Off to bumpy start, says the LA Times: Many of the ex-criminals are not showing up for counseling appointments, some care centers are not being paid and county bureaucrats are scrambling to correct foul-ups that have caused delays. … In the six months since, about a quarter of the probationers have been arrested for allegedly…
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The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of strip searches for minor offenses. This isn’t a big surprise. The Court has always granted a lot of discretion to jails and prisons to run their own affairs, with regard to safety, broadly defined: Maintaining safety and order at detention centers requires the expertise of correctional officials, who…
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There’s a great review of William Stuntz’s book, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (which I have but have not read). Stuntz was conservative, just FYI. The review is by Leon Neyfakh in the Boston Globe. Stuntz’s point is that procedural justice is not the same is real justice. And the trend towards the former,…
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From Salon.com, regarding an interview they did with me: The June 20, 2011, story “Could Flogging Solve Our Prison Crisis” initially stated that “the Corrections Corporation of America helped draft anti-immigration laws,” a reference to the draft legislation that later became Arizona SB 1070. CCA has brought it to our attention that although CCA did…
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Two good posts from Zachary Goelman. One on the latest death caused by marijuana (prohibition). The other on the new jail in Brooklyn.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I was flattered enough to send this letter to the New Yorker: To the Editor, As a long-time New Yorker subscriber, I was thrilled to see Adam Gopnik’s recent article, “The Caging of America.” I appreciate Mr. Gopnik bringing this important subject to the attention of…
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In Dublin, these neighborhoods with their uniform rowhomes remind me of Baltimore. The grittiness of Dublin was a bit of a refreshing shock after the pastoral beauty of rural Hampshire. Even though I have nothing but nice things to say about the English, in Ireland I felt like I was back on home ground. From…
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The Timesand a grim read about a boy with mental problems, gone bad. It’s interesting but in all-too-many ways nothing new. But what struck me was this great example of doublespeak: Mr. Clergeau was discharged … with the expectation that he would be imprisoned. Hospital authorities told the state police that he was “not a…
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USA Today has five ways to fix our prison system. I have a sixth.
…enters it’s second week. From the S.F. Weekly: Activists and inmates say the strike is meant to call attention to inhumane conditions in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), where dangerous prisoners are lodged in small, windowless cells, often without access to other people or open space for extended periods. Critics of the SHU say…
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