Montgomery County District Attorney, Risa Vetri Ferman, thinks the Pennsylvania State Department of Corrections could help solve more crimes.
She says the state needs to speed up the amount of time it takes to collect and process the DNA of convicts.
DNA can often be the key to breaking unsolved cases. That’s why for years there’s been an ID registry to keep tabs of the DNA of criminals to match with the DNA collected as evidence at crime scenes.
Ferman says the Department of Corrections takes too long to collect, analyze, and identify their inmates DNA.
NBC Philadelphia spoke with a representative of the Department of Corrections. They say it can take up to 90 days to collect the inmate’s DNA. The samples are then sent to the state police crime lab within 48 hours. After being sent to the lab, it can take a month before the DNA can be analyzed and registered, a Pennsylvania state police representative told NBC Philadelphia.
Ferman and Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Vered say DNA should be sampled at the earliest possible time.
Delaware’s department of corrections collects inmates DNA upon their initial arrival at state prison. In New Jersey, DNA is collected from inmates at both their intake and release. Both states send their DNA samples to be analyzed and registered by the state police.
Politics
The controversy over the speed of processing comes after a recent case where officials say that DNA collected by the state from an inmate has connected him to a 2007 murder of a Pottstown man, but the sample wasn’t processed before he was released on parole.
Get More: Watch the Interview with Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Vered above.
