Safe Surrender: "A First Step To A Second Chance"
It's a dangerous job, a very dangerous job.
U.S. Marshals are charged with finding fugitives - these are people who are running from the law, for any and all sorts of reasons. They're always looking over the shoulder, hoping that police or the Marshals won't catch up with them. Sometimes they get caught in stings or scams. That doesn't make them very happy.
Sometimes they get caught by the Marshals, or pulled over for some reason and react - badly. That's what makes them dangerous: their fear and their reaction. In 2000, Cleveland police officer Wayne Leon, a young father, a church-going standup kind of guy, stopped someone at a gas station for a traffic infraction. He walked up to the driver's side of the car --- and was shot dead, point blank.
He had stopped a guy who was on the run. There are some 1.2 million of these fugitives around the country.
Take 22-yer-old Deshawn Singleton. I met him about three weeks ago. He's a talented young man, talented with a sketch pencil. He's never had any art lessons. He loves to sit and draw. He showed me some of his work - a lot of it is of his family: mom, 18-month-old daughter, cousins he grew up with in Akron, Ohio. He drew those sketches as cartoons. Now, I'm not an artist - I can't even draw a straight line with ruler - but this kid is good.
Deshawn did these sketches while he was in prison, passing the time. He's had three stints there already - three! And I met him on a day when he was facing the likelihood of going to prison yet again. The difference was that this time he told me he was tired of watching out for the police; he was tired of not being able to go out of the house – literally, not being able to walk anywhere, but having to be driven by friends even if it was only to gout for ice cream, in the hope he wouldn't be spotted by the authorities. That's no freedom for a young man.
He had spent the previous day scoping out an invitation to fugitives to give themselves up, through a program called "Safe Surrender." It's the brainchild of perpetually-in-motion Pete Elliot, the chief U.S. Marshal in northern Ohio. Wayne Leon, the officer killed seven years ago, was a family friend and the Safe Surrender idea came to Elliot, not in any epiphany he'll tell you, but while working out on an exercise machine. The bottom line: an idea to get fugitives to give themselves up by using churches as the surrender point.
The entire enterprise means the church is a haven; nobody's going to arrest you, but your case can get cleared up in less than a day. The reason: it's a triage kind of situation - Marshals get your story, your records, you're fingerprinted and photographed, you stand in front of a judge right then and there -- and (when the paperwork is done) you get your answer on what to do next. There are no cuffs, nothing like that, and the church folks are there to help you every step of the way, even if it just means a pat on the shoulder.
Deshawn Singleton hung out for an entire day, with his girlfreind, scoping it out before he would make a move. That very night, he called Pete Elliot who invited him to surrender, gave him advice, told him he would be there for him when he came in. Next day he was ready to surrender, bright and early at Akron's House of the Lord Church, established by Bishop Joey Johnson. (You just have to meet him. He set up this church complex that can seat about 2,000 congregants and has a full daycare centre and gym.)
Singleton had a couple of non-felony counts against him, and also faced possession of crack cocaine. That could mean up to five years in prison. We were with him from start to finish. Was he nervous? You bet. Did he make it through? Yes, he did. In less than four hours, he was home free, walking home in plain daylight, with a future court date for the possession charge about a week away. Pete Elliot monitored him all the way through, as impressed as I was by the sketches, perhaps hoping against hope that this kid would make it.
Elliot shook Singleton's hand: "Don't let me down..." he told him.
We'll see. But why did Deshawn Singleton surrender? He didn't want to hide anymore. He wants to go to art school. He wants to be a real dad to his daughter. Safe Surrender is a chance – as U.S. Marshal Pete Elliot says, "A first step to a second chance."
It's trust in the church, whatever denomination, that gives these skittish fugitives the confidence that they'll be able to sort things out. It seems to be working: in Akron, Deshawn Singleton's home town, more than 1,100 people turned themselves in over four days.
In four cities across the country, almost 4,000 have surrendered. There are more chances to come in other cities across the country.