Inmates Playing Card Games Can Solve Cold Cases

The story - While inmates in jails across New York pass the time by playing card games -- gin rummy, poker and solitaire -- they may also be helping crack cold cases.

The idea is simple: Each of the 52 playing cards contains information about a murder, a missing person or another unsolved crime.
Inmates know information law enforcement agents don't, and as corrections officers can attest, inmates love to talk as long as it's not about their own crimes.
Most of the cases featured on the New York cards deal with missing persons, but some show unsolved murders, some dating to the 1980s.
Inmates can provide information by calling a hot line. They're not required to provide their names. Cindy Bloch, case manager at New York's Criminal Justice Services, said she's encouraged by the response.
"Prior to the playing card program being implemented, we had virtually no calls coming from correctional facilities," she said. "We now have 40 or 50 calls per month coming in."
Sheriff Jack Mahar, who runs the county jail in Rensselaer County, New York, said he replaced all the playing cards in the jail with the cold case cards.
"The people that are here live out on the streets, they grew up out on the streets, they know what's going on," Mahar said.
"Sooner or later, someone will hear, someone talks; it always happens whether it's two days from now or five years from now."
Even inmates think the cards are a good idea.

Doug and Mary Lyall began the card program in New York. Their daughter has been missing for a decade.
Continue Reading
Cards could help uncover cold case clues"