Leslie Morgan Steiner is a writer and an advocate for victims of domestic violence. Her memoir about surviving domestic violence, Crazy Love, is a New York Times bestseller. Last week, Leslie joined us at the Justice Department’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month event where she shared her story.

As a survivor of domestic violence, Leslie inspires us all with her strength and grace. She reminds in order to put an end to the violence we must speak out for, as Leslie says, “abuse only thrives in silence.”

If you, or someone you know, are a victim of domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233), 800-787-3224 (TTY). For more information on resources that may be available to you, visit: www.ovw.usdoj.gov/hotnum.htm

Learn more about Leslie Morgan Steiner and her work at: http://www.lesliemorgansteiner.com/

The following post appears courtesy of the Office of Justice Programs.

In recognition of October as National Crime Prevention Month, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority partnered with the National Crime Prevention Council and the Department of Justice to host an event Celebrating Safe Communities.

The early morning event, held last Wednesday, October 21, at the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Station, was one of many events taking place in October to enhance public awareness of crime prevention and safety messages, and recruit year-round support for ongoing prevention activities that help keep neighborhoods safe from crime.

Office of Justice Programs’ Acting Assistant Attorney General, Mary Lou Leary, joined representatives from the National Crime Prevention Council, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the D.C. government and the National Sheriffs’ Association to address community efforts to promote public safety. McGruff the Crime Dog was also there! In her remarks to the assembled audience of metro riders, commuters, and the general public, Acting Assistant Attorney General Leary emphasized the communal responsibility to foster safe and healthy communities: “And I encourage you all to get involved…because crime prevention is vital to building a better community.”

The Celebrate Safe Communities initiative is designed to showcase successful neighborhood crime prevention efforts implemented on a daily basis by individuals, families and local businesses. The objective of this initiative is to help communities organize safety-focused events and to rally public support for crime prevention programs. It is imperative for Americans of all ages to recognize that a safer community is no accident and that crime prevention is everyone’s business every day of the year.

Suggestions for how individuals can become active in their own neighborhoods include:

• Getting to know the local law enforcement through community events and activities;
• Offering to volunteer for community events or local neighborhood watch functions;
• Getting to know your neighbors and talking about the problems you see on your street, and what to do about them;
• Watching out and helping out in the neighborhood.   Reporting suspicious activities to law enforcement or sheriff’s department immediately.

Volunteering is another direct way of becoming involved:

• Volunteers can assist the police by staffing community policing substations ncpc.orgincludes many other suggestions and tools to prevent crime in your community, and more information about National Crime Prevention Month.
• Volunteers can assist the police by participating in search-and-rescue activities.
• Volunteers can provide traffic or crowd control.

 Interested communities can mobilize volunteers and businesses to paint over walls covered by graffiti and replace them with murals about the neighborhood, its people, and their culture and work with the local library or recreation center to host an information fair for parents and families on Internet safety and other child safety tips.

The National Crime Prevention website at ncpc.org includes many other suggestions and tools to prevent crime in your community, and more information about National Crime Prevention Month.

Today, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden was in St. Paul, Minnesota, to open the Department of Justice’s Tribal Nations Listening Session with many of the country’s top tribal leaders. The Listening Session, which will occur over the next two days, seeks input from tribal leaders on how best to address the chronic problems of public safety in Indian Country. Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli will open tomorrow’s discussion leading up to the Attorney General’s attendance and remarks in the afternoon.

Public safety in Indian Country is an issue near and dear to the top three leaders of the Justice Department. It was a priority law enforcement initiative for them the last time they were at the Department under Attorney General Janet Reno in the 1990s.

During his session with leaders this morning, Deputy Attorney General Ogden emphasized that renewed commitment:

There is a great deal to be done to provide American Indians and Alaska Natives with the level of public safety that most Americans take for granted. We do not underestimate the challenges. But we are actively focused on meeting them, and – together with all of you – we intend to make a real and lasting change.

It’s a tragedy that we still face many of the same problems identified a decade ago – far too few cops on the beat; substance abuse; escalating violence against women, children and elders; and lack of support for crime survivors, to name a few. We must do all we can to ensure that a year from now and a decade from now, things are different. This is about more than reducing crime. It’s about improving the very quality of life in tribal communities, affording safe childhoods and adulthoods to our citizens, and painting the futures of our children and grandchildren in a warmer and brighter hue.

We will not waver from our commitment. As the Department undertakes its new tribal justice initiative, we are aware of the history. We are aware that words too often have not been followed by deeds, or have been followed by grossly inadequate or contradictory ones. As Justice Hugo Black said in his historic dissent recognizing the sanctity of tribal lands in Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation: “Great nations, like great men, should keep their word.”

