Incarceration and Crime: A Complex Relationship

Incarceration and Crime: A Complex Relationship
Source: The Sentencing Project
"During the last 30 years of incarceration growth, we have learned a great deal about the financial and social costs and limited effectiveness of incarceration on crime rates. While incarceration is one factor affecting crime rates, its impact is more modest than many proponents suggest, and is increasingly subject to diminishing returns. Increasing incarceration while ignoring more effective approaches will impose a heavy burden upon courts, corrections and communities, while providing a marginal impact on crime. Policymakers should assess these dynamics and adopt balanced crime control policies that provide appropriate resources and support for programming, treatment, and community support."

A 'Crazy-Quilt' of Tiny Pieces: State and Local Administration of American Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws

A 'Crazy Quilt' of Tiny Pieces: State and Local Administration of American Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws
Source: The Sentencing Project
"Drawing on surveys and interviews with a nationwide sample of state and local elections officials, this report confirms that because state disenfranchisement laws and practices are so haphazard, a great deal of responsibility for interpreting and implementing disenfranchisement law remains with county and town elections officials – and concludes that these officials, while conscientious, hardworking, and well-intentioned, often lack the information and resources to implement the law fairly and effectively. Across the country, procedures for implementing disenfranchisement law are fraught with error, excessive variation, uncertainty and outright ignorance."

Death Penalty News

Richard Gere’s Opposition to Capital Punishment
"The famous Buddhist actor believes that this measure robs criminals of the chance to seek redemption."
By Entertainment News Staff
"The PRETTY WOMAN star thinks everyone should be given the chance to atone for their sins. Richard Gere has recently declared he is against capital punishment."

OPEN FORUM: Avoiding ultimate mistake in applying ultimate punishment
By Mark Leno
"San Quentin's execution chamber is gearing up for primetime. Barring any gubernatorial pardons or last-minute reprieves, lethal injections could begin as early as Dec. 13. That's the date chosen for the execution of 51-year-old Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips street gang and Nobel Peace Prize nominee for his redemptive efforts to steer kids away from violence. He maintains his innocence in four 1979 gun deaths."

Embracing a culture of life
The Birmingham News
"These days, the killing is less gruesome. But the tidier dispatching of Death Row inmates cannot mask this truth: It is still taking a life. And it's not just the state of Alabama killing them. It is the state killing them on behalf of all its citizens."

Death penalty moratorium needed
By JIM CARNES
"Regardless of how Alabamians feel about the death penalty, are they willing for the state to kill people by mistake? Because according to a new study by the American Civil Liberties Union and nine other organizations, flaws in our capital justice system place African-American, low-income and disabled Alabamians at risk of wrongful execution."

Alabama's largest newspaper advocates abolishing death penalty
JAY REEVES | Associated Press
"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - With surveys showing about three-quarters of Alabama residents in support of the death penalty and almost 200 inmates on death row, the state's largest newspaper has come out in favor of a radical change: Ending capital punishment."

House could debate Romney death penalty next week
"Romney filed his legislation in April, seeking capital punishment for "very, very rare circumstances," such as terrorism, serial killing and torturing, or murdering police or other public servants."

The People's Business - Republicans itching to discuss the death penalty
By: Todd Dorman, Iowa Newspaper Association
"GOP leaders are itching for an election-year death penalty confrontation with Democrats, hoping the emotional issue will push Republicans into clear control of the Legislature. GOP senators - forced to share power with Democrats in the 25-25 Senate - are especially aggressive."

Death penalty losing favor with public, says WestConn professor
By Karen Ali | THE NEWS-TIMES
"DANBURY — Western Connecticut State University professor Harold Schramm thinks the death penalty is on its way out.
Schramm, a professor of justice and law administration, spent this summer with 19 other scholars at the University of Maryland. They researched the death penalty as part of a program with the National Endowment of the Humanities Institute."

Judiciary News

Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Alito Sees No Wrong in All-White Juries
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
The Supreme Court nominee has a troubling past when it comes to equal rights and race.

