? I had a parole violation I was on parole for driving license W Revolt Dart says the jail with a current population of about 7500 has become a dumping ground for the poor and mentally ill what percentage do you think here really shouldn't to be here? He would conservatively suggest that half the people here in jail shouldn't be here, they don't, they don't pose a danger to anyone.

The people in most prisons and 95% of the people in this prison are awaiting trial, so everyone here is people who have not been convicted yet, so you tell yourself okay, they are presumed innocent and are so dangerous that we have to keep them here while we await trial. You had some violence a long time ago. Nothing, a long time, so nothing. he makes the rounds sounds less like an incarcerator than a defense attorney. I won't promise you anything because you never know what the hell they're going to do, but I promise you we'll push through it, the biggest problem for most inmates.

He says they just don't have enough money to post bail. I'm trying to figure out why my bail bonds are so high. How many percentages of people are really poor and can't afford bail on any given day? We probably have two to 300 people who if they got $500 would get out of here, but we found that if you have access to money, wherever it comes from and it often comes from your gang, and if you happen to be the guy in your gang, what? who is the one who does it? In most gunfights you are avery, very valuable person, they want you back on the street, but there is an individual who is here who has never been a danger to anyone, he can't get 100 dollars and he is sitting the guy down with the gun. he's outside the door, the next guy is in possession of cannabis, he usually hands his notes to his top advisor, Cara Smith, who runs what you might call a "you shouldn't be here" squad and how much do you charge her? to Reta and what they say you are trying to steal. some Red Bulls some Red Bull drinks Smith and his staff have office hours looking for inmates they can help with, what we need to work on is trying to reduce his bail so he can get out of here, okay, okay, yeah .

Ok, good luck, we will be in touch reviewing the cases. Cara Smith discovered something disturbing. They call them dead days. We invented the term, but we call them dead days because people spend a lot of time before trial here at the Cook County Jail. that once they are sentenced to prison they have already served their sentence, they probably spent more time here than the senate in some cases, so last year alone we had 1,024 people who spent their entire prison sentence here in the county jail, but the most incredible statistic is that the same group of people spent an additional 222 years in custody here in the county jail.

Lengths of stays range from a week or less to eight or nine years. Some of the people who spend years here are mentally ill who make up about a third of the population and are the biggest cost of the prison and do you know what their position is today? Retail Theft Retail Theft $70 in Ground Beef $70 in Ground Beef Each inmate is screened for mental illness when he first arrives. I was diagnosed with the disease when I was in the friend group, in the friend group, it's okay, we will make sure you get help today if I don't get the medicine I need.

I know it's going to go wrong, this man who also has a history of mental illness has been in and out of jail 37 times. I understand how that happens. How does someone go back to jail 37 times? What in God's name do you expect to happen to that person? Well, then this person has a serious problem. mental illness his family is not being treated and he has been disconnected for years he obviously has no job he has no place to live what do you think is going to happen I will tell you what is going to happen he will contact the authorities, whether because he is trying trying to find a place to sleep or he's trying to find something to eat and he'll come back here, it's not because he left here saying listen, I want to go and commit horrible crimes, it's like he's trying to survive in many ways, society has turned the jails and prisons in mental health clinics and you're actually running one here.

Yeah, I said, "Okay, if you're going to make me the biggest mental health provider we have." They will be the best, we will treat them like patients while they are here, it's like we think differently. The Cook County Jail was already one of the largest mental health facilities in the country in 2012, when Chicago closed half of its mental health clinics. These men, the high-functioning mentally ill, are held 5 days a week in a program that is now a model for other prisons across the country. They receive medical visits to psychiatrists and group therapy, so today I want him to continue moving forward and he will have to have some things that will take him to another level.

About 60% of all correctional officers have advanced mental health training and Dart has moved new people into medical facilities, what I did was redefine jobs and where a law enforcement position would have been. I changed it to a medical or mental health position, so we've been bringing on a lot of doctors, counselors, therapists, you run a jail, um. Sometimes I wonder that nothing exemplifies his new direction more than who he chose to lead. jail no someone with law enforcement experience appointed psychologist to be medical director 39 na Jones Tapia I'm going to sell for the sake of selling who should I talk to she started as an intern at the Cook County Jail almost 10 Ago years and made her way as a Guardian, she tries to instill more Humanity in a rather soulless place, the maximum security wing, where she offers harsh love therapy.

