The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/reforming-the-system/)
Reducing the number of people held in pretrial detention and ensuring public safety are “not mutually exclusive,” Jonathan Lippman, former Chief Judge for the New York Court of Appeals, told a Webinar exploring the impact of New York’s historic bail reform law Wednesday.
What often appear to be racist acts by individuals in our justice structures are in fact reflections of “systemic” bias—and they need to be addressed at the root, writes TCR’s legal affairs columnist. He suggests the recent root-cause analysis of the deaths of two men in police custody in Tucson is an example of how that should be done.
Anyone who has experienced the dehumanizing environment of most U.S. prisons would not be surprised by the high levels of recidivism in our corrections system, says psychiatrist Dr. Christine Montross. In a conversation with TCR about her new book, Dr. Montross argues nothing will change until we treat incarcerated people with “humanity.”
An Urban Institute study of Kentucky’s landmark youth justice reform law passed in 2014 found that nearly nine out of 10 youth completed diversion programs and avoided formal court involvement. Nevertheless, race and ethnic disparities in the diversion programs were “significant and persisted,” and recidivism rates didn’t statistically change.
The algorithm—typically called a “risk assessment,” though city officials prefer “release assessment”—is set to return to use this month in New York City criminal courts after a six-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A representative survey of 4,000 Americans released by the Alliance for Safety and Justice found at least six in ten voters support alternatives to incarceration and early releases instituted since COVID-19. The support crossed party lines and geographic differences.
Despite a rollback of some of its provisions, New York State’s landmark reform of the money bail system has gone a long way towards ending the “criminalization” of poverty, a panel of justice researchers and activists said Wednesday.
Polls show most Americans now support solutions to the ‘broader problems’ of modern policing. A law enforcement scholar examines what a police department committed to fundamental change would look like.
Countless prisoners are held in solitary confinement because they are believed to pose a threat to correctional management. But there are better ways to maintain order than to impose a punishment that causes deep psychological harm, writes a former inmate who spent years enduring the “madness” of administrative segregation.
The state where one of the most egregious recent examples of police use-of-force occurred—the shooting of Jacob Blake—is ahead of other jurisdictions in policing reforms. But critics say Wisconsin still has far to go.