We mean to keep our word.

Last week, the Department of Justice came together to commemorate the recognition of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  We were fortunate to hear from a variety of speakers, including Department leaders Attorney General Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli.

We were also joined by a number of representatives from organizations that work to end domestic violence and brave survivors of domestic violence, who generously shared their stories. This week, we’ll be sharing their stories with you.

First, meet Rosie Hidalgo, the Public Policy Director of Casa de Esperanza. Casa de Esperanza is a Latina organization founded in 1982 that works both locally and nationally to support families, end domestic violence, and increase access to effective services for Latinos across the country.

In her remarks, Rosie discusses the role her organization has played in ending domestic violence, the challenges Casa de Esperanza faces, and the ways the Violence Against Women Act has made a difference in the lives of Latinas.

Learn more about Casa de Esperanza at http://www.casadeesperanza.org/

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks with 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft.

 Last night 60 Minutes aired “The $60 Billion Fraud” - a detailed look at widespread Medicare and Medicaid fraud schemes that cheats taxpayers out of billons of dollars each year. Attorney General Eric Holder sat down with CBS News and talked about the Justice Department’s commitment to put an to end health care fraud.

Watch it at CBSNews.com: “The 60 Billion Fraud”

The Justice Department’s efforts in this area are on-going. Just last week charges and arrests were announced in the cities of Los Angeles and Houston, two centers of activity for the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, the multi-agency squad of investigators and prosecutors that detects billing anomalies, identifies fraud schemes and shuts those schemes down.

The charges against 20 defendants in Los Angeles and six defendants in Houston were part of an ongoing crackdown by the Strike Force, which is in turn a vital part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Teams (HEAT), a high-level, anti-fraud partnership of the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Los Angeles Strike Force operations involve actions taken against owners of fraudulent durable medical equipment (DME) companies. DME may include wheelchairs, hospital beds, crutches, leg braces and numerous other types of medical devices designed with legitimate assistance purposes in mind.

These company owners are alleged to have engaged in a variety of schemes to defraud Medicare through the submission of bills for DME that total approximately $26 million. In some of these alleged schemes, straw owners were paid by defendants to disguise the true ownership of the companies. In some cases, after filing claims to Medicare, those charged allegedly did not supply the equipment to Medicare beneficiaries, supplied equipment to beneficiaries who did not need it, or ordered equipment in the names of deceased beneficiaries.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, speaking to reporters, commended the takedown, but said much work remains as Medicare fraud is reigned in:

“Today’s indictments and arrests are important achievements in our ongoing fight against Medicare fraud, but there is more that we can, and will, do. Our Medicare Fraud Strike Force will continue to be vigilant in rooting out criminals who masquerade as health care providers in order to steal from American taxpayers. Every dollar stolen from the Medicare program is one dollar too many.”

Six defendants were charged this week in similar schemes in Houston. In some of the Houston cases, defendants were charged with billing Medicare for DME and then not delivering the equipment to their purported patients. In one case, a defendant is alleged to have billed Medicare for two knee braces for a patient who only has one leg.

Since inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit and Miami have been immensely successful.  The Departments of Justice and HHS are working together to help eliminate fraud and investigate fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid operators who are cheating the system. Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have made a commitment to bring perpetrators of fraud to justice, as demonstrated by the creation of the HEAT earlier this year.

Later this week, Assistant Attorney General Tony West will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing on “Effective Strategies for Preventing Health Care Fraud”. More information about the hearing is available on the Judiciary Committee Web site, here.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

Over the past two days, 303 individuals in 19 states were arrested as part of Project Coronado – a 44-month multi-agency law enforcement investigation, which targeted the distribution network of a major Mexican drug trafficking organization known as La Familia, through coordination between federal, state and local law enforcement. 

More than 3,000 agents and officers operated across the United States to make the arrests during the two-day takedown.  During the two-day operation alone, $3.4 million in U.S. currency, 729 pounds of methamphetamine, 62 kilograms of cocaine, 967 pounds of marijuana, 144 weapons and 109 vehicles were seized by law enforcement agents. Below, a look at Project Coronado, and the overall numbers of this 44-month operation.

Project Coronado – By the Numbers

1, 186: Number of Total arrests.
1,999: Kilograms of Cocaine Seized
2,710: Pounds of Methamphetamine Seized
29: Pounds of Heroin Seized
16,390: Pounds of Marijuana Seized
$32,795,000: U.S. Currency Seized
269: Number of Vehicles Seized
389: Number of Weapons Seized
2: Number of Maritime Vessels Seized

The Attorney General announced the current results of Project Coronado at a press conference held this morning. He was joined by DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson.

Read the full news release.