No Smoke, No Fire
By Emily Bazelon on jurisprudence
"If I had direct evidence that I'd been denied a promotion because my boss preferred a guy because he was a guy, I might be content to have Judge Samuel Alito review my case on appeal after I'd brought suit. He'd read the record closely. He might even dust off a worthwhile claim that the trial judge had impatiently tossed out below."

Stay Out of My Sock Drawer
The Supreme Court asks if a wife can let the police look for her husband's drugs.
By Dahlia Lithwick
"One of the problems with the overheated debate over the nomination of Samuel Alito is that it invariably leads to a vision of the Supreme Court as madly political and combative, conjuring up images of Antonin Scalia crouched behind the bench with a grenade pin in his mouth, while Stephen Breyer leaps onto a counsel table brandishing an Uzi above his head. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth."

Free Searchable Database of Judge Samuel A. Alito's Published Opinions
askSam provides researchers with free access to a database to search and analyze the published opinions of Supreme Court nominee,...

Prison Reform News

Disabled Prisoner’s Suit Brings ‘States Rights’ Clash
by Brendan Coyne
"Nov 10 - Arguments opened today in a consolidated disability rights case that affords the Supreme Court the opportunity to clear up confusion about who wins when rights claimed by the state conflict with those of the individual. The hearing over the Georgia state prison system’s alleged violations of a federal law protecting disabled people brought administration lawyers together with civil rights groups often highly critical of the White House."

Rights and Liberties: All Alone in the World
By Nell Bernstein, AlterNet
With their parents arressted, these children were left to fend for themselves.

Rights and Liberties: Creating the Next Generation of Criminals
By Kelly Hearn, AlterNet
"Over 2.4 million children are paying for their parents' crimes. In this exclusive interview, Nell Bernstein talks about the illogic of incarceration and how the criminal justice system could be taught to think."

Ramps in the Big House
By Dahlia Lithwick on supreme court dispatches
"It's far too early to call your bookies on this one. But if today's oral argument was a canary in the coal mine of the big "states rights" revolution under Chief Justice John Roberts, I'd guess that the so-called "dignity" of states might finally be less compelling to the justices than the "dignity" of a real-live human being forced to sit for hours in his own excrement."

Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Couples Raising Children in The United States

Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Couples Raising Children in The United States(PDF; 1.2 MB)
The Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law
"This study analyses Census 2000 data about same-sex couples in the United States. The report focuses on data that indicate that: 1. Individuals in same-sex couples depend on each other economically in ways similar to individuals in different-sex couples and 2. Same-sex couples with children are more diverse than married parents and have fewer economic resources."

The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States

Source: Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
"There are at least 2,225 child offenders serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in U.S. prisons for crimes committed before they were age 18. A joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch finds that while serious crimes by youth are decreasing, the percentage of children receiving LWOP sentences is increasing. In 1990, for example, 2,234 children were convicted of murder and 2.9 percent sentenced to life without parole. By 2000, the conviction rate had dropped by nearly 55 percent (1,006), yet the percentage of children receiving LWOP sentences rose by 216 percent (to nine percent)."

Separate and Unequal: Residential Segregation and Estimated Cancer Risks Associated with Ambient Air Toxics in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Separate and Unequal: Residential Segregation and Estimated Cancer Risks Associated with Ambient Air Toxics in U.S. Metropolitan Areas (PDF; 658 KB)
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives
"This study examines links between racial residential segregation and estimated ambient air toxics exposures and their associated cancer risks using modeled concentration estimates from U.S. EPA’s National Air Toxics Assessment. We combined pollutant concentration estimates with potencies to calculate cancer risks by census tract for 309 metro areas in the U.S. This information was combined with SES measures from the 1990 Census. Estimated cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics were highest in tracts located in metro areas that were highly segregated. Disparities between racial/ethnic groups were also wider in more segregated metro areas."

