Crime

On November 11, 1994, Eddie Polec was clubbed to death in a Philadelphia suburb by a group of rival high school kids. He was clubbed with a baseball bat on the steps of the St Cecilia's Church where he had been an altar boy. Investigators say he was beaten until limp and then held aloft "to give the bat-wielding youths a better shot." He had been waiting for his young brother, to walk home together when the group of kids arrived, looking for a fight. Eddie hadn't been part of the rivalry. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Health care analyst and substance abuse expert Joseph Califano. He was LBJ's assistant for domestic affairs from 1959-65 and Secretary for Health, Education and Welfare under Jimmy Carter from 1977-79. Joseph Califano is also president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, a research and experimental care facility at Columbia University. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Senior Editor at National Review, Richard Brookhiser. Recently the conservative magazine has come out in favor of some kind of drug legalization. Brookhiser is also a columnist for The New York Observer. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Ethan Nadelmann, Director of The Lindesmith Center, a research center devoted to broadening the debate on drug policy, and looking at strategies that have been overlooked or ignored. (The Lindesmith Center is located in New York City, 212-887-0695) (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Sidney Jones, is regional director of Human Rights Watch in Asia. Recently Human Rights Watch published a report on abandoned children in China, and their treatment in China's state-funded orphanages, "Death by Default: A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China's State Orphanages." The report finds the death rate in the orphanages "staggering," and in some cases constitutes a sinister "systematic program of child elimination." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane) f

British filmmaker Kate Blewett. Using a concealed camera, Blewett and crew visited eleven state-funded orphanages in China and filmed in nine of them. They documented such things as toddlers whose hands and legs were tied to potty chairs all day, and the rooms where children are left to die. They also say that many of the children were girls, victims of China's One Child Policy, and the Chinese tradition that favors sons over daughters. "The Dying Rooms: China's Darkest Secret" debuts on CINEMAX (Jan 24 at 8 PM). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura and reporter John Markoff. Markoff writes about computers and technology for the New York Times. The two have collaborated on a new book, "Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw-By the Man Who Did It." (Hyperion). Mitnick was the most wanted computer hacker in the world, having stolen thousands of data files, and 20,000 credit card numbers. For two years he had eluded the FBI. Mitnick broke into Shimomura's home computer, and Shimomura joined the search.

Actor/director/writer Sean Penn. The "reluctant actor" is starring in the new film "Dead Man Walking" directed by Tim Robbins, co-starring Susan Sarandon. (It's based on the book, of the same title, by Sister Helen Prejean). Penn has moved away from acting in favor of writing/directing: the 1991 film "The Indian Runner" which he wrote based on a Bruce Springsteen song, and last year's "The Crossing Guard" starring Angelica Huston and Jack Nicholson.

Tammy Schnitzer lives in Billings, Montana. She grew up there, as a Lutheran and married Brian Schnitzer, a Jew, and then converted to Judaism. They are the subject of a new PBS documentary "Not In Our Town," (December 17th, 10:30 p.m. EST) about how the community in 1993 rallied behind Schnitzer and her family when they were targets of hate crimes. The local newspaper printed full page menorahs and they were displayed in nearly 10,000 homes and businesses.

Former head of the FBI's Serial Crime Unit, John Douglas. For 20 years he investigated serial murders for the FBI, and developed techniques to get criminals to talk, and to lure them into capture. He also pioneered criminal profiling. Many of his techniques have been adopted by police departments and prosecutors nationwide. Douglas interviewed such notorious killers as Charles Manson and Richard Speck. He has a new memoir, Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit (Lisa Drew book, written with Mark Olshaker).

Writer Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior writer for "The Jerusalem Report." He's the author of Memoirs of A Jewish Extremist: An American Story, (Little, Brown) which tells the story of his involvement with Jewish right-wing movements in the United States, and with the extremist rabbi Meir Kahane. Halevi eventually broke away from the movement.

Co-creator, executive producer and head writer of "NYPD Blue," David Milch, and Detective Bill Clark who is a consultant to the show. Clark is a former New York City homicide detective. Many of the story lines for the show, come from the cases he worked on. The two have collaborated on a new book, True Blue: The Real Stories Behind NYPD Blue (William Morrow).

Co-creator, executive producer and head writer of "NYPD Blue," David Milch, and Detective Bill Clark who is a consultant to the show. Clark is a former New York City homicide detective. Many of the story lines for the show, come from the cases he worked on. The two have collaborated on a new book, True Blue: The Real Stories Behind NYPD Blue (William Morrow).

Robert Carter is a clinical social worker with Project RAP (Reduce Abuse Program) part of the Family Service of Philadelphia. He counsels men who are abusive with their partners and family. Carter is also a group facilitator working with adolescent fathers, and he meets with pre-teen and teen groups in a prevention to violence program. (Family Service of Philadelphia, 215-875-3300).

Psychologist Donald Dutton is a pioneer in the study and treatment of abusive men. He is a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, and the director of the Assaultive Husbands Program in Vancouver, Canada. Recently Dutton was an expert witness for the prosecution in the pretrial of O.J. Simpson. His new book (co-authored with Susan Golant) is The Batterer: A Psychological Profile (Basic Books). (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES through THE HALF HOUR).

Ronald Williams is Executive Director of New York Therapeutic Communities Inc. It was founded in 1977 to pilot a program called "Stay'n Out." The program provides substance abuse treatment to New York state's prisons. The program is to reduce recidivism in prisons. 212-971-6033.

Marc Mauer is a co-author for a new study that says there has been a sharp increase over the past five years in the number of African-American males age 20-29 in jail, on probation or on parole. The study finds, on any given day, one in three black men in their 20s is under some form of court supervision. Five years ago, a similar study found that the percentage at one in four blacks. The study is titled Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later. it's two authors are Marc Mauer and Tracy Huling.

Editorial writer for the New York Times Brent Staples. He wrote a memoir last year: Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black & White (Pantheon). In 1984, Staples' younger brother, a cocaine dealer, was murdered. Staples began a process of reconsideration of the major questions in his life: his distance from his family by graduate study at the University of Chicago; the demise and racial divisions of his industrial hometown in Pennsylvania.

Journalist Jim Crogan is a freelance writer with the L.A. Weekly and Newsweek. He covered the O.J. Simpson trial for the past 15 months, and the Los Angeles Police Department for several years.

Journalist Stephen Adler. He is former legal affairs editor of The Wall Street Journal and is now the paper's investigative editor. Terry will discuss with him the O.J. Simpson trial and the jury process. Last year Adler's book about what's wrong with the jury system and how it can be fixed, was published: The Jury: Trial and Error in the American Courtroom, (Times Books/Random House). Adler looked at the history of the jury system and how our attitudes about juries changed over the years.