Posts in Personalism
Mass Incarceration and Remorse

“However important a role forgiveness played in the jury’s decision to spare Guyger decades behind bars, according to interviews with some of the jurors an even greater factor was Guyger’s expression of remorse during her trial testimony: “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I never wanted to take an innocent person’s life...I wish he was the one with the gun that killed me.”“

Gotham Gazette

October 22, 2019

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Prison Films and the Idea of Two Worlds

“Prisons have been one of the key settings for movies ever since the earliest days of cinema. Among the first prison films is Edwin Porter’s 1901 short film Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison. Its primitive structure emphasizes the spectacular nature of many prison films: starting with two panoramic views of the exterior of Auburn Prison, the camera then moves to the interior, closer to the prisoners, guards, and narrative action. “

The Brooklyn Rail

June 2, 2019

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Words Matter In Criminal Justice Reform

“If criminal justice officials want to find ways to send fewer people to jail and prison, and to ultimately have fewer people incarcerated, then they might well consider removing the term from all aspects of the criminal justice system. The names of courtrooms, prosecutorial units, training protocols and beyond should not presuppose that everyone who touches the system will be sent to jail or prison. Words matter. It is time we stop ‘alternatives to incarceration’ and start’“responsive sentencing’.“

Next City

May 31, 2019

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Who is Florida Man?

“But Florida has no monopoly on strange events, drug addiction, or mental illness, the lifeblood of the form. What it does have is strong public records laws that make obtaining mugshots and arrest reports easier than in many other states (including California and New York, which aren’t known for their lack of eccentricity, either).“

Columbia Journalism Review

May 30, 2019

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How Private Equity Is Turning Public Prisons Into Big Profits

“Bianca Tylek, the founder of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that tracks commercial interests in corrections, has catalogued 3,100 companies with a financial stake in mass incarceration. Her findings were released last April in a Corrections Accountability Project report and include not only the well-known, publicly traded private-prison contractors but also divisions within companies with household names like Amazon, General Electric, and Stanley Black & Decker.“

The Nation

April 30, 2019

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People Likely To Temper Criminal Sentences When Given Information About The Cost Of Incarceration

“Ensuring some amount of punishment was extremely important to our participants, but when confronted with the rising price tag of those moral convictions, people are forced to think about how limited dollars are best spent, and under these conditions most of them ultimately tempered their sentencing recommendations“

Georgia State University

January 22, 2019

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This ex-con is bringing prison life to a screen near you

“That was the beginning of what became Escape at Dannemora, the Stiller-directed series starring Benicio Del Toro and Paul Dano as the Clinton convicts. It debuts November 18 on Showtime. Jensen is an actor in the series, as well as a consultant and technical adviser, working on everything from props to wardrobe to tattoos to hair and makeup. While films like The Shawshank Redemption and shows like Oz were fiction, Escape at Dannemora is based on actual events — requiring Jensen’s touch for realism. Jensen cast ex-cons and wrote scenes based off memories of real things that happened in Clinton.“

Ozy

November 2, 2018

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Glasgow was once the ‘murder capital of Europe.’ Now it’s a model for cutting crime.

“In 2005, the World Health Organization dubbed Glasgow the “murder capital of Europe.” There had been 83 homicides the previous year in the Glasgow region, where gangs were known for their booze-and-blades culture. Exasperated police in Glasgow decided to rethink strategy. They set up a violence reduction unit (VRU) guided by the philosophy that violence is like a public health issue: Violent behavior spreads from person to person. To contain it, you need to think in terms of transmission and risk, symptoms and causes.“

Washington Post

October 27, 2018

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Former inmate, now a college student, says prison 'made me ready for everything'

“Since Steven Pacheco returned to college three years ago, he has landed research and business fellowships, gotten elected student council president, and will join global leaders abroad to discuss human rights. That’s the kind of drive two drug-related arrests and a year behind bars has given him.“

The Today Show

October 19, 2018

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Fewer mugshots, less naming and shaming: How editors in Cleveland are trying to build a more compassionate newsroom

“Quinn has changed Cleveland.com’s policy of automatically using mugshots (‘the worst photos people will ever take’) with minor crime stories. It no longer names perpetrators of minor crimes in its stories. (If you’ve been listening to the current season of Serial, you know the criminal justice system in Cleveland is far from a perfectly fair operation.) “

Nieman Lab

October 18, 2018

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The Prison ‘Old-Timers’ Who Gave Me Life

“We must seriously consider whether society would benefit by letting reformed offenders re-enter their community, and whether it’s economical and humane to punish solely for the sake of retribution. When I hear of all the gun violence on Chicago’s South Side, for instance, I can’t help wondering what would happen if Illinois’s many reformed old-timers, who hail from those neighborhoods, were granted parole with a mission of working to reduce the violence.“

New York Times

October 6, 2018

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Ohio State Rep: If Police tase or shoot a child, she probably acted 'stupid' or was 'a punk'

“Becker also addressed police shootings in his newsletter. If his child were shot by police, he wrote, ‘rather than blaming the cop, I’d be blaming myself and endlessly soul searching to figure out how I failed as a parent and why my kid grew up to be a punk.’ He added, ‘Based on the evidence of what I see on television, it often times appears to me that justice was delivered to the dead punk’.“

The Appeal

September 14, 2018

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Our Misguided Assumptions About Crime and Punishment

“We would be enraged and filing class action malpractice suits if the medical community operated hospital emergency departments like we administer criminal justice.  Imagine walking into an emergency room where everyone got the same, uninformed diagnosis, and in turn the same treatment.  A reasonable person would expert poor outcomes from such policies. That is precisely what we get in the criminal justice system, with tremendous social and financial cost.“

Psychology Today

September 11, 2018

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Violent offenders, often victims themselves, need more compassion and less punishment

"What would justice look like if we recognized that violence is contextual often attaching to conditions of poverty and that victimization haunts those who have hurt other people? The anger that drips from our harshest sanctions — the death penalty, life without parole and lengthy enhancements for third-strike felonies — might be softened by mercy and compassion"

USA Today

August 9, 2018

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Want to help WV ex-cons get back on their feet. We can start with groceries

"'Serving time' is a misleading expression, because it suggests that a person is only serving time when confined behind the walls of a prison. The harsh reality is that people continue to 'serve time' by being denied food benefits, professional licenses and housing, as well as being subjected daily to the social stigma attached to a criminal conviction."

Charleston Gazette-Mail

July 15, 2018

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