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.
“That’s because there’s virtually nowhere he’s allowed to live. Under the New York State Sexual Assault Reform Act (SARA), people who are on parole or other types of community supervision for certain sex crimes can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school. Until the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) approves a SARA-compliant home, Zada will remain in prison. “
The Appeal
May 17, 2019
Read More“‘The reality is that a lot of people who populate our local jails are people who are homeless [and] people who have psychiatric disabilities,’ said Sarah Geraghty, a managing attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights, ‘and by definition those are going to be people who cannot afford to pay small, preset bail bonds to buy their liberty’.“
The Appeal
May 16, 2019
Read More“We can speak up for children separated from their parents by incarceration—advocating for programs and policies that make it easier for kids to visit their parents in prison. Inmates, institutions and children benefit. Research shows visits help reduce prison misconduct and recidivism. Evidence also suggests that visits can positively affect a child’s well-being and improve the chances that families will remain intact when a former inmate reenters the community.“
The Marshall Project
May 10, 2019
Read More“Peter Goldberg, the executive director of the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, described the funds as an ‘active way for communities to push back against a system that is ransoming freedom.’ Just as, during the Civil Rights Movement, an individual would sometimes bail out activists en masse, today, those who question the fairness of the cash bail system on low-income people can take action, he said. “
ABC
May 10, 2019
Read More“Overall, incarceration rates are declining—just not for women. For them, things actually appear to be worsening across the country. This is particularly true in the smallest communities. According to our analysis, women’s jail admissions in rural areas increased 45 percent between 2000 and 2013, while in urban areas they were up 13 percent. By contrast, during the same period, men’s jail admissions in rural areas were down 1 percent and in cities they fell 24 percent. This shows that a deepening divide between high and rising rural incarceration rates and declining urban incarceration rates is heavily gendered.“
New York Review of Books
May 7, 2019
Read More“The question remains for Kane and many others dealing with mental illness and the criminal justice system: What benefit does it serve society to saddle these defendants with felony convictions when their behavior was not due to criminal intent, but rather, mental illness?“
Above the Law
May 6, 2019
Read More“With so many states curtailing the death penalty and candidates for the nation’s highest office calling for an end to the practice, it seems unfathomable that the U.S. would actually be increasing its overall executions—but that is exactly what’s happened. Despite global capital punishment numbers falling by 31 percent in 2018, the U.S. had 25 executions, which continues an upward trend since 2016. That means the U.S. killed more prisoners than nations such as Iran, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, and Pakistan.“
The American Conservative
May 2, 2019
Read More“Leaving the prison that day, I wondered what the men in my class were “usually” like. I knew that I was afforded only a narrow glimpse into their experiences, and I wondered if I knew more of their history if I would still view them the same way. So I decided to try an experiment. As a general rule, in my years of working with the incarcerated, I have never looked up the convictions of the men in my classes: I wanted to see each person as he is and could be, not reduced to his past actions. But now, I decided to do just the opposite: look up the crimes and media coverage of every single one of my students.“
The Marshall Project
May 2, 2019
Read More“Long prison terms do little to achieve those important goals. Instead, they too often extinguish hope and frustrate efforts made by countless people to turn their lives around and return to their communities to give something back. I can do much more to change the lives of the next generation in my community, acting as a mentor, than locked up behind bars. And there are many others, just like me, sitting in prison and waiting for their second chance. It’s long past time we reach out a helping hand and bring them home.“
The Crime Report
April 30, 2019
Read More“At least 32,000 mothers and fathers nationally—none of them accused of child abuse—have permanently lost their children while locked up, often for minor crimes, according to a Marshall Project analysis that was cited in committee hearings for the Indiana legislation.“
The Marshall Project
April 25, 2019
Read More“The biggest sticking point was whether the financial requirement undermined the amendment's intent to end the disenfranchisement of more than 1 million felons who have completed their sentence and returned to society. The bill's sponsor, Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, said the measure clarifies the meaning of the language of the ballot proposal approved in November and is consistent with the media campaign that promoted its passage.“
Tallahassee Democrat
April 24, 2019
Read More“Being in prison cuts people off from friends, family and other sources of support. And sometimes parole conditions bar former inmates from moving back home if other family members also have criminal records — a common situation in poor neighborhoods. The reentry facility in Atlanta was created because so many state prisoners were from the area but were locked up in facilities far from home, according to Sanders from the Georgia Department of Corrections. Most of the prisons are in rural Georgia, Sanders said, which made it difficult for Atlanta-area inmates to reconnect with family and local services. “
Pew Charitable Trust
April 23, 2019
Read More“The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, in a case called People vs. Dueñas, is rippling through the state. Defense attorneys are holding up the case in arguments for their low-income clients, while lawmakers are looking to enshrine its legal underpinning — that imposing fines without considering defendants’ ability to pay tends to punish them for being poor — into state law. “
San Francisco Chronicle
April 22. 2019
Read More“Inmates are among the least-educated people in America. That's despite research that shows education is one of the most effective ways to keep people from coming back to prison. Now, there's renewed interest in giving adults behind bars better access to higher education. A new bipartisan bill in Congress would allow incarcerated people to use federal Pell Grants — designed for low-income students — to pay for higher education, including college classes and workforce training.“
NPR
April 20, 2019
Read More“Men found incompetent to stand trial are housed at Fulton County Jail, where they are provided full-day programming, including counseling and group activities, according to the complaint. However, women must often wait months in isolation for a hospital bed to become available, according to Geraghty. Approximately 30 to 40 women are held in the jail’s mental health pods at any one time, she said in an email.“
The Appeal
April 19, 2019
Read More“The $353 million effort will test the idea that the best approaches to combat the drug crisis are well known but poorly implemented and coordinated. It will employ a comprehensive strategy in each community that encourages the involvement of doctors, treatment providers, law enforcement, courts, churches and even housing providers — an approach that has worked in a few places.“
Washington Post
April 18, 2019
Read More“Ending the ban on Pell grants for prisoners thereby making higher education more accessible for inmates is the right thing to do. And it’s the smart thing to do. Here’s the evidence, much of it contained in a recent report by the Vera Institute, generally regarded as one of the most comprehensive studies available on the topic.“
Forbes
April 15, 2019
Read More“If Utah wants to stop the revolving door between imprisonment and supervision, it must invest resources to help individuals meet their basic needs: housing, employment, transportation and medical treatment. It is very difficult to be a functioning and productive member of society without one of these basic needs, and it is even more difficult to be successful on probation or parole without all four.“
Deseret News
April 13, 2019
Read More“This data parallels data from states in the United States. It has been repeatedly shown that states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than those that do. It appears that when governments stop killing, so do their citizens.“
Criminal Legal News
April 12, 2019
Read More“How to play bridge. Current events. Crochet for beginners. These were some of the continuing “education” classes available to me and others at Cumberland Federal Prison Camp in Maryland, where I served a year and a half. High school graduates looking for more meaningful educational opportunities had few options, thanks in part to a 25-year-old ban on people in prison being eligible for Pell Grants. A bipartisan bill being introduced today would remove that ban and open the door to rehabilitation, dignity and safety for those in federal and state prisons around the country.“
The Hill
April 9, 2019
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