Category: Criminal justice reform

Should reformers jump on the small government bandwagon?

June 3, 2011June 3, 2011 · 2 Comments ·

By Alan Bean

The talking heads say that federal and state governments are hamstrung by the debt crisis. Most criminal justice reformers have decided to make the most of a bad situation. State and federal governments can’t afford to lock up so many people, the argument goes, because there is no money in the bank.

Short-term, this is probably a good strategy. Governments are drowning in debt and mass incarceration is gobbling up an ever-increasing slice of tax revenues. In the long run, however, the “we can’t afford to pay for mass incarceration” arguments won’t work. (more…)

When proof isn’t possible

May 31, 2011 · 4 Comments ·

By Chaka Holley

“Innocent until proven guilty is the old mantra”; but a convicted defendant is “guilty until proven innocent.” James Legate and his wife, Yolanda, are attempting to prove his innocence as he sits behind bars in Texas.

Legate was convicted of the murder of Eddie Garcia, a San Antonio businessman. Garcia, known as the “Bingo King” owned a home-health care business, tons of real estate and managed prize fighters. He is also known for giving a $35,000 bribe to former Congressman Albert Bustamante. The two of them were under FBI investigation. A federal jury found Bustamante guilty of racketeering but Garcia was never indicted. Friends of Garcia have also alluded to Garcia being involved in other illegal practices.

Legate, on the other hand, was the man on trial. His job repossessing cars landed Legate in the middle of a murder scene. It was like a scene from a television crime show. After having drinks at a sports bar, Legate reports going to Garcia’s office in search of Marilyn Maddox, a woman who had recently worked for Garcia and was behind on her car payments. Legate explained that he visited the office in an attempt to repossess her car. (more…)

Texas politicians choose prisons over schools

May 31, 2011 · 1 Comment ·

A recent article in The Economist argues that conservatives can call for criminal justice reform without appearing to be tough on crime. The Lone Star State is held up as a prime example of conservative politicians turning away from mass incarceration:

Texas began tackling these problems in the last decade. In 2003 it started mandating probation rather than prison for first-time offenders caught with less than a gram of hard drugs. Two years later it gave the probation board more money to improve supervision and treatment programmes. In 2007, faced with predictions that it would need over 17,000 new prison beds by 2012, requiring $1.13 billion to build and $1.5 billion to operate, Texas allocated $241m to fund treatment programmes. Since 2003 crime of many kinds has declined in Texas. Between 2007 and 2008, Texas’s incarceration rate fell by 4.5%, while nationally the rate rose slightly. Both juvenile crime and the number of juveniles in state institutions have declined.

Over at Grits for Breakfast, Scott Henson isn’t convinced. (more…)

The Drug War’s Latest Victim

May 26, 2011 · 1 Comment ·

By Alec Goodwin

The War on Drugs has claimed yet another victim: the California prison system.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled in a narrow 5-4 decision that the prisons in California are so overcrowded that it violates the constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment, and that at least 33,000 prisoners must be put somewhere else.

Medical conditions were so bad that an inmate died every week. Mental health services were so poor that suicide was frequent. Quarantines due to virus outbreaks, moldy walls, broken pipes, and human waste smeared over the walls have also been frequent problems. Nowhere else in the entire country are conditions this poor. (more…)

Supreme Court tells California to cut prison population by 33,000

May 24, 2011 · 2 Comments ·

By Alan Bean

A Supreme Court ruling will soon force the state of California to reduce its prison population by at least 33,000. Noting that the state prison system was built for an inmate population of 80,000, the five justices in favor of this move noted that, at one point, the Golden State was housing 160,000 prisoners.

The big question, of course, is how the state will comply with this ruling. Dissenting justices like Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito predict that the streets will run with blood if 33,000 offenders are suddenly returned to the streets. Apparently, conservative justices feel it is okay for California to stack human beings like cord wood. (more…)

“Only a movement built on love”: Michelle Alexander at Riverside Church

May 23, 2011May 24, 2011 · 7 Comments ·

“Now I want to be clear that when I’m talking about love, I’m not just talking about love for people who have committed crimes like we may have committed, crimes that we think are not so bad; I’m talking about the kind of care and love that keeps on loving no matter who you are or what you have done. It’s that kind of love that is needed to build this movement.” (Michelle Alexander)

In the 1920s, with the fundamentalist-modernist controversy raging within his own Northern Baptist Convention, John D. Rockefeller built an architecturally imposing church in the heart of one of New York’s most prestigious neighborhoods, opened it to people of all Christian denominations and called an American Baptist preacher named Harry Emerson Fosdick to be his pastor. Through the years, Riverside Church has become associated with prophetic preaching, dramatic worship and ecumenical mission.

