by Kelsie Paige. Voters may room in prison for the violent. California just voted to release all their drug prisoners and will no longer allow felony convictions for drugs! Wow and Wow! Peace, Love and NeverGetBusted. California approved a major shift against mass incarceration on Tuesday in a vote that could lead to the ... MORE
Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts
The Messy Politics of California's Overcrowded Prison Crisis
by Zach Weissmueller. "A prison that deprives prisoners of basic sustenance, including
adequate medical care, is incompatible with the concept of human
dignity and has no place in civilized society," wrote Justice
Anthony Kennedy for the majority in a Supreme Court ruling against
Governor Jerry Brown and the state of California in the ... MORE
Jeff Mizanskey Is Serving Life in Prison for Marijuana
by Aaron Malin. Rapists and murderers come and go, but he's there for the duration. As I prepared to leave home for my interview with Jeff Mizanskey I looked up the address of the prison where he is held. In disbelief, I typed the characters into the GPS on my phone: 8200 No More Victims Road. Jeff Mizanskey is serving a life sentence without ... MORE
Barry Farber: Little Boy, Big Flash
In praise of the life-saving bomb. A recent study revealed that over 98 percent of 3-year-olds believe the reason there’s glass on television sets is to keep the people from falling out! Is there a comparably grotesque absurdity among grown-ups? The answer is Yes, and it comes to mind every August when the anniversary of the ... MORE
Jacob Sullum: Why Prosecutors Love Mandatory Minimums
Prosecutorial power hinders justice process. In 1996, when he was the U.S. attorney for the District of
Columbia, Eric Holder urged the D.C.
Council to reinstate mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent
drug offenses, which it had abolished in
1994. Two decades later, as an attorney general who has repeatedly
criticized "draconian" ... MORE
The Shocking Way That Some Prisons Are Kept Full
by Brandon Weber. Crony capitalism hits a new low. Let's see: Privatize prisons so companies make profits on them, create a financial penalty for the state or city they're located in if they don't keep them full, and bribe members of Congress to keep the system humming ... hmmm, can't possibly see how this could go wrong! ... MORE
Labels:
crony capitalism,
incarceration,
incentives,
law enforcement,
police state,
politics,
prison
Greg Young: Legally, The Police Do Not Have To Protect You – But You Will Go To Jail For Not Assisting Them
Public servants or public masters? Just a little while ago, there was a video going around that showed an officer being beaten by a citizen in a fight. The police chief said he was disappointed and surprised that people stood by and let it happen. On the other hand, the video of the guy (who was severely injured) that stopped a knife-wielding ... MORE
Steve Silverman: 8 Jury Nullification Objections Rebutted
You can't exercise your rights unless you know them. A recent Chicago Tribune editorial targets a new fully informed jury bill introduced by the New Hampshire House of Representatives. The bill would strengthen the current state law passed in 2012 that allows lawyers “to inform the jury of its right to judge the facts and the ... MORE
Labels:
due process,
individual liberty,
jury nullification,
justice,
law,
prison,
rights,
victimless crimes
Paul Bonneau: Evil Rationalizations For Good People
Why is it that evil proliferates? What mechanism keeps it going? Who is to blame? Why are there so many wars and occupations? Why such huge amounts of theft (“taxes”, fines, fees and “civil forfeiture”)? Why are so many nonviolent people in jail? What keeps the “War on Some Drugs” going? Why does the police state expand and expand? ... MORE
London Economists Slam The War On Drugs
New report details futility of drug war. In an 81-page report released Monday evening, the best and brightest minds in the economic drug policy world send the United Nations a loaded message about the drug war: Enough. The individual analyses of the economists and drug policy experts, signed by five Nobel Prize winners in economics, ... MORE
Christopher West: Lincoln Sucked At Ending Slavery
The exception to the 13th Amendment. Death row inmate Ray Jasper, who has never used the internet, wrote an article that went viral. Part of his appeal is that he made it sound like he was innocent. Not true, it turns out he slit a man’s throat. But what stuck out to me, was his description of the prison system. First off, he was the only black ... MORE
Labels:
Blacks,
drug war,
government,
incarceration,
penalties,
police,
prison,
prohibition,
race,
slavery
Robert P. Murphy: Economist Debate The Minimum Wage
Why wage regulation hurts low-skill workers. Economists famously argue about everything. Even so, it used to be that economists across the board—whether left, right, or center—generally agreed that the minimum wage was ill-suited to help the poor. As we still teach introductory students in Econ 101, a price floor on low-skilled ... MORE
States Consider A More Libertarian Approach To Crime
by Steven Greenhut. Leaders in the nation’s two most populous states have waged a rhetorical grudge match over their respective political approaches. In California, dominant Democrats are proud of their efforts to pioneer social and environmental policy. In Texas, majority Republicans boast about their commitment to business ... MORE
Labels:
business,
California,
government,
incarceration,
justice,
libertarian,
prison,
Rick Perry,
Texas
Federal Prison Population Grows 27% In Ten Years
Who says government fails to stimulate growth? The number of federal prison inmates has grown 27 percent in the last decade, according the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In a report examining the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) budget, the GAO found that prison population is rising: The Department of Justice’s ... MORE
Humberto Fontova: Caveat On Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela's commitment to liberty. A Martian visiting earth this week, coasting TV channels and perusing papers, would have to conclude that among the items that most interest this planet’s news bureaus is the plight of former political prisoners, especially black ones. Well, many Cubans (many of them black) suffered longer and ... MORE
Labels:
Africa,
Blacks,
communism,
Cuba,
incarceration,
media bias,
politics,
prison,
racism,
tyranny
Jacob Sullum: The Punishment Is The Crime
Thousands serve life sentence for nonviolent offenses. Nine years ago, Ronald Washington swiped two Michael Jordan jerseys from a Foot Locker in Shreveport, Louisiana. Although the shirts were on sale for $45 each, they were officially priced at $60, putting their combined value above $100. The difference between the discounted price and ... MORE
3,278 Inmates Serving Life For Nonviolent Offenses
by Jess Remington. The ACLU released a new
report this week examining the growing trend of judges
sentencing nonviolent offenders to life in prison without parole.
The ACLU found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the War on Drugs,
mandatory minimums, and “tough-on-crime” policies are to blame. The report,
A Living Death: A Life Without Parole ... MORE
Radley Balko: This Week In Innocence
Bad cop costs men 17 years in prison. Two Washington state men will get $10.5 million after spending 17 years in prison for a rape they didn't commit. It's easy to dismiss these exoneration stories as the product of an
imperfect system that sometimes makes mistakes. But read past the
headline, and you'll see that they're often less the ... MORE
Labels:
abuse,
deception,
DNA,
government,
justice,
law enforcement,
police,
prison,
prosecute,
SWAT
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