Xlibris - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

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An excerpt from the book:

'There is no more challenging a crime scene than that found in the custodial setting. The problem inherent with prisons and jails is that the investigator will naturally be faced with a crime scene that is already contaminated, either by the routine and constant trudging of a confined inmate population or by the efforts of staff to restore order. It is unlikely that the investigator will find any area of the prison where an inmate has not frequented at least once, unless it is in an area where inmate movement is strictly prohibited. Thus, the discovery of DNA from any one incarcerated individual is not as compelling to the event as it would be in the general public. Furthermore, custodial officials rely on the philosophy of “overwhelm and suppress” to control inmate disturbances. Therefore, the investigator will have to deal with an abundance of staff stuffed into a compact area of forensic importance. In contrast, the response by an individual first responder or a pair of responders on the streets can take command of an incident and limit the amount of destruction to the physical evidence present in the scene. In the custodial setting, the focus of correctional staff is the prompt restoration of order with little concern for the evidence that the crime scene contains. Little attention is given by responding staff to footwear impressions in the scene. Inmate manufactured weapons are quickly whisked away by responding officers in an effort to keep them away from other inmates in the area, thus rendering the latent print or DNA evidence useless; not to mention there is an increased dependence on oleoresin capsicum pepper spray in modern corrections, which adds its own unique complications to the crime scene and crime scene investigator. Even if the crime scene is contained within a cell, occupied by one or two inmates, one must consider that the cell may have been previously occupied by hundreds of inmates; in other words, each cell is a veritable cornucopia of DNA...'