October 2011
2 posts
NPR: Murder, They Messaged →
vanityfair:
Kim Proctor was no different than your ordinary teenage girl. Easily hurt by insults and just as easily swayed by compliments, she dwelled in an angsty purgatory familiar to most adolescents. But when Kim went from average kid to missing girl, her storyline took a tragic…
September 2011
2 posts
9 tags
6 tags
August 2011
2 posts
The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor →
The breaded chicken patty your child bites into at school may have been made by a worker earning twenty cents an hour, not in a faraway country, but by a member of an invisible American workforce: prisoners. At the Union Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Florida, inmates from a nearby lower-security prison manufacture tons of processed beef, chicken and pork for Prison...
July 2011
2 posts
“Laws named after crime victims and dead people are usually a bad idea. They play...”
– Why ‘Caylee’s Law’ Is A Bad Idea (via azspot)
January 2011
2 posts
Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence →
psydoctor8:
Keeping in mind, correlation does not imply causation. It’s like saying since there is a cop at every accident, they must cause them. What is interesting is the common conditions or behaviors the meds are for.
10. Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) An antidepressant.
9. Venlafaxine (Effexor) A drug related to Pristiq in the same class of antidepressants, both are also used to treat...
December 2010
2 posts
Is long-term solitary confinement torture? →
psydoctor8:
One of the paradoxes of solitary confinement is that, as starved as people become for companionship, the experience typically leaves them unfit for social interaction. Once, Dellelo was allowed to have an in-person meeting with his lawyer, and he simply couldn’t handle it. After so many months in which his primary human contact had been an occasional phone call or brief...
“Generally speaking, jurors with above-average or high IQs are potentially more...”
– Do We Need Einsteins in the Jury Box? The Role and Impact of Juror IQ. (via)
November 2010
1 post
Portuguese drug decriminalization →
The issue of decriminalizing illicit drugs is hotly debated, but is rarely subject to evidence-based analysis. This paper examines the case of Portugal, a nation that decriminalized the use and possession of all illicit drugs on 1 July 2001. Drawing upon independent evaluations and interviews conducted with 13 key stakeholders in 2007 and 2009, it critically analyses the criminal justice and...
October 2010
1 post
NPR investigation: Private prison industry helped... →
savingpaper:
Members of the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country — were among the many insiders who attended a meeting in Washington D.C. where Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce first proposed SB1070, the controversial immigration bill that requires police to lock up people they stop who cannot show proof they entered the country...
September 2010
4 posts
Study Shows How the Innocent Confess to Crimes →
abbyjean:
More than 40 people have given confessions since 1976 that DNA evidence later showed were false, according to records compiled by Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. Experts have long known that some kinds of people — including the mentally impaired, the mentally ill, the young and the easily led — are the likeliest to be induced to confess....
U.S. State Prison Population Decreases for the... →
One in every 31 American adults is under control of the correctional system. The U.S. imprisonment rate is astronomical; it is six times that of many European countries. This rather new reality is directly the product of the American war on drugs initiated by Reagan in the ’80s.
“The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But...”
– Napoleon Beazley, inmate #999141, just before he was executed by the State of Texas on May 28, 2002.
Beazley was sentenced to death for a crime committed when he was just seventeen years old: murdering a 63-year-old man in the process of stealing his automobile (and also shooting at his wife, who...
Netherlands to Close Prisons: Not Enough Criminals →
azspot:
For years prohibitionists, including our own Drug Enforcement Administration, have claimed — falsely — that the tolerant marijuana policies of the Netherlands have made that nation a nest of crime and drug abuse. They may have trouble wrapping their little brains around this:
The Dutch government is getting ready to close eight prisons because they don’t have enough criminals to fill...
July 2010
2 posts
Fourteen Examples of Systemic Racism in the U.S.... →
azspot:
A radical approach to the US criminal justice system means we must go to the root of the problem. Not reform. Not better beds in better prisons. We are not called to only trim the leaves or prune the branches, but rip up this unjust system by its roots.
