the crime report

Senior Associate

Public Safety Performance Project

Pew Center on the States

Nevada

jahorowitz@pewtrusts.org

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Faced with a serious overpopulation of Pennsylvania prisons and the need to ship inmates to other states, legislators may consider easing some harsh sentencing guidelines so that nonviolent offenders aren’t automatically sent to prison for lengthy terms, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. State Rep. Tom Caltagirone, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said judges should be given more latitude in deciding on sentences for minor offenses — leeway they don’t have now due to mandatory sentencing laws approved 10 or 20 years ago in the heyday of “lock ‘em up, throw away the key” thinking. (more…)

Frank Soffen, now 70 years old, has lived more than half his life in prison, and will likely die there.

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Below are copies of three chapters on covering criminal justice,  a special report by Criminal Justice Journalists and the John Jay Center on Media, Crime and Justice:

Part One: Covering Prisons and Jails

Part Two: Covering Sentencing

Part Three: Covering Community Corrections, Probation and Beyond

A total of 96 journalists from seven states were selected as reporting fellows in 2009 to attend special seminars on covering corrections, sentencing and re-entry issues organized by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice,  with support from the Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project. Some 126 senior legislators, academics, practitioners and NGO representatives participated in the panels, which were aimed at helping journalists cover these issues at a time when many states have shown a readiness to consider policy changes that would protect public safety, while applying current research to the challenges of increasingly inequitable and economically unsustainable corrections systems of increasing budget constraints.

You can find links to each of the state seminars below, along with agendas and other materials that may help in further coverage.  In addition,we have posted a sampling of stories from Fellows in each state seminar, and are adding to them as more stories come in.

Pew also sponsored a special national panel on Corrections at the 4th annual Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America on Feb 2-3, 2009. Panelists included  Rep. Terrance D. Carroll, Speaker of  the Colorado House of Representatives; Professor Todd Clear, John Jay College; Adam Gelb, Director, Pew Public Safety Performance Project; Beryl Howell, Commissioner, U.S. Sentencing Commission; Judge Nancy Gertner, Federal Judge, U.S. District Court, Massachusetts.

Below you will also find links to some general resource materials that were made available to reporters at  our seminars. And keep watching this space for news of other seminars, events and research related to this key issue in our criminal justice system.
Conference Pages:

The Future of Sentencing, Corrections and Crime Reduction in Illinois

Covering Sentencing, Corrections and Re-Entry in Nevada

Sentencing, Corrections and Re-Entry: A Comparative Look at Wisconsin and the Nation

The Future of Sentencing, Corrections and Crime Reduction in Florida: A Conversation Between Journalists and Policymakers

Articles by John Jay’s Center on Media, Crime and Justice and Pew Fellows:

“State Gears to Free Prisoners” by Megan Twohey for the Chicago Tribune

“Faster Path to Adult Jail?” by Colleen Jenkins for the St. Petersburg Times

“What We Know and What We Do About Crime” by Mary Ann Lindley for the Tallahassee Democrat

“Editorial: Incarceration Escalation” for the Tallahassee Democrat

“Re-Entry Through the Eyes of an Ex-Offender” by Robert Wildeboer for Chicago Public Radio

“Feds probe DeLand Housing Authority” By PATRICIO G. BALONA for Daytona Beach News Journal Online

“Gov. Quinn Keeping Youth Prisons in the Dark,” by Robert Wildeboer for Chicago Public Radio

“Sheriffs cry foul over proposed laws,” by Patricio G. Balona

Toolkits

The Jail Administrators Toolkit for Reentry A report by The Urban Institute

Resources

Covering Crime and Justice: A Guide for Journalists

Relevant Chapter Breakdown:

Part 1: Covering Prisons and Jail

Part 2: Covering Sentencing

Landmark Supreme Court rulings in 2005 and 2007 gave federal judges more freedom to depart from sentencing guidelines. But this relatively new latitude has caused a thorny problem to creep back into the federal system: Defendants can receive wildly different sentences for similar crimes, reports the Wall Street Journal. One expert says there is “preliminary evidence of greater inconsistencies between judges, who have the freedom to draw upon their own political, policy and punishment values when they make sentencing decisions.” (more…)

A Cornell professor has discovered thousands of errors in criminal sentences handed down in Maryland. Slate reports on the work of Emily Owens, who discovered the errors while conducting dissertation research at the University of Maryland. Owens found thousands of inconsistencies and errors in sentence recommendation worksheets provided to judges by the state sentencing commission. The errors translated into extra months and years of prison time for unlucky convicts and light sentences for lucky ones. (more…)

On Sept. 25 and Sept. 26th, 2009, 22 journalism fellows joined policymakers, advocates, judges and criminal justice practioners for a discussion on sentencing and corrections in Illinois.

Here’s what you can find on this page: resource materials and sources, agendas from this CMCJ conference; multimedia reports and blogs; reporting by Fellows; online forum; podcasts of conference.

Speakers included: Ted Chung, General Counsel, State of Illinois, Michael P. Randle, Director, Illinois Department of Corrections, Michael Jacobson, Director, Vera Institute of Justice, and Leslie Balonick, Senior Vice President, West Care.

Continue the Conversation

Access the full program here.

See a list of panelist contact and biographies here.

Source Materials
Media and Corrections-Memo From Paula Wolff (2 pp)

Illinois Crime Reduction Act-A Strategic Corrections Initiative (7 pp)

Audit of the Illinois State Police Forensic Lab (210 pp)

Stories from Fellows

“Anatomy of a Prison” by Joe Domanick, Los Angeles Magazine

“Benefits outweigh risks of early prison release” by the Chicago Sun-Times

“Prisoner Count: Should US Census tabulations include those incarcerated in the community?” by Jessica Pupovac

“County probation cuts threaten public safety,” by Matt Kiefer, Pioneer Local

“Overworked officers often double as life coaches,” by Matt Kiefer, Pioneer Local

“State funding for probation drying up,” by Matt Kiefer, Pioneer Local

“Editorial: Cuts to probation services endanger public safety,” by Matt Kiefer, Pioneer Local

Podcasts from Conference

Sept. 25

Part 1