State and Local Issues — Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

State and Local Issues

Because 90% of all prisoners in the United States are in state facilities, the work that states are doing to reduce their prison populations is crucial. Attempting to end mass incarceration necessitates realizing this is a situation requiring not one national solution, but fifty state solutions. Below are current state solutions that could be effectively modeled by other states for meaningful reform.

Those with criminal records should help decide their fate, member says

“Bain, the founder of Women Against Mass Incarceration, spent a decade in federal prison. That means she knows from firsthand experience the challenges people face when they return home after finishing a prison sentence. She acknowledged Tuesday that Connecticut has made positive strides in its criminal justice reforms, but said for that progress to continue, lawmakers and policy experts must listen to the voices of people who have been directly impacted by the state’s policies.“

The CT Mirror

October 8, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesOctober 8, 2019The CT Mirror, ConnecticutComment

Is Mass Incarceration Inevitable? Part 1. What's the Problem?

“But while the recent decline in prison populations is real, there are also reasons to wonder. Given the size of the U.S. inmate population and the extremely high rate at which we put people behind bars, will any reform efforts be enough to shed the "mass incarceration" label? Over the next few posts I will be discussing this question, and (to cut to the chase) conclude that the answer is, sadly, no. There are both obvious and subtle barriers to reducing the inmate population to levels, ones that range from difficult to near-impossible to overcome.“

Reason Magazine

October 7, 2019

Mass IncarcerationPhillip ReevesOctober 7, 2019Andrew Leipold, Reason MagazineComment

How Far Will California Take Criminal-Justice Reform?

“San Francisco is a city whose electorate skews and is easily skewered as radical-fringe left, but where law-enforcement practices nonetheless follow the same disturbing pattern of brutality seen in the rest of the state. Boudin’s candidacy, which calls for to-the-studs reform, evokes Larry Krasner, the former civil-rights attorney who is now the D.A. of Philadelphia, and Tiffany Cabán, a young public defender in Queens, endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ran for D.A. of the borough this year. In San Francisco, even moderates run as progressives, but Boudin has a particular moral authority that lies in his own story.“

The New Yorker

October 5, 2019

State ReformsPhillip ReevesOctober 5, 2019The New Yorker, Chesa Boudin, San Francisco, CaliforniaComment

Opinion: How Mandatory Minimums Enable Police Misconduct

“The result is not only the virtual loss of the jury trial — today, 95 percent of convictions come from guilty pleas instead of jury verdicts — but also the loss of the only opportunity to confront police misconduct in criminal proceedings. In New York City, for example, less than 5 percent of all felony arrests that are prosecuted have hearings to contest police misconduct. For misdemeanor arrests that are prosecuted — a third of which are initiated by the police — less than .5 percent of cases go to a hearing. A guilty plea also has the effect of insulating police from any civil rights lawsuit asserting false arrest because a plea of guilty serves as an admission that the officers’ arrest was justified.“

New York Times

September 25, 2019

Police ViolencePhillip ReevesSeptember 25, 2019New York Times, Mandatory MinimumsComment

Editorial: Police, prosecutors and courts are keeping California’s criminal justice data a secret

“Assembly Bill 1331, whose fate now rests with Newsom, would close some of the current gaps in criminal history records by tightening reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies and courts. It would require release of anonymized information to research agencies, which would then be able to sift through data to discover trends or biases. It would promote better and faster sharing of information among public agencies.“

LA Times

September 23, 2019

State ReformsPhillip ReevesSeptember 23, 2019LA Times, California, Assembly Bill 1331Comment

Sentenced to Death by Incarceration in New York State Prison

“We have worked with only a small number of the people serving life sentences in New York, and an even smaller percentage of the 47,000 people in state prison. Nevertheless, we have found ample reason to fear that the impact of long overdue criminal justice reforms, trumpeted daily and endorsed by countless politicians, may be far less than hoped until the extant incarceratory system within which those changes operate is dismantled or radically overhauled.“

Gotham Gazette

September 21, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesSeptember 21, 2019Gotham GazetteComment

Once known for 'three strikes' law, California is now embracing criminal justice reform

“Asia and her mother shared their stories with California lawmakers this year, in support of a Senate Bill 394, which enables parents and primary caregivers for a child under the age of 18 who are charged with nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors to opt into programs instead of imprisonment. It is one of several newly passed criminal justice reform bills now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature. Others include: Senate Bill 136, which puts an end to sentence enhancements that automatically add an extra year for anyone convicted of recommitting a felony for which they had already served time. AB 1331, which will increase research and improve record-keeping in the criminal justice system. AB 32, which effectively ends the era of California’s reliance on private, for-profit prisons, including ICE detention centers.“

USA Today

September 18, 2019

State ReformsPhillip ReevesSeptember 18, 2019USA Today, CaliforniaComment

In Third Debate, Democratic Presidential Candidates Condemn Mass Incarceration without Naming its Main Driver

“Even with overwhelming and bipartisan support for incarcerating fewer people overall, releasing prisoners convicted of murder, assault, and other violent offenses continues to be a third rail issue in presidential politics, says Howard Henderson, founding director of the Center for Justice Research at Texas Southern University, the historically Black college that hosted the debate. “It’s not yet politically safe to discuss the violent crime issue because so much of the public is still focused on the idea of retribution in that space,” he said.”

