The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/qa/)
What happens when an ex-cop finds himself caught in a tangled web involving allegations of misconduct and political interference? Former federal prosecutor Caleb Mason explores the angles in a new work of fiction whose resemblance to real-life challenges of the justice system, he tells TCR, is not coincidental.
Marlon Peterson emerged from 10 years in prison with a degree and a conviction that incarceration is an ultimately futile tool of the U.S. justice system. In an interview for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation’s “At the Crossroads” series, he tells writer Greg Berman that punishment alone cannot address the traumas at the root of violent criminal behavior.
Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College, traces the increase in violent crime in New York and other large cities to social disruptions caused by the pandemic. He explains why in an interview launching “At the Crossroads,” a new series sponsored by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
There’s been a 46 percent increase in Freedom of Information requests that have been pending for 48 months or more since 2019, according to the FOIA Project. Things are not likely to change under Joe Biden’s administration, the Project warned.
Many police agencies collect data, but few chiefs actually use the data to inform policing strategies in their communities, says Alejandro Del Carmen, a criminologist who is a veteran police trainer. In a discussion with TCR’s Isidoro Rodriguez about his new book, Del Carmen says the failure to take data seriously has created a climate where excessive force and endemic racism continue to prevail in American policing.
At the age of 14, Christian L. Bolden was a gang member in San Antonio, Tx. Several decades later, he had crossed apparently insurmountable barriers to become a university professor studying gang sociology. In a conversation with TCR about his new book, he discusses how the hurdles have gotten even higher for young men today who are trying to navigate a system bent on punishing, rather than rehabilitating, them.
Why do courts prosecute people for crimes that never happened? The answer, former New York City public defender Jessica Henry says in a conversation with TCR about her new book on U.S. legal practices, lies in the system’s reluctance to correct errors.
Documentary filmmaker Gabriel London speaks with The Crime Report about his recently released project, “The Definition of Insanity,” now streaming on PBS. The film follows participants and the team who carry out the Miami-Dade Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP) in Florida.
While opposition to the death penalty is growing across the country, the justice system is still skewed towards the maximum punishment, Jodie Sinclair says in a new book about her successful 25-year struggle to free her husband from prison. But in a conversation with TCR, she suggests that the huge cost of mass incarceration, together with crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, have improved the climate for reform.
The practice of transferring prisoners to other states was once illegal. Today, it’s practiced by several state corrections systems—and it raises moral and humanitarian questions, particularly in the time of coronavirus, says NYU law professor Emma Kaufman in a Q&A with Journalist’s Resource.