The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/viewpoints/)
After this week’s deadly prison riot at the Lee Correctional Institution, inmate deaths in the state have reached 13 so far this year—already close to last year’s count. It’s a sign that South Carolina’s vaunted justice reforms still leave much to be desired, says a local columnist.
Evidence-based reforms could make them more effective, writes an addiction expert. He offers one example: stop limiting approved medication-assisted treatment to Vivitrol.
Deprivation of liberty is a “last resort” in the German juvenile justice system. Instead, as two US researchers discovered on the last leg of their fact-finding trip in Europe, the priorities are diversion, rehabilitation and minimized interventions for emerging adults under 21 who run afoul of the law.
When police kill unarmed civilians, the path towards accountability begins with prosecutors. Elected to serve their communities as the chief law enforcement official, they have the means and mandate to confront the injustices that arise from systemic racism, writes the director of John Jay’s Institute for Innovation in Prosecution.
Fifty years after the Kerner Commission set in motion a national effort to fix racial inequities in the justice system, a draft strategic plan crafted by the Attorney General threatens to reopen all our old wounds—and perhaps create new ones, say two reform advocates.
Two-thirds of the people who cycle in and out of jails also cycle in and out of hospitals in this resource-starved New Jersey city. The connection led authorities to try an experiment that focused on the needs of individuals poorly served by both systems. Authors of a new report on health and criminal justice tell what happened.
Thanks to a juvenile justice strategy that prioritizes education over incarceration, the tiny Balkan nation holds less than 30 young people behind bars. Two American researchers say the US could profit from a similar approach.
Three inmates whose life sentences were commuted in Washington state separately went on to commit crimes after their release. The incidents should have prodded officials to tackle the structural justice reforms that would prevent them from recurring, writes an inmate in one of the state’s correctional institutions.
The reflex reaction to cops caught lying on the witness stand is punishment. But if we really want to curb “testilying,” we need to look deeper at the systemic factors that make the practice all too common, says a Boston attorney.
Americans’ fascination with the justice system has made shows like “Orange is the New Black” popular. But two new podcasts provide a powerful platform for the voices of those who’ve actually experienced life behind bars.