The Appeal

September 13, 2019

2020 ElectionPhillip ReevesSeptember 13, 2019The Appeal, Democratic PartyComment

Don’t Be Fooled — Kamala Harris’s “Criminal Justice” Plan Is Not Progressive

“Harris, of course, is the former attorney general of California and has pitched her campaign on the foundation of her background as a prosecutor. Her pseudo-populist campaign slogan, “For the People,” is in fact a reference to the standard judicial language to describe prosecutors in a criminal trial. Harris is the “tough” and “fearless” fighter who says she wants to “prosecute the case” against Trump. In short, Harris is not so much running for president as suing for the job.“

Truth Out Magazine

September 10, 2019

2020 ElectionPhillip ReevesSeptember 10, 2019Truth Out Magazine, Kamala HarrisComment

How 2020 Democrats want to overhaul criminal justice laws

“The proposals illustrate the influence of black voters in the primary and reflect Democrats’ refusal to cede any ground with them to President Donald Trump, who has also sought to highlight his efforts to change the justice system. The ideas from Democrats range from ending requirements that bail be paid in cash — which opponents decry as a driver of unnecessary incarceration — to an end to the federal death penalty, which Trump recently reinstated.“

Washington Post

September 10, 2019

2020 ElectionPhillip ReevesSeptember 10, 2019Washington PostComment

The 2020 Candidates Still Won’t Talk About The Main Cause Of Mass Incarceration

“Experts interviewed by HuffPost warned that meaningful reform requires changing how the U.S. punishes violent crime, not just ending the war on drugs. They also cautioned that drawing a hard line between violent and nonviolent crime, as some candidates have done on the campaign trail, obscures a more complicated reality.“

Huffington Post

September 9, 2019

2020 ElectionPhillip ReevesSeptember 9, 2019Huffington Post, ViolenceComment

Almost empty: “Monument” to punishment-heavy ’90s sees sharp population decline

“The number of inmates held at Northern — a level-five maximum security facility that at one point could hold up to 584 sentenced prisoners — has fallen precipitously since January of this year. According to the Department of Correction, there were 270 inmates at Northern on January 1, 2019. By Aug. 23, shortly after two of its housing units were closed, there were just 76, a 71.8% decrease in just seven months.“

The CT Mirror

September 4, 2019

State Reforms, Mass IncarcerationPhillip ReevesSeptember 4, 2019The CT Mirror, ConnecticutComment

New NC law aims to get rid of unusual, outdated laws

“There are dozens of unusual laws like that across North Carolina. Recently, Governor Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 584 into law. It forces local governments to identify certain laws that aren't current or realistic.“

WSOC North Carolina

September 2, 2019

OvercriminalizationPhillip ReevesSeptember 2, 2019WSOC North Carolina, North CarolinaComment

Arrest, Release, Repeat: How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems

“In this report, we fill this troubling data gap with a new analysis of a federal survey, finding that at least 4.9 million people are arrested and jailed each year, and at least one in 4 of those individuals are booked into jail more than once during the same year. Our analysis shows that repeated arrests are related to race and poverty, as well as high rates of mental illness and substance use disorders. Ultimately, we find that people who are jailed have much higher rates of social, economic, and health problems that cannot and should not be addressed through incarceration.“

Prison Policy Initiative

August 30, 2019

OvercriminalizationPhillip ReevesAugust 30, 2019Prison Policy InitiativeComment

While overall NYC jail population drops, technical parole violators are on the rise

“As the overall New York City jail population continues to decline, the number of people detained due to technical parole violations is on the rise, a new city study reports. The average daily inmate population for those accused of violating the conditions of their state parole grew from 550 in 2014 to 650 in 2018 – an increase of about 18%, according to data released on Tuesday by the city’s Independent Budget Office.“

New York Daily News

August 27, 2019

Parole, State ReformsPhillip ReevesAugust 27, 2019New York Daily News, New York City, Rikers IslandComment

Will Fear of Crime Dampen Support for Ending Mass Incarceration?

“Although there’s widespread consensus among experts that spending time in prison “might be exacerbating the crime problem rather than easing it,” few authorities at the state or federal levels appear willing to risk the political problems that might accompany transformative change, argued Andrew W. Leipold, Edwin M. Adams Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a recent article in the American Criminal Law Review. That, he suggested, should make us skeptical about the expectations raised by the reformers’ rhetoric.“

The Crime Report

August 23, 2019

Mass IncarcerationPhillip ReevesAugust 23, 2019The Crime Report, Andrew LeipoldComment

Governor’s Race Could Decide If Louisiana’s Prison Population Continues to Shrink

“Despite this bipartisan pedigree, some of the state’s most prominent Republican officials are foes of criminal justice reform and use them to attack Edwards, who is up for re-election this fall. One of his main challengers, GOP Representative Ralph Abraham, is running firmly against the policies, which he says have “opened the gates” to crime.“

The Appeal: Political Report

August 21, 2019

State ReformsPhillip ReevesAugust 21, 2019The Appeal: Political Report, LouisianaComment

Elizabeth Warren’s criminal justice reform plan, explained

“t includes many of the policies that have become mainstays in Democratic criminal justice reform plans. She targets long prison sentences, mandatory minimums, cash bail, and drug policies focused on incarceration over addiction treatment. She argues more broadly against criminalizing homelessness, poverty, and mental health problems. She also calls for repealing the 1994 crime law, which has become a bogeyman for mass incarceration among progressives (in large part because Democrats, particularly Biden, supported it when it passed).“

Vox

August 20, 2019

2020 ElectionPhillip ReevesAugust 20, 2019Vox, Elizabeth WarrenComment

The Criminal Justice Debate Has Changed Drastically. Here’s Why.

“Until recently, such ideas were considered so radical in the United States that they would have been immediately dismissed even among reform-minded lawmakers. But they are now being instituted or seriously considered in cities and states across the nation. Experts say the changing debate reflects a seismic shift in how the American public views criminal justice issues.“

New York Times

August 20, 2019

2020 ElectionPhillip ReevesAugust 20, 2019New York TimesComment