Joseph Reiner Convicted Killer
A SEVEN-MONTH INVESTIGATION of the Michigan Department of Corrections revealed shocking problems: Agents failed to properly supervise ex-cons accused in a recent series of high-profile murders, many weren’t sent back to prison for new crimes or failed drug tests. This has cost the lives of many innocent victims.
Joseph Reiner is an example of the system gone awry. He was a heroin addict and had been mandated to 12 step treatment centers and AA meetings. He was convicted this year of killing a 69 year old woman. Across this country ex-cons like Joseph Reiner are mandated to AA meetings, putting other members in grave danger.
Sex Offender felon Alan Wood and Felon Tonia Watson who went to NA Meetiings together, murdered 80 year Nancy Dailey while Alan Wood was an absconder from the law and on probation.
This investigation exposes the tragic violent crimes that are being comitted by ex-cons on parole like murder and rape.
A SEVEN-MONTH INVESTIGATION of the Michigan Department of Corrections revealed serious problems: Agents failed to properly supervise offenders accused in a recent series of high-profile crimes, dozens of offenders weren’t outfitted with court-ordered electronic tethers, and others weren’t sent back to prison for new crimes or failed drug tests.
As the Michigan Department of Corrections searches for ways to manage its nearly $2-billion budget, it is releasing ex-cons into the community who are committing a growing number of violent crimes, a Free Press investigation found.
The MDOC and the union that represents parole and probation agents blame each other for the problems, but while they debate the cause, the result is clear and disturbing: Convicts who should have been behind bars or closely monitored were left on the streets unchecked, attacking and killing innocent victims.
A seven-month Free Press investigation found the MDOC failed to properly supervise some of the most violent of the state’s roughly 70,000 offenders under its watch. A total of 88 parolees and probationers were suspected, arrested or convicted in 95 murders between Jan. 1, 2010, and Aug. 31. The number nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011 — from 21 to 38. And already in the first eight months of this year, 36 killings have been attributed to ex-cons under MDOC supervision, according to department critical incident reports.
The victims included an 80-year-old Royal Oak woman whose throat was slit, a 12-year-old Detroit girl who was shot to death and a Farmington Hills family who were brutally beaten with baseball bats.
Among the MDOC’s failures: Offenders weren’t outfitted with court-ordered electronic tethers, agents didn’t send people back to prison for new crimes or failed drug tests, and in some cases, agents falsified documents by claiming to have made visits or calls with offenders that never occurred.
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The Free Press had a terrible time through the Freedom Of Information Act to complete their investigation as this clip of an article shows. They were stonewalled over and over. They are still waiting for additional docs. I hope they do not stop! Good Work Guys! You are making a difference!
However, in a grievance filed against the MDOC in August, its former head of internal affairs, Stephen Marschke, alleges that administrators and legal counsel discussed ways to thwart the Free Press from obtaining public documents about the November killing of an elderly woman in Royal Oak.
The Free Press had learned through sources that the suspects were parole absconders who were not being properly supervised.
In Marschke’s whistle-blower complaint, he said an MDOC deputy director and the department’s legal counsel asked him to investigate the possible leak to the news media by reviewing phone records and computers. Marschke, who was dismissed from the MDOC in May and filed a complaint with the Michigan Civil Service Commission, said the legal counsel “suggested the department could blame the delay or withholding of the information on the Oakland County prosecutor and stonewall the FOIA.” Marschke said he advised the two that they likely would be violating the states public records act.
Marlan denied the department sought to keep public records from being released. He said officials did discuss ways of investigating whether employees were releasing information in violation of department policy.
This is not the first FOIA fight the MDOC has faced.
In 2009, Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper sued the department, seeking documents about those being released on parole. Oakland County Circuit Judge Nanci Grant ruled in Cooper’s favor, ordered the MDOC to hand over the records and awarded Cooper’s office $500 in attorney fees and $500 in punitive damages.
Using those records, Cooper was able to block several impending paroles — including that of a man who repeatedly raped young children and killed animals and another man who broke into a home, raped, sodomized and tortured a woman. Cooper said she keeps a copy of the check in her office “to remind me that it was a fight worth having.”