Recent Blog Posts
When Doing The Crime Leads To Paying The Fine For Juveniles
When you do the crime you gotta pay the fine. Makes sense, right? After all, when teens get caught up in illegal activities, they often result in costly outcomes that impact victims. It’s only fair to expect those juveniles to pay up and reduce the burden on their victims, right? Unfortunately, as logical as… Read More »
Problems With Federal Prisons’ Decision To Scan Personal Mail
When someone is sent to prison, it’s because they’ve been found guilty of a crime and it’s been determined that they owe a debt to society. Prisoners endure many restrictions and supervision—and rightly so. But at what point does prisoner surveillance go too far? We may be finding out in federal prisons. Introducing MailGuard… Read More »
Running To Your Death
The numbers tell the story: it is never a good idea to try to flee from the police. That’s because about one out of every three fatal police shootings involve individuals who were trying to evade an arrest. Surely, an arrest would be a better outcome than a shot in the back. When is… Read More »
Mental Health Issues Impacting Justice
Prisons and jails across the country are filled with individuals who suffer from mental health issues. That’s right, over half of individuals in prisons and more than two-thirds of those in jails suffer from mental health problems. Is there a better way? What We Know According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) incarcerated… Read More »
The Miscarriage Of Justice Is Real: Consider These Cases
Finding justice in America can be difficult. Although some may believe the miscarriage of justice in this country ended with the Salem witch trials or mob lynchings in early America, the facts prove otherwise. In a system filled with humans, some lazy, some corrupt, some naïve, and some simply prone to errors—the opportunities for… Read More »
When Veterans Experience Police Interactions
Veterans of any war have sacrificed everything to protect America. Yet after being deployed once, twice, or even many more times, they come home facing multiple hurdles in rebuilding their lives. One of those hurdles is a bit of a surprise to some: military veterans are arrested at higher rates than other Americans. Why… Read More »
Defending Charges Of Defamation
It was a riveting case: Amber Heard had written and published an article about having survived the abuse of an unnamed individual. Having recently been married to Johnny Depp, it wasn’t difficult for some people to connect the dots. Depp immediately sued for defamation, asking for $50 million in damages. His claim was that… Read More »
The “Debt To Prison” Pipeline
A debtor’s prison is fictional these days, right? Something from older, crueler times that we did away with long ago in this country? While that’s what many Americans may believe, the truth is that people in the United States face prison due to unpaid debt at alarming rates today, in the enlightened era of… Read More »
The Criminal Legal System Is Less Than Just When It Comes To Black People
In discussion of reforms to the criminal “justice” system, the tendency to insert the word “legal” in place of “justice” is becoming more and more common. The reasons are pretty clear: justice is often lacking in the legal system that handles criminal matters. Case in point: Black people. A Little History… When one considers… Read More »
Urban Alchemy: A Way To Transform Troubled Communities
Every urban city has certain areas that are generally known to be worth avoiding. Police do occasional sweeps, moving homeless people out temporarily, making arrests for vagrancy, public intoxication, and sometimes more violent crimes. San Francisco and other cities are taking a new approach to helping fractured communities heal and grow. It involves nearly… Read More »
