Admit when You’re Wrong

The week before Christmas, a New Orleans man implicated in an armed robbery from October, was released from prison. This in and of itself is not entirely uncommon, particularly in New Orleans (although, it is getting better).

This time it was different. You see, this particular gentleman ran to the then District Attorney’s home following the alleged robbery. That’s where things went wrong.

According to the spokespeople from the DA’s and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s offices, a prosecutor indicated at the top of the paperwork that the case had been “referred”, since the DA’s office recused itself from the case. Further down on the same form, under the heading “Charges Refused or Diverted”, the same prosecutor wrote “armed robbery”.

The DA’s office says the form is correctly filled out, for this situation.

The Sheriff’s office on the other hand, thought “recused” was “refused” and released him. The spokesperson said that the prosecutor didn’t tell them that the prisoner should not be released.

Essentially, because there was a perceived discrepancy on the form, the Sheriff felt a release was in order.

Let me offer a different take. The Sheriff’s office processes a large number of prisoners and forms on a regular basis. The clerks responsible look for certain things, which works fine for everyday, run-of-the-mill activity. That will not work when there are special circumstances.

Both sides are at fault, to varying degrees. Instead of finger-pointing, which is the knee-jerk reaction, look at what each side can do to fix it. Here are some ideas:

1. Review the procedures for processing forms
2. Review the forms themselves looking for needed revisions to the layout, requested/required information, etc.
3. When there is a special circumstance, such as this, give the Sheriff’s office a courtesy call so that everyone is aware of what it expected to happen
4. If there appears to be a discrepancy on a form, reach out to the prosecutor for clarification
5. When another mistake like this occurs, do not attempt to elude blame by saying, “We can only go by the paperwork they give us,” especially when the paperwork indicates your office screwed up

Imagine, instead of the media circus and inane comments blaming a piece of paper, the Sheriff’s office could have scored a public victory by taking the high ground, admitted an error occurred and offered possible solutions (most of which would be simple) to avoid the same mistake in the future.

Here is a link to the original story: Man who fled to home of DA released in error.

I’d like to hear you weigh in.

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