We are all entitled to safety. That is a human right everyone has a right to expect. But do we really think that continuing with a...
Rough justice in America: Too many laws, too many... →
azspot:
Justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country. Between 2.3m and 2.4m Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults. If those on parole or probation are included, one adult in 31 is under “correctional” supervision. As a proportion of its total population, America incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more...
June 2010
1 post
High Court: Suspects Must Explicitly Invoke... →
savingpaper:
A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that suspects must explicitly tell police they want to remain silent in order to invoke Miranda protections during criminal interrogations, a decision the dissent said turns defendants’ rights “upside down.”
The right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer are the first of the Miranda rights warnings, which police recite to suspects during...
May 2010
8 posts
Supreme Court Rejects Some Life Terms For... →
The court on Monday struck down as unconstitutional life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders who have committed crimes other than murder.
Court: No Need To Free 'Sexually Dangerous'... →
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal officials can indefinitely hold inmates considered “sexually dangerous” after their prison terms are complete.
By a 7-2 vote, the high court reversed a lower court decision that said Congress overstepped its authority in allowing indefinite detentions of considered “sexually dangerous.”
“The statute is a...
“There is a shroud of secrecy that envelops prisons. That shroud of secrecy is...”
– A Christian Perspective on Prisons (via azspot)
18-Year-Old Junior Alexander Manon Beaten to Death... →
robot-heart-politics:
criticalculture:
Running from the police is not a crime punishable by death in Canada. Yet this is the sentence 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon received on the evening of May 5, 2010 when he ran from the police near York University in Toronto. And by looks of what became of the young Dominican teenager, it’s no surprise that youth like him run when confronted by...
It's Time to End the Epidemic of Prisoner Rape →
When Bryson Martel was sentenced to six years in prison for check fraud, he was 28 years old, weighed 123 pounds, and was scared to death. He had good reason to be afraid. Within weeks of his arrival, he was beaten and raped at knifepoint. Martel reported the assault to staff, who moved him to “protective custody” – into a cell with a known rapist.
Days later, he was raped again.
Prison...
Arizona's Draconian Immigration Law Is Great ...... →
azspot:
“Housing federal detainees typically brings in more per ‘man-day,’” an industry term for what is earned per detainee, “than they can get from state prison systems,” wrote Leslie Berestein in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
This is one of the last remaining growth industries, and all thanks to some heavy government intervention — stimulus of a different kind. Michele Deitch, an expert on...
April 2010
6 posts
Condemned Utah killer will face firing squad →
robot-heart-politics:
This just in: Utah noses ahead of Arizona in competition to be Stupidest State in America!
Arizona Codifies Racial Profiling →
(via savingpaper)
“I remember one woman walking by. She was carrying a huge bag, and she looked...”
– Jason Washburn, a corporal in the US Marines who served three tours in Iraq (via unburyingthelead)
Virginia's disgraceful move to discourage... →
In 48 other states and the District of Columbia, voting rights for most felons are restored automatically once their sentence is fulfilled. Only Virginia and Kentucky insist that some sanctions last indefinitely — until the state, in its infinite wisdom, grants what the U.S. Constitution regards as the inalienable right to vote. In the Old Dominion, the result is that huge numbers of...
What Voters Know About the Supreme Court →
savingpaper:
• Just under half (49%) know there are nine justices; 13% have no idea.
• The most recognizable justice is Clarence Thomas (14%), followed by Chief Justice John Roberts (11%)
• 41% can name Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female justice
• Three-fourths (76%) known justices serve for life
• 56% can name at least one case heard by the Supreme Court; 45% named Roe v. Wade
•...
March 2010
5 posts
CA Marijuana Legalization Initiative to Qualify... →
Today, an initiative that would legalize personal marijuana possession and allow regulated sales of marijuana to adults will qualify for California’s November general election ballot. A win at the ballot would be a first of its kind in U.S. history. This is a remarkable moment in the struggle to change our decades-old marijuana policies. Marijuana was prohibited in 1937 before most...