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Prisoners in 2004

"Reports the number of persons in State and Federal prisons at yearend, compares the increase in the prison population during 2004 with that of the previous year, and gives the prison growth rates since 1995. The report also provides the number of male and female prisoners on December 31, 2004. It includes incarceration rates for the States and the 5 highest and 5 lowest jurisdictions for selected characteristics, such as the growth rate, number of prisoners held, and incarceration rates. Tables present data on prison capacities and the use of local jails and privately operated prisons. Estimates are provided on the number of sentenced prisoners by age, gender, race, and Hispanic origin."
Full Report (PDF; 193 KB)

Setting Priorities for Health Disparities

Setting Priorities for Health Disparities (PDF; 712 KB)
Source: Public Health Policy Advisory Board
From press release : "The Public Health Policy Advisory Board (PHPAB) today released a report calling for a better understanding of the underlying reasons for health differences among subpopulations. The report...acknowledges that varying patterns of death and disease are seen in subpopulations defined by age, gender, race or ethnicity, geographic location, education or income, disability, immigration status, and sexual orientation. Often these differences become the basis of demands for social change. The federal government has made the reduction of health disparities a priority."

Drug Policy News

'Tulia': The Case of the Lone Star Witness
By Sara Mosle
"Tulia," Blakeslee's expansion of that coverage, is a devastating critique of Texas' judicial system and the nation's drug laws. But it is foremost a riveting legal thriller about the inspirational men and women - including those in and around Tulia - who refused to let the injustice stand. Atticus Finch, after all, was from a small Southern town, too. And "Tulia," in Blakeslee's rich and deeply satisfying telling, resembles nothing so much as a modern-day "To Kill a Mockingbird" - or would, that is, if the novel were a true story and Atticus had won."

Rethinking the war on drugs
Maryland Herald-Mail
"Crime has apparently become an equal-opportunity activity, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics."
"All of this growth in the correctional system is part of a trend the study's authors say began in the 1990s, when lawmakers added mandatory minimum sentences for illegal drug users."
"A spokesman for The Sentencing Project, which promotes alternatives to prison, said that the number of drug offenders incarcerated nationwide has jumped from 40,000 in 1980 to 450,000 today."
"Another group, the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Policy Institute, noted that the number of inmates as grown even as the nation's crime rate dropped."

Judicial Nomination News

Press Release:
Alito Nomination Quickly Galvanizes Interest Groups on Both Left and Right; Battle Lines Crystallize Earlier Than with Either Roberts or Miers Nominations
To: National Desk, Legal Reporter
Contact: Jesse Rutledge of Justice at Stake, 202-588-9454
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A new study of interest group reactions to this year's Supreme Court nominations shows that today's pick of Judge Samuel Alito may trigger the kind of confirmation battle not seen since Judge Robert Bork was voted down in 1987. The data show many groups announcing their support or opposition in record time -- a certain prelude to unleashing war chests they've been amassing for years.

Alito's nomination sets up bitter fight
Seattle Times, United States - 12 hours ago
... had joined the chorus, including the AFL-CIO, NARAL-Pro Choice America, the Alliance for Justice, MoveOn.org and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Press Release:
Pressured by the Radical Right, Bush Nominates Right Wing Judicial Activist
Statement of Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
"Caving to the will of the radical right, President Bush has nominated a judicial activist with a record hostile to civil rights, individual rights, and the rights of women. If confirmed, Judge Samuel Alito - affectionately called "Scalito" by conservatives - would destroy the delicate balance Sandra Day O'Connor has brought to the Supreme Court and swing the Court far to the right."

Tuesday Alito News Roundup
ACS Blog

Who is Sam Alito?
ACS Blog Profiles Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito

Alabama Prison Crisis

Justice Strategies has released Alabama Prison Crisis, an in-depth report on sentencing and correctional policy,
at a press conference in Montgomery organized by Drug Policy Alliance and The New Bottom Line Campaign

Study backs growing move for sentencing reform for drug offenders
SAMIRA JAFARI | Associated Press
”MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Drug offenses account for about a third of prison admissions in Alabama and addicts are driving prison overcrowding as repeat offenders, according to a recent prison study released Monday.
The report was compiled by analysts at Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Justice Strategies and commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, which has studied Alabama prisons since 2003.”