FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood - Jeff Poor Show - Monday 9-30-24
you got to know when to hold up know when to hold up know when to walk away know when to run you never count your money when you're sitting at the table there'll be time and love to count welcome back to the Jupyter show I'll have to talk 106 five Thanks for staying with us on this Monday morning still a couple of program not an hour from now call it in from Tennessee I believe Dale Jackson and WVNN and Yellow Hammer News but joining us on the line now it's my pleasure to introduce our next guest first time he's been on Mobile County District Attorney Keith and Blackwoods on the line Keith Good morning are you good morning Jeff doing well thanks for having me on hey thank you for coming on we do appreciate it well how's it going so far we've it I mean you and I haven't talked really at all but you got to add an election cycle and you're getting acclimated what's the job been like the job's been great and we made a lot of progress since I took office in January of last year we have worked through over 12,000 felony cases in circuit court alone and our number of pending cases has gone down which when I took office that number of pending cases in circuit court hadn't gone down in about five and a half years and so that was a really big focus of mine because as everybody knows you know we had a tremendous backlog of cases partially due to the pandemic and working through that to make justice swift again was one of my primary focuses well let's uh let's hit on the topic at hand and I obviously I spend a lot of time talking about what's going on in other parts of the stages because they're getting all the screaming headlines but as far as Mobile County goes what's your perception do we do we really have these woes that like like a Montgomery or Birmingham or having with gang problems or what not but because if we are it just it doesn't seem to be quite as noticeable we uh we certainly do have gang issues in Mobile County I know Birmingham and Montgomery in particular have had some really big problems that have made the news our issues with gangs you know we've really been able to target them with some kind of technology initiatives that Mobile Police Department the Sheriff's Office and some other agencies have been using and you were able to identify them kind of online for a social media presence and you know we we flag those cases at the district attorney's office we take them very seriously and you know we're especially seeing a big problem with juvenile gang members and this law that that your reference last week and this you have been talked about very important law but it really doesn't address the juvenile gang problem as much as I think it should well that was my sort of quip about it was this like we passed it our prosecutors just not using it or aware of it because you passed this and they had to really change on the language to satisfy some of the Democrats in the state Senate but the law is on the books yet here it is it just seems that this is perception it may not be the reality but there's been a spike since the law was passed in the gang problem and when do we really get to go at it but you the way you explained it to me it was like look we would this just be like an underlying crime here before you could pursue that statute that's right the statute is really a sentencing enhancement and it took effect September 1st of last year so these cases a lot of them are pending your injury a very few of them have been indicted but we really haven't gotten to the point yet where we have a sentencing where we're able to apply a sentencing enhancement that time is gonna come and we're absolutely going to be using this criminal enterprise enhancement statute it it's got some pretty tough sentences behind it and we will certainly be utilizing that well unless other than the juvenile problem or did you say this law doesn't really address why would you like to I mean what would be what would be beneficial what what should the legislature look at as far as giving you as a prosecutor more tools to deal with some of these problems if I were granted my wish list I think we need more prisons in Alabama you know right now there's not a lot of prison space over 80% of the people that are in prison are in for horribly violent offenses you know we need more space there we also need more prosecutors I was able to get some additional funding from the city in the county to hire a few more prosecutors that's one of the big reasons that I've been able to work through the backlog that we had but if you look at the American Bar Association standards for the number of cases that any attorney should be handling in the types of cases that we handle the heavy lifting that we have to do I probably need double the number prosecutors if we were to have a truly efficient justice system I think that's a problem across the state especially in the larger jurisdictions but you know I'm a state agency I get about you know a little over two million dollars of funding from the state I make up for the rest of it locally you look at indigent defense and the state just in Mobile County alone pays over seven or eight million dollars for indigent defense so it seems like that indigent defense is funded you know way more than prosecutors are and I think that's something that needs a really serious look at the state level you know fully funding prosecutor offices what do you think the disconnect here is an Alabama because my assumption that I operate on and we're a red state and the voters or the people of the state sort of I think kind of call us running idea about being tough on crime and that we should have a criminal justice system that is in some ways also serves as a deterrent but when it comes to like just having what we need in place or what you need in place I should say to execute a tough on crime sort of criminal justice system we're not we're not really getting that are we I mean it just seems like we're really slow getting out of first gear at least well I think a lot of it is that you know our state you're right our state is very rich it's a very diverse state we have just a very small number of larger jurisdictions and the crime that we're seeing in you know Birmingham Montgomery here Mobile maybe Huntsville and Tuscaloosa you know the crime over the last several decades is is different you have a lot younger people committing crime you have a lot more violent crimes that the technology aspect of it makes prosecutions very complicated and I don't think the funding structure especially for the larger jurisdictions is really kept up with that the our funding structure in DA's offices was kind of started in the 1970s under the current system that we have it relied on a lot of these and you know what we call kind of gimmick funding methods you