Showing posts with label punishment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punishment. Show all posts

Supreme Court Decision Signals "Post-Constitution Era"

A chilling effect on investigative reporting.         Pulitzer prize winning reporter Chris Hedges – along with journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, activist Tangerine Bolen and others – sued the government to join the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans. The trial judge in the      ... MORE

John Stossel: Offensive Speech

We need more speech, not less.   Last week, when the NBA banned racist team owner Donald Sterling, some said: "What about free speech? Can't a guy say what he thinks anymore?" The answer: yes, you can. But the free market may punish you. In America today, the market punishes racists aggressively. This punishment is not "censorship."        ... 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

The Electric Chair Could Return In Louisiana

by Michelle Millhollon.     Twenty-three years after the state retired Gruesome Gertie and switched to lethal injection for executions, the electric chair could make a comeback in Louisiana. States are scrambling for death penalty alternatives because of a clampdown on the availability of deadly drugs for executions. Old-time tools that were      ... MORE

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

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

Jacob Sullum: The Injustice Of Mandatory Drug Minimums

Rand Paul is right.           Toward the end of a hearing at which the Senate Judiciary Committee heard about the jaw-dropping injustices caused by mandatory minimum sentences, John Cornyn sounded a note of caution. “We have to be careful not to legislate by anecdote,” said the Republican senator from Texas. Why start now? Congress       ... MORE

Supreme Court Frees 2,837 Convicted Alien Sex Offenders

by Alissa Tabirian.      Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released 2,837 convicted criminal alien sex offenders back into American communities in order to comply with a Supreme Court decision authored by Clinton-appointed Justice Stephen Breyer, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The 2,837 sex   ... MORE

Sen. Rand Paul: The Madness Of Mandatory Minimums

Lives needlessly ruined by rigid sentencing.         I applaud President Obama’s recognition that mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders needs to end. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s announcement Monday to change federal drug-sentencing policy hopefully signaled a significant shift toward justice in         ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Barack, The Unmerciful Drug Warrior?

Why doesn't Obama pardon more drug offenders?         This week Eric Holder said something that critics of our criminal justice system have been saying for decades but no other U.S. attorney general has managed to say while still in office. “Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement    ... MORE

David Harsanyi: Liberals Vs. Imaginary Monsters

A noble fight against evil?   New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently informed us that a national movement is afoot "to punish the unemployed." Remarkably, he went on to write, conservatives think the world is far too easy on those who can't find work, so they're on a mission to make it worse. The right, you see, is not just perpetuating    ... MORE

Political Correctness Costs Big Brother Contestant Her Job

Modeling agency decides free speech good only in theory. A Texas modeling agency is dropping a Big Brother 15 contestant as a client after she spewed racist and homophobic comments on the show’s 24/7 feed. Zephyr Talent of Austin, TX announced on its Facebook page that it will release Aaryn Gries, 22, from her contract after she was   ... MORE

Teacher Faces Discipline For Informing Students Of Rights

by Jacob Sullum.     A high school social studies teacher in Batavia, Illinois, faces disciplinary action for informing students of their Fifth Amendment rights in connection with a survey asking about illegal drug use. The survey, ostensibly aimed at assessing the needs of students at Batavia High School, was distributed on April 18. After picking up  ... MORE