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.
“Sometimes when I visit classes, parents talk about having to choose between buying basic toiletries at commissary or buying envelopes to write to their children. I think: Kids don’t need society to replace their incarcerated parents, they need society to support their incarcerated parents.”
The Marshall Project
June 14, 2019
Read More“Laws criminalizing homelessness, or laws prohibiting life-sustaining activities in public spaces when there are no sheltered alternatives, have increased in U.S. cities over the past decade. These laws trap vulnerable populations in the criminal justice system and raise both human rights and constitutional concerns.“
American Medical Association
June 12, 2019
Read More“These candidates are missing an opportunity. The incomes of people in U.S. prisons and local jails are overwhelmingly low, and one in two American adults has had a close relative incarcerated, meaning that a candidate who understands the criminalization of poverty could propose transformative reforms and speak to a huge number of voting-age Americans. In particular, candidates are missing an opportunity to speak to Black voters, who are hit hardest by policies that punish poor people. “
Prison Policy Institute
June 12, 2019
Read More“The next day, I was called out of class. When I got to the office, I saw the principal, two police officers and Mr. Moore. I was so scared. Not because of the cops—I just couldn’t handle letting my father down.“
The Marshall Project
June 12, 2019
Read More“Warren is pointing out that unjust laws are only half the problem. Unjust laws on the books are nothing new. For them to do the most harm, they must be enforced as such. Warren notes that smuggling and harboring laws ‘have always been applied selectively: with aggressive prosecutions of ‘criminal’ networks but leniency for big agriculture and other politically powerful industries that employ scores of undocumented laborers’.“
The Appeal
June 11, 2019
Read More“It’s hard for her mother and I to know what to tell her. When she was younger, she thought I lived in a hotel. Now she knows I live in a prison, where I have lived for the past 30 years. When I was just 16, I was sentenced to life without parole. I have no out date. But thanks to a special program, several other incarcerated parents and I got to spend the day playing games with our kids outside of the walls—and rules—of the prison visiting room.“
The Marshall Project
June 10, 2019
Read More“For almost 20 years, Michael and Kenneth have been incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center, both serving life sentences. Prison officials would not allow the Keys to be interviewed together, but in separate phone conversations, father and son talked to The Marshall Project about rekindling their relationship behind bars. At the time, they were living in cells next to one another. Their interviews have been edited for length and clarity.“
The Marshall Project
June 10, 2019
Read More“It’s an opportunity that state and federal officials hope to bring to tens of thousands of incarcerated people, though it will likely take an act of Congress. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is pushing a bill that once again would make prisoners eligible for federal financial aid.“
Salt Lake Tribune
June 9, 2019
Read More“Given the internal incentives to keep jails full, change will have to come from outside the criminal justice system. The most obvious lever available, which is picking up steam in multiple states, is bail reform. States could simply mandate that individuals accused of low-level crimes are automatically released on their own recognizance before trial. Jurisdictions that have experimented with this approach have found rates of appearing at trial in excess of 98 percent.“
Washington Post
June 6, 2019
Read More“After someone is arrested but not yet convicted of a crime, the next step is to appear before a judge, magistrate, or bail commissioner, who decides whether to release the person or require that they post bail in order to go free until the court date. But in Philadelphia, those arrested don’t physically appear in a courtroom during that crucial first hearing. Instead, they stay in the police booking center and their images and voices are sent to the judge, prosecutor, and public defender by video.“
The Appeal
June 5, 2019
Read More“The intent of the law was to train people before they leave prison to find work and to screen them for any risk they might pose to public safety, but it’s unlikely that those steps will occur before a looming legal deadline. “
The Marshall Project
June 5, 2019
Read More“Yet today, as Conarck reported, unpaid labor is still an integral part of the Florida prison system. About 3,500 unpaid prisoners make up work crews used around the state by cities, counties, educational institutions and the Florida Department of Transportation. Inmates work long hours in the heat in exchange for some time off their sentences. They get limited rest breaks and food, risk injuries and face punishment if they refuse to work.“
Gainesville Sun
June 4, 2019
Read More“More than 210,000 women spent Mother’s Day 2019 in America’s prisons and jails. Two-thirds of them are mothers of young children; an unknown number are pregnant. Many of them have substance use disorders with a significant history of trauma and mental health problems. Some have been incarcerated solely for the alleged crime of substance use during pregnancy, and many have lost custody of their children because there aren’t enough treatment centers for women and their kids.“
STAT
June 3, 2019
Read More“Conrad's defense of the Cure Violence program comes a week after it was revealed that the interrupter hiring practices had not been taking place as spelled out in the city's contract, which mandates no candidates be offered employment ‘without prior consultation with Metro Government and law enforcement,’ and describes an interview panel that includes a police officer. “
Louisville Courier Journal
May 31, 2019
Read More“This debate has been largely symbolic, because New Hampshire has neither an active death penalty system nor any executions on the horizon. The state has only one person on death row — Michael Addison, who was sentenced to death more than a decade ago for killing Michael Briggs, a Manchester police officer — and last carried out an execution in 1939.“
Washington Post
May 30, 2019
Read More“‘We are making a moral judgment of the mom,’ Skenazy said. ‘We think that we’re making a scientific and clear-eyed judgment of the danger, but actually we are always judging the mom’.“
The Appeal
May 30, 2019
Read More“Now to Arizona, where prison inmates are being charged for medical procedures that should be paid for by the state. And many don't know about the charges until debt collectors come calling. As Jimmy Jenkins of member station KJZZ reports, the unpaid bills are damaging credit and making it more difficult for former inmates to start over after they've been released.“
NPR
May 27, 2019
Read More“If we are truly dedicated to holding people who commit crimes accountable and enhancing public safety, we must find ways to end mass incarceration. We must break the cycle, not only of a recidivism rate that hovers around 66 percent but also of intergenerational incarceration. “
San Francisco Examiner
May 28, 2019
Read More“More than 15 years later, I’ve filed more than a dozen pleadings in court and have been awarded almost half a million dollars by two separate juries. I won my first case after three correctional officers destroyed my legal materials and retaliated against me. “
The Marshall Project
May 24, 2019
Read More“New York opened the first prison nursery in 1901; today 11 states have them. Criteria for eligibility vary, but generally women convicted of child-related or violent crimes are ineligible, as are women with behavioural or mental-health problems, or with a record of disciplinary problems in prison. In Washington, women accepted into the programme must be pregnant at the time of their imprisonment, and have less than 30 months to serve from the time of delivery; mothers and children are released together. “
The Economist
May 20, 2019
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