alternatives to incarceration
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Suburban Gangs: Overreported or Misunderstood?
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Tagging and Restorative Justice
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Gimmick Alert? Philly DA Dons Ankle Bracelet
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.
Smart on Crime in North Carolina
Published October 30, 2009 @ 06:19AM PT
A few years ago, the West End neighborhood of High Point, North Carolina, had a serious crime problem. Drug dealers controlled entire blocks, gun shots rang out at night. But now the streets are safer. Violence is down. And locals say a targeted, community-based approach to drugs and crime brought the change they needed.
A great story last week in the Economist checks in on High Point and finds solid evidence that the 'smart-on-crime' approach works.
High Point Police Chief Jim Fealy tells the Economist that his department did the normal thing for years, where officers would “come rolling in like an occupying army" and descend upon West End's rough blocks. It didn't work.
Fighting to Save Juvenile Life Without Parole
Published October 20, 2009 @ 10:30AM PT
The Heritage Foundation is worried that the playing field isn’t level in our criminal justice system. Juveniles sentenced to life without parole have the upper hand, the group says in a new paper, and the “activists” who oppose juvenile LWOP are threatening to take away this uniquely American punishment.
In a defensive, pro-punishment paper released this summer and by the conservative think tank, authors Andrew Grossman and Charles Stimson argue that its fine for the U.S. to be the only country with juvenile life without parole because we have a uniquely serious teen crime problem. They complain that irresponsible activists have monopolized the debate in favor of giving teens a second chance, and suggest that an important tool to “express society’s disapproval” of heinous crimes is in danger.
Early Release Is an Easy Target
Published September 17, 2009 @ 06:38AM PT
Colorado is the newest battleground for the predictable and counterproductive early-release argument.
Gov. Bill Ritter has proposed releasing some prisoners six months before their sentences expire - and ending parole earlier than usual in some cases - to save the state nearly $20 million a year. Some of the savings would be used to improve post-release services, like housing and job assistance, and to transition the state toward lower-cost parolee monitoring using GPS. It's a balanced, reasonable and forward-looking plan. And the state attorney general hates it.
"I am concerned that the acceleration of mandatory parole for offenders who have not earned discretionary release will seriously compromise public safety,” AG John Suthers told the Denver Daily News.
The public discourse on crime and punishment has come a long way in recent years, but Suthers' knee-jerk fear of letting out the bad guys, who are apparently going to start killing immediately, shows us that we're not there yet. What Suthers surely realizes is that it's much more dangerous to keep someone locked up for six extra months and then push them out with the shirt on their back than to release them now but spend the savings on transition assistance. His comments are pure politics, and they don't help.
Of course early release programs should be focused on prisoners who have shown a willingness to succeed after prison. People convicted of minor crimes should be removed from the parole rolls so officers can focus on higher-risk parolees. I hope reform eventually goes even further than this, but we have so many people in prison who shouldn't be there, we should focus on them first.
This debate is playing out in states across the country: California, Kentucky, Washington and others are addressing the addiction to imprisonment in an effort to save cash. Time Magazine recently explored the question at the heart of the matter: does early release affect the crime rate?
Monday Map: Abuse in Juvenile Jails
Published August 24, 2009 @ 05:00PM PT
Today's map, from the Syracuse Post-Standard and the AP, breaks down nearly 13,000 claims of abuse in juvenile detention centers across the U.S. between 2004 and 2007. Only 10% of these claims are substantiated, and surely false claims are common. But I would guess that unsubstantiated true claims are fairly common, as well. Rather than reading too much into false claims, however, I'm just looking at state-by-state claims. And it's no surprise that Texas and New York are in the 600+ category.
