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.
“If the goal is to help homeless people, ‘you try to earn somebody’s trust and offer them services that they need,’ Goldfein said. ‘You don’t start off by giving them a summons and then say to them ‘but I’ll remove this threat hanging over your head if you come in and accept services.’ That’s coercive. No one’s going to do it’.“
The Appeal
July 26, 2019
Read More“One of the most daunting challenges for former offenders reentering society is finding a job. The unemployment rate the first year after release among ex-convicts is around 60 percent, much higher than for the rest of society. The difficulty of finding stable, legal employment after release exacerbates the consequences of the initial crime.“
Catalyst
July 25, 2019
Read More“As with all progressive change, however, these reforms are being met with a backlash. A recent spate of articles and opinion pieces—relying heavily on police and pro-police sources—are using tired tropes to attack reform DAs and their records. Here are five of the most common tactics, and why they don’t hold up under scrutiny.“
The Appeal
July 19, 2019
Read More“Having elderly people sitting in prison does no one much good. They tend to have more health problems and be costlier than younger inmates. People commit less crime as they get older, so keeping those of enhanced age incarcerated is doing little from a public safety standpoint either. You could release an older prisoner and almost guarantee they would not go out and steal a car or rob someone.“
Baltimore Sun
July 18, 2019
Read More“This seismic change in how the nation’s largest city handles bail and jail is the result not of top-down change in the system but of thousands of small shifts in courtrooms every day. Whereas California, New Jersey, Maryland and a handful of other states have tried to eliminate money bail legislatively or through a court order—with mixed success—New York has done so organically, potentially offering a model for other large cities in otherwise recalcitrant states.“
Criminal Legal News
July 17, 2019
Read More“Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who’s running for president, unveiled a new, aggressive criminal justice reform proposal over the weekend that would make it easier for people, particularly those older than 50, to get an early release from federal prison. The Matthew Charles and William Underwood Second Look Act, first reported by Leigh Ann Caldwell for NBC News, would let people who have served more than 10 years in prison petition a court for early release. Inmates 50 or older would get the presumption of release if they petitioned — so judges would need to show that the inmate is an actual threat to society to keep them incarcerated.“
Vox
July 16, 2019
Read More“The corrections profession learned long ago that working with death row prisoners causes trauma, and officers working on death row today are regularly monitored for mental health concerns. No officer is permitted to work there longer than two years, and most “tours of duty” on the row are much shorter. Although staff members leave the environment, psychological effects can persist for years.“
Penn Live
July 16, 2019
Read More“"Where nearly three out of every four death sentences have been overturned—after years of litigation at significant taxpayer expense—there can be no confidence that capital punishment has been carefully reserved for the most culpable defendants, as our Constitution requires," the office wrote in its brief. "Where a majority of death sentenced defendants have been represented by poorly compensated, poorly supported court-appointed attorneys, there is a significant likelihood that capital punishment has not been reserved for the 'worst of the worst.'"“
Reason Magazine
July 15, 2019
Read More“The researchers focused on methods authorities can take to improve the quality of family engagement, which they defined as “the systemic inclusion of family in activities that promote children’s development and overall well-being, including the planning, structure, implementation and evaluation of these activities.”“
The Crime Report
July 5, 2019
Read More“Rather than face the prospect of looking for another job, he decided to create his own business. Pulling together his savings, Figueroa launched a home renovation company in 2014. He promised himself that he would employ others with criminal records, offering them opportunities he never had. “We all have done something we regret,” he says. He decided to name his company Second Chance Renovations.“
American Bar Association Journal
July 1, 2019
Read More“Yet ProPublica’s analysis, as well as the experiences of some U.S. schools and hospitals that have used Sound Intelligence’s aggression detector, suggest that it can be less than reliable. At the heart of the device is what the company calls a machine learning algorithm. Our research found that it tends to equate aggression with rough, strained noises in a relatively high pitch, like D’Anna’s coughing.“
ProPublica
June 25, 2019
Read More“Though Krasner’s office has made it clear that bail reform is a work in progress and advocates acknowledge some improvements, staff and volunteers at organizations that work directly with defendants say they are surprised at how slowly it’s moving.“
The Appeal
June 25, 2019
Read More“For example, the U.S. Department of Labor is increasing access to fidelity bonds for companies that hire returning citizens. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a “Ready to Work” initiative at the Bureau of Prisons to allow employers to connect with potential job candidates as they prepare to be released. And even the U.S. Department of Energy is working to fill jobs in this growing field. Governors across the country have also streamlined state services in order to reduce barrier to gainful employment.“
Fox News
June 22, 2019
Read More“In a fierce dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch slammed the Supreme Court for letting Congress ‘endow the nation’s chief prosecutor with the power to write his own criminal code governing the lives of a half-million citizens.’ Enforcing the separation of powers, he wrote, is ‘about safeguarding a structure designed to protect their liberties, minority rights, fair notice, and the rule of law’.”
Forbes
June 21, 2019
Read More“In at least five states — Utah, Kansas, South Dakota, Kentucky and Missouri — such technical violations account for more than half of all prison admissions. Such numbers underscore the extent to which the nation’s sky-high incarceration rate is partly a function of probation and parole policies.“
Washington Post
June 20, 2019
Read More“But algorithms also play a quiet and often devastating role in almost every element of the criminal-justice system—from policing and bail to sentencing and parole. By turning to computers, many states and cities are putting Americans’ fates in the hands of algorithms that may be nothing more than mathematical expressions of underlying bias.“
The Atlantic
June 20, 2019
Read More“The podcast I host is the product of an 18-month investigation by me and my producers. What we found is that “Cops” is edited far more problematically than it lets on, that it consistently presents excessive force as good policing and that its structural reinforcement of racial stereotypes about criminality raises questions about the ethics of continuing to let the show remain on the air.“
New York Times
June 18, 2019
Read More“While the death penalty proposal is more dramatic than most, it is consistent with decades of policies based on the assumption that harshly punishing people who sell drugs will reduce drug use. Politicians of all stripes have argued that long sentences for drug dealers will reduce drug availability and make remaining drugs more expensive, driving down demand. But this is not how drug markets work, and is directly contradicted by the available evidence.“
Prison Legal News
June 17, 2019
Read More“As the movement to reform cash bail—a practice that experts say disproportionately punishes poor people and people of color—gains steam throughout the country, local media continues to rely on fearmongering police narratives in lieu of evidence and nuance. One recent example, CBS 2 Chicago’s report on police fears of bond reform, serves as a useful case study in how this misinformation spreads uncritically. “
June 14, 2019
The Appeal
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