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Accountability in Arkansas |
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Tuesday, 19 September 2006 19:00 |
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PROTECT's sister organization, Promise to Protect, was in Arkansas yesterday to conduct a roundtable discussion on Crimes Against Children Accountability.
The session was sponsored by the Arkansas Legislative Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. Among the experts participating were former Queens, New York prosecutor Alice Vachss; Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Greg Weber; Tarrant County, Texas Assistant D.A. David Montague; and elected Arkansas prosecutors Lona McCastlain and H.G. Foster. PROTECT's executive director Grier Weeks was also in Little Rock to moderate the group. The panel talked about how Arkansas can begin to evaluate and measure the performance of its criminal justice system in responding to crimes against children. "What gets measured gets done," explained one Task Force participant. Arkansas Senator Percy Malone, Senate Majority Leader, is the co-chairman and driving force behind the Task Force. A successful business leader, Malone spoke eloquently about the need for accountability in business and government, telling justice system leaders that only they know the most accurate way to measure which elected law enforcement leaders, prosecutors and judges are doing a good job protecting children. If they don't develop an accurate accountability system, said Malone, the people will do it for them.
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