The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/reforming-the-system/)
Marijuana testing for individuals on probation and parole serves “little public safety purpose” and should be stopped—even in states where pot has still not been legalized, five former New York City probation commissioners said Tuesday in testimony to the New York State Assembly.
Can local justice systems prevent people who shouldn’t be detained from ending up behind bars? Sometimes all it takes is smarter communications, according to a study of an electronic alert system devised by Durham County authorities in North Carolina—one of six case studies released by the Urban Institute on promising reforms underway around the U.S.
“Extralegal violence” against inmates has diminished as prisoners gained standing under U.S. law, but courts, lawmakers and prison administrators have carefully limited civil rights of the incarcerated—ushering in what some advocates call the modern era of hygienic, systematized and lawful cruelty, says a TCR op ed writer.
Most common alternatives to incarceration are failing women and rural communities as they traditionally focus on men and nonrural jurisdictions, but a case study by the Urban Institute examines innovative approaches to meeting the need.
TRUE, a pilot program at a maximum security facility in Connecticut, offers prisoners a path back to normalcy, with educational programs and schedules they help devise. It’s one of several innovative experiments in changing correctional practices that reformers hope will change the face of U.S. prisons.
Brett Kavanaugh began his Supreme Court tenure by announcing the hiring of four female law clerks. But that doesn’t address the elitism which undermines how we pick the people who staff the nation’s highest court. TCR columnist James Doyle offers a different solution.
The Vera Institute of Justice calls for “a new and fundamentally different approach to incarceration” that prioritizes respect for human dignity in a groundbreaking report that recommends radical changes to U.S. correctional practices and prison design.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says he will move a criminal justice reform compromise bill after the Nov. 6 election if it has 60 votes, which seems likely. He has resisted a pre-election vote on the measure, a priority of President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
A new program that provides opioid-dependent inmates with small drug doses to help ease their withdrawal when they leave prison shows promising results in Philadelphia. So why do so many U.S. corrections authorities resist medication-assisted treatment?
The controversy over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination has focused attention on its potential impact on the Court’s legitimacy, but similar questions about the legitimacy of lower courts also need to be addressed, says the Center for Court Innovation (CCI).