By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

Stories about catching and incarcerating criminals are in the news daily, but what happened to the people who fell victim to those criminals?

Livingston County State’s Attorney Randy Yedinak explained that victim’s services sometimes fall through the cracks while the criminals are being dealt with.

“We live in a world where our criminal justice system, I think is the best in the world, but what that means is we bend over backwards to ensure that defendants, criminals, their constitutional rights are protected, that we give them every right, that we give them every due process that they need, that they deserve, that this country protects, but oftentimes what that means is that victims get lost in the shuffle and their voices don’t get heard. Something that my office does on a daily basis is strive to make sure that victims have a voice when it comes to crimes that they are represented in court and people who do them harm are held accountable. We work with victims on a daily basis. We have a newer addition to the office. Amanda Cleary is our victim witness coordinator and she hit the ground running when she came here last summer,” Yedinak said.

Yedinak explains how he has a different take on “debtor’s prison” as a way to collect restitution.

“Sometimes it’s hard to do and to convince judges and others that that’s the case, but one thing I’ve always find out is when individuals owe a substantial amount of money, they’ll come to court and tell the judge they don’t have it, but the moment that you tell them they’re going to go to jail, they can magically come up with the money. It’s an interesting dynamic. One we deal with in court often, but again, the goal being trying to make sure that victims have their day in court and are made whole from these crimes,” Yedinak said.

Yedinak was a guest on a recent Community Forum, which can be found at WJEZ.com.