Search Results: courts (4557)

Arkansas Lawmakers and judges gathered this week to celebrate specialty courts and kick off National Specialty Court Month, Will Langhorne reports for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Arkansas has specialty courts geared towards specific affinities, including veterans, intoxicated drivers, children with substance use disorders and people with mental health disorders.

Regular TCR viewpoints contributor Billy Sinclair recounts his over 40 years in the Louisiana penal system, including time in solitary confinement and discusses the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to decline a review of the use of solitary confinement in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Sinclair shares his personal experiences in solitary confinement and on death row, and the deplorable conditions Sinclair and other inmates faced.

Regular Columnist James M. Doyle highlights the recent exoneration of ten men in Massachusetts, most of whom were wrongfully convicted in Suffolk County and are Black. Doyle argues that wrongful convictions are not just caused by individual “bad apples,” but by systemic failures at every level of the criminal justice system. Doyle questions whether state appellate courts, such as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, are interested in learning from these wrongful convictions, and argues that relying on end-of-process inspection for safety is doomed to failure.

California’s drug courts’ participation decreased statewide by 67 percent between 2014 and 2018. In contrast, a Pennsylvania program offering treatment instead of charges for drug offenses is gaining traction.