Punishment cut for 8 officers in televised beating →
Eight Philadelphia police officers who were fired or disciplined in 2008 after a television news helicopter captured them beating three shooting suspects are getting their jobs back or having their punishments reduced, police announced yesterday.
On Prison Rape and Complacency: The Curvature →
robot-heart-politics:
thecurvature:
If we think rape is bad, one of the worst things a person could force another to endure, we should find prison rape to be especially horrific. For rape in prison involves not just rape, but also being legally kept captive either by or with your rapist(s), for an extended period of time. Rape in prison is also a form of social discrimination and violence. ...
From Ex-Con to Lifesaver →
Felix Aponte and Rob Sanchez both served time at New York’s Sing Sing penitentiary. They met after they were released — and quickly became friends. Then Sanchez was diagnosed with an aggressive form of kidney disease.
[…]
Aponte couldn’t believe Sanchez didn’t have anyone who could donate a kidney to help him.
“So here I am, I’m in good health. Plus, I wanted to...
The Way to Stop Prison Rape →
azspot:
When Laura Berry told the Arkansas corrections officer who had raped her that she thought she might be pregnant, he forced her, according to the commission’s findings, to drink turpentine and quinine, hoping that would induce an abortion. After Kenneth Young was raped at knifepoint by a cellmate in Pennsylvania, he flooded the cell to attract the attention of officers, and as punishment...
February 2010
12 posts
Ex-Cop Pleads Guilty In Hurricane Katrina Killing... →
In Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic aftermath, police shot six people – killing two – as they crossed a bridge in search of food. For years the case was a shocking symbol of the confusion and violence that swept through the flooded city. On Wednesday it became a mark of shame for the police department.
As victims’ relatives watched from the courtroom gallery, a retired lieutenant who supervised the...
“Utah, the most comically awful state in the union, is now becoming substantially...”
– Utah criminalizes miscarriage, manages to become worse at being a state - John Knefel - Making a Mockery - True/Slant (via)
NC woman killed fortuneteller for giving bad... →
Didn’t she see this coming…?
Justice Kennedy on Prisons →
Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke out against excessive prison sentences this month in California, criticizing the state’s deeply misguided three-strikes law. It was a welcome message, delivered with unusual force. Much of the blame for the law, however, lies with the Supreme Court, which upheld it in a decision on which Justice Kennedy cast the deciding vote.
Cuts in programs to help inmates questioned →
An effort to slash prison costs in California by laying off hundreds of workers who run rehabilitation programs could backfire, resulting in higher recidivism rates and ultimately higher prison costs, critics say.
Over the next several months, prison officials will shave $250 million from rehabilitation spending in prisons and dismiss about 850 prison workers who currently run substance abuse...
“[David R. Dow] devotes his life to fighting for his clients — many of whom he...”
– Dahlia Lithwick, reviewing Dow’s new memoir, The Autobiography of an Execution (via savingpaper)
A US Soldier Waterboards His Own Child →
A soldier waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she was unable to recite her alphabet. Joshua Tabor admitted to police he had used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry. As his daughter ‘squirmed’ to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline. Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only...
Ex-cop charged with murder of unarmed man →
The off-duty police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man in November has 24 hours to turn himself in after being charged with this morning murder, said District Attorney Seth Williams.
Frank Tepper, 43, allegedly opened fire on William “Billy” Panas, Jr., 21, during a late night melee in the Port Richmond neighborhood where they both lived.
Police initially said Tepper was...
Retired Officers Raise Questions on Crime Data →
azspot:
In interviews with the criminologists, other retired senior officers cited examples of what the researchers believe was a periodic practice among some precinct commanders and supervisors: checking eBay, other Web sites, catalogs or other sources to find prices for items that had been reported stolen that were lower than the value provided by the crime victim. They would then use the...