Offenders attend 'call in' program
By John Joyce
Published in News on November 7, 2014 1:46 PM
Few community members attended the Goldsboro Partners Against Crime call-in Thursday, but the 13 violent offenders mandated by their probation to be there heard a message about the real-life consequences of crime.
Craig Doubt Jr., father of an 18-year-old man who was murdered in the Fairview housing community six years ago, asked the fathers in the group to stand.
A handful stood.
"How would you like to watch your son take his last breath?" Doubt asked.
Doubt and Goldsboro Police Department Capt. Theresa Cox both shared their stories as parents still grieving after the deaths of their murdered sons.
Mrs. Cox lost her son, a straight-A student, to gun violence in Greene County in 2004.
Both parents pleaded with the offenders to change their ways, not just because they might face federal sentences on their next criminal conviction, but because their actions might one day cause another parent the same grief Mrs. Cox and Doubt will endure forever.
After the meeting, Doubt spoke with one of the offenders who told him he was a shooting victim himself and added that he has been looking for a way out.
The same man told Goldsboro police Chief Jeff Stewart that, for some people, not being armed simply isn't an option.
"I'm not out there robbing. A lot of us are just out there trying to feed our families. But when those guys run up on you, I'd rather have something than not," he said.
And as for the killings in Goldsboro, it all comes down to one thing, the man said.
"No witnesses."
Stewart told the man he wished it did not have to be like that.
As for GPAC, 127 people have now been through the call-in process and added to the watch list that alerts law enforcement any time any of the offenders have contact with the police for any reason.
So far only 13 have been charged with an offense after notification.
Stewart, who spent several years researching call-ins in other cities with his team before bringing the concept to Goldsboro, said the program has met his expectations in some areas and has fallen short in others.
"As for the ones reoffending, it has. I do have to say we would like to have more community involvement. We always want more of that, and more civilian partners," he said.
The call-ins are held quarterly and include a community portion, with speakers like Doubt and Mrs. Cox as well as representatives from Wayne County Public Schools and Rebuilding Broken Places, and a law enforcement portion with top officials from the city and state addressing the group.
Stewart has said in the past that if the program reaches just one offender out of every group, that is a success.
Doubt said he hopes to reach more than one, and that all of his effort and pain is not wasted.
"Something has got to give. It's got to."