If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
For far too long, our approach to developing public policy on issues of crime and punishment has been overly framed by sensationalist imagery.
If Anders Behring Breivik is found to be mentally competent, the toughest sentence Norwegian law can mete out is 21 years, though he may still remain incarcerated if he is deemed to be a danger to society. Breivik may be walking the streets by the time he's 55.
Does our justice system need to accept the harsh reality that wrongful convictions happen all too frequently and that exchanges of Alford pleas for prison release do nothing to serve the ends of justice but rather re-affirm the distrust many have about the fairness of the criminal justice system?
Like most situations involving human beings, the truth in regards to Trayvon Martin's death is neither simple nor obvious.
When individuals return home from incarceration, they rarely return back to the lives they left behind.
While the emergence of veterans courts is an invaluable reform, no state mandates them. It is up to the individual county whether to create a veterans court. This creates a terrible roll of the dice for the veteran.
We are working to change current drug policies from arrest and mass incarceration to therapeutic and restorative policies that will reduce the damage to our communities while improving public safety.
It's hardly a secret that the relationship between African American communities and law enforcement has been fraught with conflict. From the old days of station-house beatings to get a confession to today's "stop and frisk" practices, an awful lot of mistrust has been engendered.
Metal detectors at school entrances make many New York City schools feel more like prisons than places where young people want to be and contribute to the sense that these are not a place where people are respected.
The current system of mass incarceration is stripping away the fundamental rights of a large portion of the population -- mostly people of color -- at a huge cost to taxpayers.
I wonder if McInerney's 21-year sentence is too easy, a way to prop up a failed system and a failed response to crime. I wonder if it's putting a band-aid on our problems when we should be doing a lot more to end violence against our most oppressed.
Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" challenges us to confront the shame of our criminal justice system in the pursuit of real justice.
Nationwide, DNA tests have helped exonerate 280 innocent men and women. Since the first DNA exoneration 22 years ago in 1989, 49 states have passed laws granting inmates the right to test DNA evidence.
On Rikers Island, where some 14,000 inmates await their trials, I prayed, ate and slept over during Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat as the rabbi of a community of 60 or so Jewish inmates.
Potentially several hundred cases have been tainted by the testing procedures used by the Nassau County Crime lab. What is going to happen to the individuals who are currently serving prison sentences based on problematic evidence?
You may remember that three Iowa Supreme Court justices were voted out of office based on targeted attacks about their votes on gay marriage.
Where have all the advertisers gone? In New Orleans,...
