The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/viewpoints/)
At least one federal judge has argued that violations of the Brady v. Maryland rule requiring prosecutors to disclose evidence favorable to the defense are “epidemic.” But we should be thinking about how to prevent such miscarriages of justice, rather than just punishing them, writes TCR’s legal columnist.
People who are returning from prison face a gauntlet of challenges. Why do we make things more difficult for them by making them subject to technical violations that have little to do with public safety?
A recent FBI report examining 52 attacks between 1972 and 2015 by individuals acting alone dispels some of the myths about “lone wolf” terrorism in the U.S. But it also offers some important lessons about how to prevent the horrific tragedies they cause, writes a former Air Force intelligence analyst.
Since the tragic 2014 events in Ferguson, there’s been a burst of police reform involving new state laws, new local ordinances, important initiatives by two major state attorneys general, and reforms by progressive police chiefs. But you wouldn’t know it from the stories about shootings and beatings that get play in the media, writes one of the nation’s leading experts in policing.
Release from a long incarceration is only the beginning of an often-traumatic transition to civilian life, even with supporting family and friends. TCR’s (former) prison-based columnist suggests a way to make that transition easier.
Proposals to ban sales of menthol cigarettes are the latest examples of a misplaced focus on creating criminal penalties that waste police time, harm minority communities, and detract law enforcement attention from crimes that actually put people’s safety at risk, say R Street researchers.
The record-setting $1 million-plus judgment last week against a Queens, NY developer who refused to rent to individuals with criminal records was a wake-up call to landlords across the nation who practice such “blanket bans,” writes the CEO of the Fortune Society.
When the juvenile justice system is used as a stand-in for school discipline, the consequences can be dire, writes a former Pennsylvania District Attorney.
It’s difficult to convince gun owners to part with a viable weapon. But if certain types of rounds were outlawed, the most dangerous illicit firearms would soon become paperweights, argues an education writer.
Novelist John Grisham is an outspoken critic of the miscarriages of justice that put innocent people in jail. But his most valuable contribution, from a reformer’s perspective, has been to show the connection between the mistakes made by individuals and the system that nurtures them, says our legal affairs columnist.