In 1992, Riverside Church adopted a statement of faith proclaiming: “the worship of God, known in Jesus, the Christ, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit … to serve God through word and witness, to treat all human beings as sisters and brothers; and to foster responsible stewardship of God’s creation … The church pledges itself to education, reflection, and action for peace and justice and the realization of the vision of the heavenly banquet where all are loved and blessed.”

This statement of faith nicely captures the conclusion of Michelle Alexander’s address at Riverside this past weekend. Calling for “A great awakening” Alexander re-stated her firm belief that only a new social movement can end mass incarceration in America. As her closing remarks make clear, this movement must be built on a solid moral foundation and, for those of us who follow Jesus, that means taking our Savior at his word. (more…)

The National Parent Caucus; Meeting the Needs of Forgotten Families

May 19, 2011May 19, 2011 · 3 Comments ·

By Grace Bauer

Beginning in 1998, with my son’s first arrest at the age of 12, I embarked on a journey that I was ill equipped to handle. When I gave birth to my children I had high hopes and dreams for them, this arrest and the succeeding problems that lay ahead for him were never apart of those hopes and dreams. I, as most families that find themselves involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, was incredibly naive and made decisions based on what system professionals told me, never considering that it wasn’t their job to help my son. Those decisions set a predictable course, for those with knowledge and understanding, for my son that would leave him emotionally and physically scarred for the rest of his life. I made those decisions without an understanding of what they meant for him or a conception of what it meant to have a “system-involved” child. For the next three years, I walked this path alone in confusion and isolation I sat quietly:

. . . in meetings where professionals talked about my son and didn’t say anything because they presented themselves as the experts and seldom asked me anything

. . . in court rooms in front of a judge without an attorney or advocate because I was told an attorney would only slow down my son getting the help he needed and I believed this lie to be the truth

. . . outside the court house, on the day my son was adjudicated delinquent and sent to a far-off facility because my legs would not carry me away from my baby and I still believed I had done what was right

. . . by the phone for days awaiting a call from the facility to inform me of where my son would be placed and when I would be able to visit

. . . through 2 1/2 hour drives, and then 5 1/2 hour drives, to visit my son in prison, and sometimes be turned away upon arrival because he was in the infirmary or in isolation

. . . in the car on the long drives back home with tears running down my cheeks and my heart in misery, the images of my son’s battered body swirling through my mind, feeling sickened by my powerlessness and stupidity

. . . I sat through a visit with an attorney, nearly 3 months into what I believed would be a 90 day stay in an excellent program, only to be told by the attorney that my son would not be coming home until his 18th birthday and that, when he left that prison, I should buy him a ticket to Angola State Penitentiary because that is where most of these kids ended up

. . . on the phone with one of the first teachers permitted inside the Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth in Northeast Louisiana while she explained she had assessed my son and found him in isolation where he appeared to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

. . . as I heard the diagnosis of my son with severe depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

. . . when the “New York Times” named the Tallulah prison, where my son was housed, “one of the worst in the nation”

But a new day would come when I no longer sat quietly. (more…)

Fox News lacks Common courtesy

May 19, 2011May 19, 2011 · 3 Comments ·

This summer, four college interns will be working at the Arlington office of Friends of Justice. Each week, each intern will write a blog post on a topic of personal interest. Chaka Holley, a student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, arrived in Texas on Monday night and has been hard at work ever since.

By Chaka Holley

“Well I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”

Hip-hop artist, poet and actor Common recites these old-time lyrics in his song “misunderstood”. The lyrics seem fitting now that Common’s creditability, character and personhood are being attacked after First Lady Michelle Obama invited him to perform poetry at a White House event. Fox News and conservatives like Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity have criticized the Obama’s for the inviting a supporter of “cop killers” to the White House. Critics accuse the Obama’s of exercising poor judgment due to Common’s support for Asata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal. (more…)

Narcotics: Attack Capital, Not People

May 11, 2011May 11, 2011 · 1 Comment ·

Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas, believes we should stop arresting scores of low-level drug dealers and start interdicting drug money in high places. This concise form of his unique take on drug policy appeared in the Huffington Post. If you are intrigued by Professor Osler’s thesis but aren’t sure about the details, an in-depth statement of his argument can be found here. Highly recommended.

Narcotics: Attack Capital, Not People

By Mark Osler

The war on drugs is over. Drugs won.

There seem to be two common answers as to what to do next. The political establishment (including the Obama administration) largely supports doing the same things we always have — locking up lots of people who are selling, making or carrying drugs. Meanwhile, increasingly vocal groups of reformers on both the right and left support the legalization of narcotics.

They are all wrong. Supporters of the same tactics we have pursued for decades need to recognize the failure of that enterprise. Many drugs are cheaper, purer, and more widely available now than they were twenty years ago. Legalization proponents, meanwhile, ignore the dire social consequences of narcotics like crack cocaine and methamphetamine (they have a stronger argument in relation to marijuana). There simply is no ignoring the way hard drugs can rip apart the social fabric of a family or community — especially in areas that are already economically vulnerable. (more…)