Justice reflections on crime reporting, Roe, and second chances

Double Standards

I was floored by David Menschel’s observation that serious crime is up 41% over last year since NYC Mayor Adams took office, yet there hasn’t been a single article blaming his excessive policing strategy for this increase. While news articles jump to make correlations between protests and rising crime, or reform DAs and rising crime, we don’t see mainstream news articles  written about punitive strategies causing harm. Of course, correlation isn’t causation, but that’s true in every case. What’s clear is that news editors find it so implausible that punitive policies could drive increases in violence that they aren’t entertaining the kinds of speculative stories that so often try to make links between reform or protest and crime. Ironically, there’s a good amount of research showing the counterproductive impacts of punitive sanctions. But editors would have to believe it to see it. 

Prosecutors after Roe

The leaked Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade has brought a spotlight on the numerous trigger laws around the country and laws under consideration that would criminalize abortion, raising the threat that women and health care providers will be criminally prosecuted for providing care. Emily Galvin Almanza details the criminalization threat in this smart piece for Teen Vogue, saying we need to be ready. Reform prosecutors around the country have responded to these circumstances with strong, vocal commitments to never bring a criminal prosecution under such laws, in line with the values of the communities that elected them. 

This is yet another reminder of how important prosecutors are to all of us, and how they touch issues far outside of “criminal justice,” so to speak. We all should be interested in what the person with the power to enforce state law is doing with that power. Remember that there are a vast number of criminal laws in every state, and the prosecutor has ultimate discretion as to whether to charge a person for any alleged offense. For decades, the trend was for DAs to charge as many people as possible as harshly as possible, whether for political points or in a misguided attempt at building community wellbeing by sending countless people to jail and prison. The reform prosecutor movement has elected dozens of DAs in some of the largest and most significant jurisdictions in the country, who are redirecting the efforts of their offices to more holistic and evidence based solutions.  And these same DAs are going to serve as a bulwark against the criminalization of women after Roe (see also the statement put out by Fair and Just Prosecution, here).

Second Chances

I recently attended the recent Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles, where I spoke on a panel about second chances along with the wonderful Deepti Rohatgi from Slack for Good, Shaka Senghor of TripActions, and Jason Wang of Free World. You can see a video here. Jason Wang shone particularly bright on the panel. His organization Free World runs a 45 day trucker certification program for formerly incarcerated people. The program helps participants get all of their necessary documentation, helps with housing and transportation, and connects people to training sites where they can get their licenses, after which they are linked up with jobs paying ~$100,000 a year. Free World has put 1500 people through their program so far, and aims for 100,000 more in the next 6 years