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 indictment was damning enough: A former police chief of Biscayne Park and two officers charged with falsely pinning four burglaries on a teenager just to impress village leaders with a perfect crime-solving record. But the accusations revealed in federal court last month left out far uglier details of past policing practices in tranquil Biscayne Park, a leafy wedge of suburbia just north of Miami Shores."
Miami Herald
July 12, 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"Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed favor ending the practice of jailing people who cannot afford bail before trial “except in extreme cases,” while 45 percent of those surveyed favor the elimination of money bail entirely. As for general principles, 70 percent of those polled said public safety should be the primary concern when deciding whom to detain before trial, while 78 percent said they believe the criminal-justice system favors the wealthy. Just 6 percent feel there is “no need for change” to the U.S. criminal-justice systems."
National Review
July 12, 2018
Read More"To 'reduce re-offending, provide services for crime victims, and save taxpayers money,' the law provides for 70 percent of savings to be reinvested in programs to reduce recidivism and support victims. The other 30 percent of savings goes into Louisiana's general fund. With $12.2 million in savings, $8.5 million should go toward education, reentry programs, drug treatment and other programs to keep ex-inmates from returning to prison."
New Orleans Times-Picayune
July 11, 2018
Read More"This is a chief concern among police technology experts: is technology defined by how it’s used in day-to-day or extreme scenarios? Gizmodo spoke with representatives from both DJI and Axon, including members of its’ newly formed Artificial Intelligence Ethics Board, and to understand a simple question: What problem does police drone surveillance actually solve? "
Gizmodo
July 11, 2018
Read More"The House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development has advised states to review their licensing laws. Strict licensing requirements have cost the economy 2.85 million jobs, according to The Hamilton Project, a research group within the liberal Brookings Institution."
The Marshall Project
July 10, 2018
Read More"People now know mass incarceration is a problem, but less thought is given to children who miss their mothers, who are usually the primary caregivers, when they are locked up."
Press of Atlantic City
July 9, 2018
Read More"Entrepreneurial youngsters across the country have been starting their own businesses selling water, mowing lawns and the old classic, operating lemonade stands. And the adults around them? They’re calling the cops."
New York Post
July 8, 2018
Read More''Much of this difference is due to mass incarceration. Nearly 8% of prime-age black men did not work because they were institutionalised—the vast majority in prison—compared with 1.5% of whites. The elevated rates of workforce non-participation and unemployment for black men could also be explained by employers’ reluctance to hire applicants with criminal records.'
The Economist
July 7, 2018
Read More"Liberals look at mass incarceration and see structural racism. Libertarians see the denial of civil liberties. Fiscal conservatives see wasted resources. Religious activists see inhumane conditions and damaged lives. All these convictions converge at one point: We should treat offenders as humans, with different stories and different needs, instead of casting them all into the same pit of despair."
Washington Post
July 5, 2018
Read More"The June 21 report, which analyzed pretrial jail populations in Prince George’s County before and after bail reform was implemented in 2017, suggests that while cash bails have decreased, judges have opted to hold more people without bond instead of releasing them on their own recognizance. The increase in “no-bail” holds violates the spirit of rules that the Maryland Court of Appeals adopted to address concerns over racial and financial inequities in the cash-bail system, public defenders and advocates say."
Washington Post
July 2, 2018
Read More"Several studies of excellent quality and using a variety of interventions and methods all found that we could maintain public safety and possibly even improve it with less supervision—that is, fewer rules about how individuals must spend their time and less enforcement of those rules. Less supervision is less expensive, so we could achieve the same or better outcomes for less money. "
Brookings Institute
July 2, 2018
Read More"Sixty-one percent of inmates are in pre-trial detention; as they wait to see a judge, mothers who are unable to pay bail sit in jail for months. While they are gone, their children are alienated, they lose their jobs and some lose their housing. The courts should give mothers earlier court dates and waive bail fees for low-income, low-risk offenders. It is hard on kids when either parent goes to prison; but when moms go to jail, it changes their lives."
The Paris Post-Intelligencer
July 2, 2018
Read More"The majority of people held in state and federal prisons are parents of minor children. One in 14 American children , most of them younger than 10, has seen a parent incarcerated. These children are sometimes referred to as the “invisible” victims of mass incarceration, and their suffering has been characterized as its most pernicious ancillary effect."
Washington Post
July 1, 2018
Read More"On September 29, 2017, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed a state district court’s summary judgment order and grant of injunctive relief that enjoined the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) from denying a marriage ceremony via videoconference to two prisoners who wanted to marry, or enforcing its policy prohibiting such marriages."
Prison Legal News
July 1, 2018
Read More"Of course, our stubborn insistence on incarceration-as-policy doesn’t end with immigration. Homelessness, poverty, political dissent — you name it, we’ll jail it. Indeed, many of those who oppose the over-criminalization of American life simultaneously hope that special counsel Robert Mueller can jail us out of President Trump himself."
The Hill
June 30, 2018
Read More"NO cash or checks. NO stickers or glitter. NO greeting cards. NO Polaroid pictures. NO magic marker or crayon. NO escape plans or bomb-making recipes... Well, that one makes sense...But the prison’s other prohibitions are, shall we say, a bit less immediately obvious in their rationale. Apparently the in-between middle space of a Polaroid is an ideal place to hide drugs. The folds of a greeting card, too, might be concealing more than wishes for a happy birthday. "
The Marshall Project
June 28, 2018
Read More"The lawsuit claims that all five people — residents who have been incarcerated or are related to someone who has been incarcerated — have been harmed by Connecticut’s practice of counting incarcerated people in the places they are locked up instead of the place they reside, for the purposes of redistricting."
New Haven Independent
June 28, 2018
Read More"One seemingly good policy is rehabilitation certificates. When a court certifies a former prisoner as having been rehabilitated, it sends a signal to employers that this isn’t one of the scary ex-convicts they might have a picture of in their mind."
Bloomberg
June 27, 2018
Read More"21 percent of licensed, employed attorneys qualify as problem drinkers, compared to 12 percent of the highly-educated workforce. The study also found elevated levels of mental health disorders: 28 percent of attorneys surveyed struggled with some level of depression, compared to an estimated seven percent of the general population. Some 19 percent experienced anxiety."
The Crime Report
June 26, 2018
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