With 140,000 Veterans in Prison, We Can Do Better
Published November 11, 2009 @ 10:50AM PT
This Veterans' Day is a chance to honor the hundreds of thousands of military veterans among us, including those serving today at home and overseas.
It should also serve as a day to remember the 140,000 veterans in American state and federal prisons. Many of them served our country at wartime, and many shouldn't be behind bars.
A new report from the Drug Policy Alliance makes a strong case for an expansion of veteran services in this country, recommending that we focus more on treatment and services for those suffering from afflictions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury and urging an expansion of substance abuse treatment for people who have served in the military.
There's a high rate of substance abuse among veterans, and another connection between substance abuse and prison, unfortunately this connection is all too strong thanks to our war on drugs. We need alternative solutions to avoid locking up the men and women who serve our country.
Hire a Lawyer, Avoid the Death Penalty
Published November 10, 2009 @ 03:56PM PT
If you hire a lawyer, the chances are you won't be sentenced to death in Houston.
University of Denver Criminologist Scott Phillips reviewed 504 capital indictments over three decades in Harris County, Texas, and found that defendants who hired lawyers for the entire trial were never sentenced to death -- and were more likely to be acquitted.
The results of his study, published over the summer in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, are truly stunning. Since nearly all defendants facing the death penalty in Harris County were poor, Phillips argues that his results further demonstrate the arbitrariness of capital punishment. If a defendant's family and community is able to pool resources to hire an attorney, the paid attorney might be better equipped to investigate a case or to bring bargaining power to the table against a district attorney.
He makes clear that his findings aren't an indictment of appointed attorneys, but of the system that straddles those attorneys with thin resources in a death penalty case. Something clearly went wrong for results this drastic.
Phillips also came up with some significant findings on race and capital punishment, which he published in the American Constitution Society's journal, Advance.
Take Action: Texas Prisons Ban Book on Women's Incarceration
Published November 10, 2009 @ 09:33AM PT
A prison advocacy group is suing the Texas prison system over prisoners’ rights to order two books on prison conditions and the American criminal justice system.
Texas officials have blocked prisoner access to two books: Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System, by journalist Silja J.A. Talvi and Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits from Crime by Joel Dyer. Prison Legal News, the distributor of the books, filed a federal lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice last week, arguing that the state has denied prisoners their constitutional rights.
But the state says it isn’t banning the books because they’re critical of the system – officials claim they blocked the books because they’re too graphic. In fact, descriptions of sexual assault in the two books are critical to tell the story of a prisoner’s life and to address prison conditions. Neither are remotely gratuitous.
The Supreme Court and Why Age Matters
Published November 09, 2009 @ 04:41PM PT
The U.S. Supreme Court today heard long-awaited oral arguments on life without parole sentences for juveniles, and while the outcome is unclear, there seemed to be some agreement that age should be a factor in criminal sentences.
The defendants in the two cases before the Supreme Court today were seeking to show that it is cruel and unusual punishment -- a violation of the Eighth Amendment -- to sentence someone to life without parole for a crime committed as a juvenile. Both defendants were convicted of non-murders in Florida.
Chief Justice John Roberts (left) took control in oral arguments, according to Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog, and he seemed determined to persuade his colleagues that age should be a factor in determining a sentence. He and other justices, however, seemed opposed to finding that a certain age -- like 18 -- should be the constitutional cutoff for life without parole.
Doug Berman writes at Sentencing Law and Policy that Roberts has long taken an interest in the court's cloudy interpretation of "cruel and unusual," and he may be seizing this moment to make a play for clearing that up.
On Needle Exchanges, Another 1,000-Foot Mistake
Published November 09, 2009 @ 07:22AM PT
I wish this post brought better news. A bill before Congress would lift the ban on federal funding for needle exchanges. Good so far, right?
Here’s the problem: the bill would actually extend the ban formost of the 200 needle exchanges in the U.S., by preventing them from drawing federal money if they are within 1,000 feet of a school, library, park, college, video arcade or any other place children might gather. It’s a backhanded effort to hinder needle exchanges, and its result will be higher rates of HIV and AIDS, STDs and drug addiction.
A parallel rule will block city funding for exchanges in Washington, D.C., that fail the 1,000-foot test. The D.C. bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, who claims to be thinking of the children.
“Let’s protect these kids,” he told the Times. “They don’t need to be playing kickball in the playground and seeing people lined up for needle exchange.”
Oh, the horror. Can you imagine? How could they possibly continue with their kickball game, once their innocence has been stolen by a line of scary heroin addicts right outside the playground? Kingston's comment is straight-up fear mongering and, like other 1,000-foot rules, the bill masquerades punishment as safety.
I've yet to see a 1,000-foot rule (or a 2,500-foot rule) that I would support -- whether it be a drug sentence enhancement, a sex offender restriction or this needle exchange nonsense. These are long distances, and they make it especially hard to provide services in an urban environment. Sure, we shouldn’t have a needle exchange at a school. We shouldn’t hire convicted sex offenders as teachers. But why can’t we make these distance laws read “within sight of” instead of 1,000 feet?
Colbert: Privatize the Whole System
Published November 08, 2009 @ 10:10AM PT
In case you missed it, check out Colbert's hilarious and spot-on comment this week on private prisons. Why privatize just prisons, he asks, when we can privatize the whole criminal justice system? What's more "efficient" than a cop working on commission?
Watch below.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word - The Green Mile | ||||
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Global Bloggers Under Threat
Published November 08, 2009 @ 08:20AM PT
Popular Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez was stopped and beaten by police this week on her way to an anti-violence rally in Havana. She was one of three bloggers reportedly detained and assaulted by Cuban officers -- probably for their outspoken online criticism of the country's political rulers. Global Voices has an excellent roundup of the incidents and Sanchez wrote about the incident and posted video of the anti-violence rally she missed.
Also this week, Tunisian blogger and theater professor Fatma Riahi was imprisoned for three days and could face defamation charges for allegedly writing poltical satire and commentary on her blog. She was freed yesterday, but her laptop was confiscated, and advocates fear she could be arrested again once officers dig up evidence that she criticized the state. A community of bloggers has rallied around her, and Global Voices and the LA Times have reported on her situation.
There's great promise in new media to challenge oppressive regimes around the world and bring sunlight to unjust practices of dozens of world governments. That's why these governments crack down on bloggers like Riahi and Sanchez -- they're scared of the power of blogs to bring international attention to their actions.
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