The Marshall Project: The high cost of “tough on crime”
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Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 6:11:13 AM
Subject: The high cost of “tough on crime”
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Opening Statement April 26, 2016 |
| Edited by Andrew Cohen |
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| Opening Statement is our pick of the day’s criminal justice news. Not a subscriber? Sign up. For original reporting from The Marshall Project, visit our website. |
Mass incarceration just isn’t worth the money, concludes a new White House report focused on the economics of criminal justice. Raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour could prevent approximately 500,000 crimes annually, contends the Council of Economic Advisors, while investing $10 billion on police forces (instead of on locking up inmates) could reduce crime by 16 percent. The Washington Post Related: Conservatives come to the White House, preaching the need for a “cost-benefit” analysis to reduce prison populations. MarketWatch More: Watch video of the event. WhiteHouse.gov It’s “National Reentry Week,” the federal government’s push to reduce recidivism rates for those being released from federal and state confinement. Start by making it easier for ex-offenders to obtain state IDs, says Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in a letter sent to the nation’s governors. Associated Press Related: “What I told the Attorney General about my criminal record.” Talk Poverty More: Details on the new individualized reentry plan for each federal inmate who will one day be released back into society. U.S. Department of Justice The Mind Squad. Police departments all over the country are providing better training for line officers on how to avoid, or defuse, potentially deadly confrontations with mentally-ill suspects. Some programs seem to be doing better than others, but one idea now gaining favor is the deployment of small, specialized units, like bomb squads, to respond to calls involving the mentally ill. The New York Times Bearing witness in Florida’s prisons. It’s not just the abuse and neglect so frequently visited on mentally-ill inmates in the Sunshine State. It’s the culture of secrecy that hides that misconduct from the outside world, and the retribution against those who speak out about it. Here’s the story of what happens to the whistleblowers. The New Yorker A shared sentence. Millions of American children wake up every day with at least one parent in prison. A new report chronicles the ways in which that reality harms these sons and daughters, and looks at some of the programs popping up around the country to nurture family relationships when mom or dad is behind bars. The Christian Science Monitor Related: Kentucky has the highest rate of parents in prison. Lexington Herald-Leader More: What that looks like in Michigan, where 10 percent of children have an incarcerated parent. The Detroit News Finally: Read the report. The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Officials in Cleveland, Ohio, agree to pay $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, settling their federal lawsuit over his death in a park in November of 2014. The Plain Dealer Related: The deal, in context. The Atlantic Citing a litany of abuse, the Justice Department asks a federal judge to appoint a receiver to take over the Orleans Parish Jail in Louisiana. The Washington Post Related: Read the very blunt DOJ brief supporting the request. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana Hawaii officials move, quietly, to extend their out-of-state contract with a private prison company, ensuring that more state inmates will be transferred off of the islands. Honolulu Civil Beat TMP context: The prison visit that cost my family $2,370. The Marshall Project The criminal justice community in Ohio is torn by the burgeoning heroin epidemic there. Some prosecutors continue to charge and jail addicts; other officials are trying something new. CBS News/60 Minutes A murder trial in Texas, pitting a son’s testimony against his father, is expected to offer the American jury a glimpse into the world of a Mexican drug cartel. The Wall Street Journal
Criminal Justice Economics, 101. The least the federal government can do is reduce regulatory barriers to employment for the millions of Americans with criminal records. Cato Institute Arizona’s death penalty is at (another) crossroad. “The less you know about the death penalty, the more certain your convictions are, either for or against.” The Arizona Republic Justice should never be measured by the thickness of a defendant’s wallet. On the ease with which traffic court begets a debtors’ prison. By North Carolina Chief District Judge Marcia Morey. The News & Observer Using technology against the poor. A growth industry in the criminal justice system is license-plate reading. A big target for that industry is low-income citizens. The Atlantic Birds of a feather. Mississippi lawmakers to their Alabama counterparts: You can reduce your prison populations by building expensive new prisons. Al.com
Preview of the Day: All day tomorrow, The Marshall Project and Digg will be hosting an online discussion about juvenile justice. It’s the latest in our “Justice Talk” series — here are the details, and a select reading list to get you started. The Marshall Project Obituary of the Day: Max Soffar, one of the longest-serving inmates on Texas’ death row, died of cancer, insisting until the end that he was wrongfully convicted of murder. Texas Monthly TMP context: What if Soffar’s interrogation had been recorded? The Marshall Project Father of the Day: He was charged with a gang-related attempted murder. He had competent counsel. Prosecutors were reasonable. And so, 543 days after he was arrested and sent to jail, he was released. National Association for Public Defense Profile of the Day: Meet Michael Hough, the prison-reformer who is backing Ted Cruz this election season. OZY Related: Meet Stephanie Schendel, the former journalist who became a police officer. The Crime Report Video of the Day: “In an Ideal World,” a film premiering tonight, offers a grim glimpse of life inside California’s Soledad State Prison, where officials are trying to integrate a population that has self-segregated by race. The Atlantic |
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