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 task force created a four-point plan: better prescription monitoring, more access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, more peer-recovery programs and more medication-assisted treatment, in prison and across the state."
Politico
August 25, 2018
Read More"Suzanne Bagby, the chairwoman of the fund committee, said it will be a milestone for the group when it frees its first person from pretrial incarceration. Bagby said her committee meets on Aug. 31 to discuss it, but she thinks it’s a reasonable goal. 'That will be our biggest achievement,' Bagby said about bailing out its first defendant. 'There are so many fees and so many things we still need to work out with the courts'."
Columbia Daily Tribune
August 24, 2018
Read More"Many of the programs are entirely at the discretion of the local prosecutor, and while some are free or low-cost, others come with a hefty fee and can amount to pay-for-dismissal schemes, available only to those with money. "
New York Times
August 24, 2018
Read More"Leon County judges were intentionally trying to unconstitutionally detain defendants, Hinkle said, but he believed that they and prosecutors were operating in step with what has historically been done."
Tallahassee Democrat
August 23, 2018
Read More"Helping people who are incarcerated build their skills through education or training is therefore a worthwhile goal and one that enjoys significant support. According to a recent study, 70% of incarcerated people reported wanting to enroll in some academic program while incarcerated."
Forbes
August 23, 2018
Read More"The point is to lift the financial burden from people leaving the criminal justice system, many of whom have low incomes and can’t afford the fees. While not punitive, the fees were intended to cover the costs of criminal justice programs. But the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector found that more than 80 percent of the bills went unpaid, so the city received minimal benefit. San Francisco was the first city and county in the country to waive such fees."
San Francisco Chronicle
August 23, 2018
Read More"When Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865, ending slavery, it left open a loophole: Involuntary servitude could continue as "punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This effectively legalized slavery among imprisoned populations, allowing former slaveholders in the South to implement a convict lease system, contracting prisoners out to private firms."
Pacific Standard
August 22, 2018
Read More"The American Civil Liberties Union of California and other groups that were supporters of the bill changed positions on Monday, saying amendments last week give courts too much power in deciding who should be released and will further exacerbate 'racial biases and disparities that permeate our justice system'."
San Francisco Chronicle
August 20, 2018
Read More"Felony disenfranchisement has an undeniable racial present, not just past. Black Americans constitute 2.2 million of the disenfranchised, banned from voting at four times the rate of all other racial groups combined. Its history betrays a truth the nation has continuously refused to recognize in the experience of its most intimately reviled child: enslaved Africans and their descendants"
The Marshall Project
August 20, 2018
Read More"My own story stands as a testament to the fact that today’s incarcerated person could become tomorrow’s professor. A person who once sold illegal drugs on the street could become tomorrow’s medical doctor. But this can only happen if such a person, and the many others in similar situations, are given the chance."
The Conversation
August 16, 2018
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"Many drug users have had negative interactions with the police that foster distrust of law enforcement and by extension, emergency services. Kristen’s Law, then, may make people more afraid to call emergency services; if the police show up, who’s to say they won’t consider a user to be a dealer?"
The Appeal
August 16, 2018
Read More"At first blush, the idea might seem fringe and unreasonable; where, for instance, would all the criminals go? What happens to rapists and murderers? But the movement’s backers counter that it is the only truly humane direction we can head in as a society—that is, if we really aspire to live in a world rid of interpersonal harm and racial inequality. And they might actually be making headway."
Politico
August 15, 2018
Read More"A deeply divided Illinois Supreme Court upheld an appellate court decision in favor of a convicted felon fighting the state’s use of his criminal history to terminate his parental rights. In a strongly worded dissension, three of the seven justices warned of judicial overreach and the unintended consequences of new precedent."
Cook Country Record
August 14, 2018
Read More"Police know what to do when dealing with serious mental illness — the NYPD receives over 165,000 calls for emotionally disturbed persons annually. More than 8,000 NYPD officers have also gone through Crisis Intervention Team training, which teaches how to de-escalate situations involving EDPs. But law enforcement alone can’t solve this problem."
New York Post
August 14, 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"Then too, there is the matter of our own dignity, the dignity of those of us in whose name and for whose “protection” the state has decided — in cold blood, with calm premeditation — to take a human life. We are not doing it out of fear or rage or insanity. We are doing it out of a primitive need for vengeance."
New York Times
August 12, 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"JPay charges an additional $4.15 service fee to transfer $20 from the outside to an inmate. Sending one email costs $.35, double that to include a photo, and quadruple to include a video. A song can cost up to $2.50, and an album can be — somewhat inexplicably — as much as $46. Chat with a loved one? That’ll be $18 per hour."
The Outline
August 10, 2018
Read More"Redefining "tough on crime" required nothing new or groundbreaking. Instead, it meant simply applying longstanding conservative principles — fiscal discipline and bureaucratic accountability, chief among them — to the criminal justice system."
Tampa Bay Times
August 10, 2018
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