The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/reforming-the-system/)
Four inmates have committed suicide so far this year in Alabama state prisons—three of them in solitary confinement units. Prisoner advocates say it reflects the failure of state corrections officials to improve conditions in solitary, and the system’s inadequate treatment of mentally ill inmates.
Training cops to avoid excessive use-of-force is only part of the challenge. The hardest part is learning a different mindset about policing—in the face of society expectations and peer pressure, experts and senior officers tell TCR.
Incarceration is not an effective solution for cities faced with the challenge of homelessness, 250 of the nation’s top chiefs and sheriffs concluded in a recent conference. In a report on the conference, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) offers 11 recommendations for change.
Local jails have become critical drivers for the growth in U.S. prison populations, says a study released Thursday by the Vera Institute of Justice. Reversing that trend is now one of the nation’s biggest challenges, say the study authors.
Could low-cost, multipronged testing of innovative ideas—a strategy that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has used with stellar success—fix our justice system? NYU Prof. Angela Hawken has pioneered a public policy app that, she tells the “New Thinking” podcast, will prove it can.
Although the US prison population has begun to decline, researcher Malcolm C. Young says the rate of decrease is so low that the goal of prison reformers to cut prison populations by half would unlikely be reached until 2068.
A new data tool called Raheem.AI that enables community residents to monitor and report police conduct anonymously and in real time will soon get its first tryout in Oakland, Ca. Developer Brandon Anderson believes it can save lives.
Some 28 ICE detainees have died in US custody since 2016. A Colorado complaint argues the government has done little to improve the ‘substandard’ levels of medical and mental health care.
Every dollar invested in correctional education reduces future criminal justice costs by five dollars. But despite studies bearing this out, policymakers hesitate even to revive programs that were scrapped in the tough-on-crime era, says a leading prison reformer.
Prison is often just a stop along the road for individuals who have been struggling with victimization all their lives, says Bruce Western, author of a new book exploring returning inmates’ experiences. That’s why the justice system should rethink its approach to who it punishes—and how—he argued during a talk in New York Thursday.