He didn't let the officer handcuff them, did he? Why did they have to take him to the ground and handcuff them, are you going to continue getting sad if they continue to deny my right? Okay, I see you have the wrong attitude. I'm not wrong because I'm trying to help you but you still tell me that. You're going to have problems with the staff and I can't allow that, so what do you get? We film you making rounds like a doctor in a hospital, but you talk to every inmate you pass by. Yes, it's because we understand the person is a person, it's not what they are, it's not, they're not accused, it's not their crime and that's why we want to provide that individual attention to as many people as we can, sorry, gentlemen on a ride. by a medium. security cell block she works on attitude adjustment trying to change their mindset so they don't come back here all of you with tattoos might want to think about removing them you gotta wonder how you're going to get a job when you get out I mean the First impression is all you can't do, how many of you have children?

Oh my gosh, it's not just you who are affected by being here, your families, your children to communicate with their families, she has included her phone number. number on the Dart prison website and her methods have been the subject of intense criticism. He is too soft on the inmates. She says some correctional officers' antagonism turned to outright hostility last year when Dart, intent on being transparent about life behind the walls, released videos to the public. showing guards brutally beating inmates Dennis Andrews, the business agent for Teamsters Local 700 who represents corrections officers, says his members were furious that the anger was that he didn't release videos of detainees attacking officers.

You can't publish a short segment of something happening without publishing the tape of how you got from point A to point B, does the public have the right to see those men beating prisoners? If we don't release that information, then it increases the public's sense that law enforcement is covering things up. and that we are hiding things and we have nothing to hide we have good people here it's the majority but we have some people who don't and we can't shy away from that because it's what poisons the well with the public after the criticism Sheriff Dart published videos of inmates attacking staff, but Dennis Andrew says that didn't improve morale.

He does not address the situations of his own staff in prison who are being attacked daily by the Attes. He presumes them innocent, but. he doesn't presume his staff to be innocent he presumes his staff to be guilty yeah, it can't be good if they think you're not on their side, you know, it baffles me when they think I'm not on their side, it's the most It's a tough job. and you start with that and then you deal with mental people who have been asked to do all kinds of things that they didn't sign up for and I sympathize tremendously with that, which Sheriff Dart can't say.

What we still need to know is whether recidivism rates are going down on any given day. He says he releases about 200 people onto the streets, but accepts another 200, some of whom are still old familiar faces to improve the chances of them not returning. He has introduced activities like chess lessons. people said: you know your chess program, you know how that job works, they said, you know what is one of the main problems we have with people here is that they don't think about the consequences, they only think about the first move, they are playing the ladies. chess makes you think four five six moves I can't tell you how many kids in the chess program have told me they've never thought like that in their life that their way of thinking has changed there's more to it than chess Dart has recruited volunteers to Offer all kinds of classes They are rarely seen in a prison and you can always get closer if you want.

A photographer teaches inmates how to find new ways to see the world and themselves, musicians provide therapy through rhythm and sound. H, well, let's do it? put on some Ros Italian chef Bruno Abate gives

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ing lessons I'm not here just to make food I'm here to change your way of thinking so you don't come back to this place anymore we say you know we hit rock bottom now I can only go up, what's up with your correctional officers? Do they look at you and say wait a minute? This is all backwards here, yeah, I mean, there are definitely employees here who are baffled by me.

You know, Sheriff Goofy is out, he's given pizza to all the inmates. now because he L Sheriff dumb yes absolutely absolutely I wear it with pride people are going to say you're on the wrong side of the street that's been suggested yes, but you'll never find anyone who is more determined and pursues evil. To those who hurt people. I used to process them. Now I also arrest them at the Sheriff's Office, but when it comes to doing it blindly and truly out of indifference, I'm simply saying that there are segments of our society that we will treat in this horribly insensitive manner.

We're not going to party because of that and if that bothers people, that's fine.