Overcriminalization significantly undermines human flourishing and social well-being by harming the family, social networks, and social citizenship. Additionally, it prevents capable men and women from utilizing their creative capacities in the marketplace. This creates vast issues involving relations with family while incarcerated and reintegration into society after release. On the economic side, draconian cash bail systems undermine justice through basing someone's ability to attain pre-trial release upon their wealth, not their actual threat to society.
“The week before the shooting, 79 percent of the roughly 1,200 adults in the hospitals were court-ordered to be there, many until their competency is restored for trial, DeWine said. According to the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, almost a quarter of those people were facing nonviolent, misdemeanor charges.“
The Appeal
August 14, 2019
Read More"On Dec. 31, 2016, the most recent date for which data is available, there were roughly 2.2 million people incarcerated in prisons and jails throughout the U.S. Add that to the 4.5 million people being supervised in the community by a parole or probation agency, and 1 in 38 adults under some form of correctional supervision. Community corrections has turned into an add-on, rather than a relief valve, to the mass incarceration dilemma in the U.S."
WTOP
August 16, 2018
Read More"The ruling should also reverberate beyond New Orleans. 'It’s particularly significant because it goes beyond addressing preset bail schedules or release in misdemeanor cases,' Wool explained. 'This is a comprehensive ruling'."
The Appeal
August 13, 2018
Read More"Still’s extra time in jail kept her apart from her newborn, and child custody proceedings were initiated against her during that time, the ACLU said in a past news release. The mother of three, who is in her 20s, ultimately decided to plead guilty to a felony drug charge to fight for custody of her children, costing her the opportunity to accept a misdemeanor plea offer that depended on her being employed, according to the civil liberties organization."
Colorado Springs Gazette
August 10, 2018
Read More"What we’ve learned from experience is that when jurisdictions first tackle moving away from secured money bond, without raising the bar on who may be detained and how, the system continues to cause unnecessary detentions. To make detention the exception rather than the rule, it needs to be more like hospital admissions and less like ordering from Domino’s."
Pretrial Justice Institute
August 8, 2018
Read More"The fact that 97% of people resolve their cases through plea deals—without benefit of jury trial and the presumption of innocence—does not shock the conscience because there is a sense that if you are involved in the system you must have done something wrong."
Pretrial Justice Institute
July 24, 2018
Read More"Burdeen adds that pretrial jail fees are just one part of a constellation of fines and fees faced by people ensnared in the criminal justice system. Criminal defendants, she says, can be charged for booking, their stay in jail, medical care, even the cost of a public defender."
The Appeal
July 20, 2018
Read More"Between 2015 and 2016, however, Hernandez says the misdemeanor FTA rate ranged between 52 and 57 percent in the county, and for felonies it was between 20 and 30 percent. While Uptrust only collects data on recipients of its reminders—making the data both incomplete and potentially biased—Sills says that three Contra Costa offices that use Uptrust see an average FTA rate for misdemeanors and felonies combined of only 2.5 percent. In the next year, the company expects to undertake more research to better assess their impact."
American Bar Association Journal
July 17, 2018
Read More"When we start turning people toward better alternatives—deflecting people with behavioral needs to services, issuing citations for low level charges instead of booking, and keeping people with high probabilities of success in the ecosystems of employment and family that create stability—we will move toward a commonsense and right-sized system of justice that is required by the Constitution, supported by the evidence and demanded by the people."
Pretrial Justice Institute
July 12, 2018
Read More"Rothgery’s experience reflects what research has shown: people represented by legal counsel at bail hearings are more likely to be released on recognizance, have bail set at a lower amount when it is set (by an average of $600), and spend significantly less time in jail (two days, compared to nine days for those without counsel)."
Pretrial Justice Institute
June 26, 2018
Read More