know bad check unit the recovery unit that helps recover restitution and court costs from convicted defendants and those things have kind of gone by the wayside and so the larger offices especially in our state are not funded to the extent that they should be I think that's something that's going to be talked about in this next legislative session coming up early next year enjoyed by Keith Blackwood he is the Mobile County District Attorney here on the program well you mentioned wanting more prisons and more prison space and it doesn't doesn't seem like there's like an undercurrent here of like no that's not the solution and we we I mean like somewhere along the way we got off track here maybe it was George Floyd or whatever but the policing they're just really just promotion of these like I don't know what you would call them alternative methods de-escalation or whatever the emphasis is put on those things and less just like the lucky criminals up and putting them away and maybe rehabilitating them and so you don't have this problem anymore I think I think there's a perception in the public that you know prisons are full of you know nonviolent offenders or you know petty drug users that's just not the case the vast majority of people that are in prison are in prison for violent crimes there is a rehabilitative aspect to what we do for low-level offenders nonviolent offenders and I think I think that's important you know treating mental health issues or drug addiction things like that is important for preventing crime down the road but I do think we need more prisons you know there's plenty of violent crime out there as much as we try to prevent it there's always gonna be violent crime so we need a place to put those offenders to keep all of our community safe yeah and what about that though the I have have policing methods changed or I mean I guess you you're kind of new at this job but I assume you're familiar with it but like are we I don't know this really soft on crime but there's something going on here where you know five years ago you didn't have some of these problems is it like another drug on the street it is changing people's behavior I mean what's changed to create at least my perception is that things have gotten a little worse out there out on the streets I think I think nationally there's been an attack on our police I think that's unfortunate yeah I've been in office almost two years now I worked as a prosecutor coming up on 17 years now but I really saw an assault on the police and the media during the Obama administration there were some kind of nationwide events that happened and there's been this narrative that's anti law enforcement I think that has been a huge detriment to our partners in law enforcement and it's something that they had to deal with they've had to adapt there's a lot more focus on kind of public relations in the community that's something that they've had to do with this national narrative that's been against law enforcement you also have a lot of nonprofit organizations that are trying to open the doors of the prison let violent offenders out that's something that we've had to combat quite a bit during my time here at the DA's office well the politics of it and then I don't really get a grasp of Mobile County like I should but there seems to be kind of a mixed bag like you have the democratic constituents who are wanting the tough on crime but do you ever get the sense that there are people out there that think we're too tough on crime or that we need to be a little softer I mean I don't like I said I don't know that exists but that seems to be the direction of our politics in a lot of places around Alabama I mean by large the people that are coming to contact with and that's across the entire community across all demographics they want law and order in the community and in their places in Mobile County where the crime is particularly bad you talk to the people that live there they want the police they want prosecutions they want to feel safe in their homes and yeah that's something that that we're trying to accomplish we're trying to put bad guys in jail and keep them out of the communities well and that's you know some places I guess it's just that they just don't maybe necessarily have the reef resources what about that I mean everywhere it seems in Alabama right now even down here Mobile I mean yes I'm kind of drama some kind of turmoil involved with the police department and the police maybe they're understaffed or they have a morale problem or whatever how much are you dealing with that at your level of it just like knowing that there's criminals on the street that maybe you're just maybe not being apprehended or dealt with well we've got great law enforcement agencies here the sheriff's office the Mobile Police Department you know most of the municipalities are pretty good we've done a lot of work with the city of Grichard and the Grichard Police Department to try to help them out but you know morale has been a problem like I said since I started seeing this in the national media during the Barack Obama administration you know there's really this national narrative that is anti-law enforcement here on the local level I think most people most people trust the police most people support the police and you know we certainly work with them on a daily basis to try to prosecute these crimes well and you said on your wish list more prisons beyond that I mean is there another statute to enhance penalties or what else can you where else the state level where they write these laws do you think there needs to be some work well I think treatment for this thing needs to be pushed we have we have sentencing guidelines that were pushed on to prosecutors about 15 20 years ago you know you've got the 13a as our criminal code you've got the statute that gives you the range of punishment for felonies and misdemeanors then they push these sentencing guidelines that are presumptive and drug cases and property cases and then their voluntary for violent crime offenses but generally sentencing guidelines the sentences are much less than what they would be under the statute and then you had to make matters worse the rules and the laws on parole allow offenders to get out early so you know we may get a sentence of 15 20 years for certain offenses but they're gonna be out in a matter of a handful of years because we don't have truth in sentencing that's something that's been promised to us ever since the use sentence and guidelines came out and it is not happening as of yet Keith appreciate your time this morning let's do this again real soon absolutely thanks for having me Chris Keith Blackwood to Mobile County district attorney there we got to get a break here be right back this is have to talk with us 65 with the wind see the stars light up the purple sky feel and long song to win