The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/reforming-the-system/)
Like negotiations with an enemy in war, negotiations in a criminal case seek to avoid unpredictable outcomes. The plea bargaining system too often fails that test, writes the chief policy adviser for the Council on Criminal Justice.
Although everyone grasps in a general way that “stuff happens” in the U.S. criminal justice system, what most Americans don’t see is that once things do go wrong there is an elaborate architecture in place to guarantee that things will stay wrong.
Physical and mental abuse should not be part of a prison sentence, even for prisoners whose crimes are heinous, writes an attorney and advocate for prison reform.
Two scholars argue that restraining incarcerated pregnant women poses health and development risks to both mothers and babies.
The former president’s “irregular and undemocratic” use of pardons offers both a warning and an object lesson for future presidents, according to Margaret Love, former U.S. Pardon Attorney. A series of panels exploring reforms to the system began Tuesday.
Over this summer, New Jersey was able to successfully dismiss and expunge 362,000 low-level marijuana cases, allowing thousands of people a chance at starting fresh with a clean record. Advocates say there could be an additional 150,000 cases expunged soon.
Ordinary Americans are virtually absent from roles of power and influence in all of our justice systems. That’s too often overlooked in reform conversations, says TCR’s legal affairs columnist.
A federal consent decree requires Baltimore police to end a pattern of racial profiling and excessive force. But it has also complicated efforts to recruit new officers who could make the reforms achievable.
Lengthy appeals and the growing number of states that are refusing to impose the death penalty have turned the nation’s death rows into high-cost senior citizens facilities ― with many of the inmates suffering from dementia or other serious illness.
Following OnlyFans’ controversial reversal of their ban on “sexually explicit content” from the platform, advocates argue that the seemingly unchecked platform is furthering the exploitation of featured individuals.