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The high cost of not protecting |
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Tuesday, 04 September 2007 19:00 |
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It looks like Maryland taxpayers will be paying $30,000 or more per year to house and feed 20 year-old Chaz Ricks, after failing to pay what it cost to protect him as a child or hold him accountable as a young adult.
Ricks is charged with raping a woman during a home invasion in August, his fifth arrest for violent crimes in the last two years, according to the Baltimore Sun. "Each time, he was not prosecuted," reports the paper. But Ricks' development into a predator was a long-time coming, and no secret to many.
"When Ricks was 9, his mother began amassing arrests and convictions, mostly for drug possession," says reporter Julie Bykowicz. It may never be known publicly what Ricks experienced throughout his childhood years, but he was back in the home with his mother sometime after she served time in jail. In 2005, Ricks' mother was charged with "child abuse" for stabbing him in the back with a 10-inch knife. Neighbors say the home was violent and chaotic, and Ricks' erratic and menacing behavior was well-known.
Ricks was suspected in a series of predatory crimes in recent years, including shooting through a wall and hitting a 9 year-old girl next door. When prosecutors dropped charges, says the Sun, a police officer told the girl's mother, "Don't worry about it. He's going to do something else stupid."
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