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The Crime Report talks funding, inertia and over-incarceration with the man who heads Vera Institute of Justice’s NOLA office.
It’s rare for an entire city to get a do-over, but after Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans and the levees gave way, the Crescent City became ground zero for policy makers and visionaries wanting to transform the city’s agencies and social structures.
The Memphis Police Blue CRUSH (Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History) initiative uses a daily analysis of computer data to define crime “hot spots” so supervisors know exactly where to put manpower, Police Director Larry Godwin told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Godwin teamed with University of Memphis criminologist Richard Janikowski to develop Blue CRUSH. Godwin believes the innovative business model has played a key role in reducing crime. He also points to organizational changes, including sending officers deep under cover to infiltrate gangs and drug rings; creating a felony assault unit to investigate shootings, stabbings and severe beatings; and getting officers reliable equipment. (more…)
Mass incarceration policies have taken a heavy toll on American families, neighborhoods and society. In an essay for The Crime Report, in advance of publication of a major American Academy of Arts and Sciences project, Prof. Glenn Loury of Brown University, calls for a profound change.
Over the past four decades, the United States has, by any measure, become a vastly more punitive society. This expansion, and transformation, of U.S. penal institutions—which has taken place at every level of government, and in all regions of the country―is without historical precedent or international parallel.
