Defendants are regularly condemned to years, decades, or life in prison for minor infractions because of minimum sentencing statutes. If judges had more discretion in sentencing, then sentences could be more proportional to the crime, more specific to the individual defendant, and minimize the negative impact of minimum sentencing laws without inherently needing those laws repealed.
“Both the 313th and 314th Juvenile District Courts — overseen by Devlin and Phillips, respectively — sent at least two times as many kids to TJJD last year as they did in 2014, while Scheider’s 315th District Court sent 1.4 times as many as before. Phillips, who had the highest incarceration numbers of the three, sent 88 kids to juvenile prison last year while Schneider, on the low end, sent 36.“
Houston Chronicle
October 20, 2018
Read More“Court documents obtained by the Associated Press show Governor Jerry Brown will not seek to appeal a September court ruling in support of Proposition 57, meaning that the 2016 ballot measure weakening the Three Strikes Law can soon take effect. As many as 4,000 non-violent prisoners will be eligible for release under the new regulations, which the state will begin crafting in January, the AP reports.“
Pacific Standard
October 19, 2018
Read More“We do not make this recommendation lightly. There will be unfortunate consequences that weaken our misdemeanor courts in the short term. Harris County will lose experienced judges. Diversion courts will need new leadership if they are to continue. It’s possible that over the next four years we’ll face different sorts of challenges and scandals in pursuit of a new kind of judiciary. Our star ratings may seem off as we endorse challengers against incumbents with higher scores. But this is about something bigger than individual judges. This is about a criminal justice system in dire need of reform.“
Houston Chronicle
October 16, 2018
Read More“In Georgia, 1 out of every 18 people is on probation or parole. That’s a staggering figure. The U.S.average is 1 in 55. The state with the next highest rate after Georgia is Idaho, at 1 in 33. I suppose an advocate for private probation could point to some other state where it’s common, and where the rate of parole and probation is lower. But it’s hard to overcome the fact that Georgia sends more people to private parole and probation companies than any other state — and if the goal is to get people off of state supervision, that system clearly isn’t working.“
Washington Post
October 5, 2018
Read More“Ironically, righting the isolated wrongful conviction only reinforces public faith in the system as a whole; it works to prevent meaningful reconsideration of the many flaws that bedevil the criminal justice system. It is this attitude that defense lawyers and reformers struggle to upend.“
Boston Review
October 4, 2018
Read More“Let’s abandon this politics of fear that trades on the pain of crime victims and surrenders to the bullying of police unions. Legislators should instead live up to their own stated values and respect the rule of law, as Parole Board members do when they prioritize reconciliation over retribution, and give victims what they deserve: alternatives to mere punishment, an investment in communities most affected by crime, and meaningful opportunities for healing.“
New York Daily News
October 1, 2018
Read More“If the very idea that someone could suffer consequences due only to the testimony of a single victim is in fact an outrage, certainly the consequence of ending up incarcerated is far more damaging than the consequence of not getting a job.“
Splinter News
September 27, 2018
Read More“Most is representing four other Louisianans who were held far beyond 48 hours past their release dates without input from a judge. No one knows how many people are sitting in jails or prisons across the state past their sentence, in part because no agency bothers to collect the data.“
The Appeal
September 26, 2018
Read More“Judges are entrusted to provide equal justice and protect the rights of all people. In criminal prosecutions, where the stakes are highest, that includes upholding due process and giving full meaning to the presumption of innocence. Under SB 10, it is judges who now, more than ever, must ensure that California’s pretrial justice system lives up to these ideals.“
Sacramento Bee
September 25, 2018
Read More“This is the King County Community Court in Redmond, Washington, an alternative and collaborative approach to the justice system. Launched in April, the court takes place every Wednesday afternoon for about two hours. It includes all of the traditional players (judge, prosecutor, defense attorneys), but instead of a trial that focuses on guilt and punishment for those found guilty of low-level offenses, it focuses on problem-solving.“
City Lab
September 21, 2018
Read More“The potential pros of video court include lower transportation costs because inmates do not have to be transferred from jails to courthouses, less staff time involved in those transfers, more security and safety for both the incarcerated and the public, and quicker court proceedings. The potential cons of the practice have more to do with the rights of the incarcerated, including assertions that video court may violate constitutional rights, due process and, in general, dehumanize the accused.“
Illinois Newsroom
September 20, 2018
Read More“Over the past year, Street, a Democrat from North Philadelphia, has been telling anyone who will listen that a change is overdue. Pennsylvania's murder rate ranks 25th in the nation. Yet, courts in the state sentence people to life without parole at a rate that's among the highest in the country, and more than double the national average. Street introduced a bill last year that would allow lifers to be considered for parole after 15 years — a move that would make 64 percent of lifers eligible for that consideration.“
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 18, 2018
Read More"It is essential that we address worsening prison conditions, as many current proposals do. Reentry programs in our jails and prisons pay for themselves in reduced recidivism. But for these prison reforms to have the desired impact, we also have to rethink who we are sending to prison in the first place. We have to decrease the current prison population as well as reduce the number of people entering our prisons. The way to do that is by simultaneously pursuing sentencing reform."
The Virginian-Pilot
September 2, 2018
Read More"In 2016, Pima County, Arizona—which includes the city of Tucson—started holding evening and weekend court sessions for folks who haven’t committed a severe crime but who have outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court. "
Vera Institute
August 31, 2018
Read More"I believe the formula for recidivism reduction is this: Incarcerate the right people for the right amount of time and provide them with the programming they need that specifically addresses the criminogenic factors that led to them committing a crime and, finally, provide the individualized reentry support to start them on a path to good citizenship."
The Hill
August 30, 2018
Read More"What Quinn is asking for is very much like the worst case scenario under the new California bail statute in a lot of ways."
Boston Globe
August 30, 2018
Read More"Forensic science is a fundamental tool of the criminal justice system. However, a growing number of scandals have illustrated that not everyone in this field is qualified or immune to systemic bias. And as research continues to develop, some forms of forensic science have been proven to be, well, unreliable."
American Conservative
August 28, 2018
Read More"As vague and ambiguous criminal statutes: they fail to give ordinary people "fair notice" of how the legal system is likely to respond to their conduct. This is a due process problem because it frustrates predictability. When people lack a meaningful sense of what conduct invites serious intrusion into their lives — either because criminal statutes fail to convey what conduct they prohibit, or because they sweep so broadly that no one has a clue what the "actual" prohibition is — the rule-of-law is undermined."
Reason Magazine
August 20, 2018
Read More"The ballot question is entirely nonpartisan. The Louisiana Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties have all endorsed the passage of a constitutional amendment requiring jury votes to be unanimous. Even so, powerful forces in the state are resistant to change, with some district attorneys fighting to hold on to the jury rule because it makes it easier for prosecutors to get convictions."
Washington Post
August 13, 2018
Read More"Perhaps it should not be surprising that the Judicial Council, which initially was a major opponent of bail reform, now supports the new bill, since it gives unprecedented power to judges. Rather than relying on a risk assessment tool, judges would have the power to detain people based on their subjective determination."
The Sacramento Bee
August 13, 2018
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