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.
"More than 100 civil rights, 'digital justice' and community groups issued a statement expressing concerns about the expanding use of risk assessment instruments as a substitute for basing bail releases on money. "
The Crime Report
July 31, 2018
Read More"Bailey is one of a number of local judges in Pennsylvania who are increasingly alarmed by what they consider a system that criminalizes poverty. 'I see people can’t pay fines, it makes me wonder: Can they afford to feed themselves?' Bailey said."
Philadelphia Inquirer
July 30, 2018
Read More"The RAND study found that every dollar spent on prison education could save up to $5 in costs during the first three years after a prisoner is released. A rigorous cost-benefit analysis of prison programs by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that the benefits of both post-secondary education for prisoners and vocational educational programs far outweighed the costs in that state. The institute found a benefit after costs of more than $24,600 per participant for programs run out of the state’s prisons."
USA Today
July 27, 2018
Read More"Instead, she posits, the penal power exerts social control through what she describes as marking (identifying a defendant as a real or potential lawbreaker), procedural hassle (the ordeal of processing a case) and performance (an evaluation of the defendant’s subsequent behavior). How? By identifying recidivists on the basis of previous arrests alone, rather than convictions, and then subjecting them to more stringent oversight."
New York Times
July 26, 2018
Read More"The No Money Bail Act would prohibit the federal government from using any payment of money as a condition of pretrial release for criminal cases. It would call for grants to develop alternatives to money bail and to improve pretrial practices with the aim of reducing the number of people detained in jail prior to trial. And it would push states to come along with the shift by denying them access to Justice Department grants if they continue using money bail."
Reason Magazine
July 25, 2018
Read More"Prison gerrymandering, which counts prisoners as residents of their prisons rather than their home communities for the purpose of drawing political boundaries, stacks the political deck against medium size and large cities. The process effectively gives communities around prisons, which are disproportionately white and rural, additional representation while stealing people and votes from home communities, which are generally urban areas. This can produce results that are unfair, even absurd."
USA Today
July 25, 2018
Read More"Compared with respondents whose parents were not incarcerated, those who had grown up with an incarcerated mother or father: were less likely to seek medical care when they needed it; were more likely to abuse prescription drugs, smoke cigarettes and have drinking problems; and were more likely to have 10 or more sexual partners."
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy
July 25, 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"'This is an outcome of a lot of pressure being put on police and prosecutors to ‘do something’ about the [overdose] crisis,' said Leo Beletsky, professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University. 'At the same time, it’s indicative of the unchecked power of these institutions in pursuing interventions they think are going to be useful'."
The Appeal
July 24, 2018
Read More"Justice doesn’t require sympathy. You don’t need to feel for Jones. However, if you believe that excessive cash bail is unjust, you should advocate for Jones even though she might be found criminally responsible for the death of her baby. Justice and due process should not be limited to defendants in nonviolent cases or cases that don’t make our stomach turn."
Philadelphia Inquirer
July 23, 2018
Read More"Even though there is a modicum of evidence that public registries may have some deterrent effect on potential offenders, any benefit is more than offset by the increased recidivism risk from those who are publicly listed. Public registration exacerbates known criminogenic risk factors (like poor housing, unemployment, social isolation and poverty), and larger public registries appear to result in more rather than fewer sex crimes."
The Appeal
July 20, 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"The Marshall Project’s Eli Hager says debtors’ prisons are “any prison, jail, or other detention facility in which people are incarcerated for their inability, refusal, or failure to pay debt.” They’ve been outlawed by Congress since 1833 (Dickensian times), at least in theory. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled in Bearden v. Georgia that judges must first consider whether a suspect is “willfully” refusing to pay a fee before locking him or her up for failure to pay. Still, modern judges routinely sentence poor Americans to jail for not paying fines or fees."
The American Conservative
July 19, 2018
Read More"Though their numbers overall are dwarfed by the size of the male prison population, nearly 2,300 women are now serving time in Illinois. With 8 of every 10 female inmates in Illinois a mother and often the primary parent, their removal from society has damaging ripple effects on families and neighborhoods, experts say."
Chicago Tribune
July 18, 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"To raise revenue and make up for budget shortfalls, cities, states, courts, and prosecutors levy hefty fines at nearly every stage of the criminal justice system. People leaving prison owe on average $13,607 in fines and fees. For those who are poor, these fees can be catastrophic. An inability to pay can lead to a suspended license, additional fees, and even jail. In this Explainer, we explore all the ways the poor are regressively taxed in the justice system, and what can be done to stop these practices."
The Appeal
July 16, 2018
Read More"Using a nationally representative dataset, we provide the first ever estimate of unemployment among the 5 million formerly incarcerated people living in the United States. Our analysis shows that formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27% — higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression."
Prison Policy Initiative
July 16, 2018
Read More"Many states have 'blanket bans' on ex-criminals obtaining licenses, while others use 'good character' requirements that allow licensing boards to arbitrarily exclude ex-criminals. These laws make it harder for people out of prison to adjust to society, and therefore make it more likely that people re-enter the prison system."
The Tennessee Star
July 15, 2018
Read More"As chief judge, I supported eliminating money bail in New York in favor of a system that allows judges to consider risk of danger with the aid of evidence-based assessment tools. But legislative bail reform is difficult, especially given the lobbying power of the bail bond industry that profits from the status quo."
Fox News
July 14, 2018
Read More"While high amounts of cash bail can be used to prevent violent offenders from wandering free throughout the community while they await trial, the same safeguard can be achieved by simply denying bail on public safety grounds. This was the case for defendant Brittan Holland who was charged with second-degree aggravated assault last year."
Right on Crime
July 13, 2018
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