Latest criminal justice news, updates, and commentary 2.27.24

Top reads/listens: Women are the reentry system of America (featuring Essie Justice Group); counties that watch more Fox News elect more punitive judges; SCOTUS on the verge of criminalizing homelessness, which would open the way to forcing people who can’t afford housing into mass detention camps.   

Get Smart on 

• Participatory defense, an innovative, low-overhead, impactful program equipping families to help their loved ones in the criminal justice system; 

• How to win an argument against jail construction; 

• Why cities are outlawing the police use of ShotSpotter, a surveillance tool riddled with errors;     

• How base building is a key strategy for ending mass incarceration. 

Media

• The Close Rikers campaign launched this ad during the NYC Mayor’s State of the City speech. 

• Alameda (Oakland) DA Pam Price spoke on air with KQED about the forces behind her recall and her vision for the office. 

• Committable is a podcast about involuntary commitments. In their latest episode, they speak with experts on the ground about the nefarious expansion of ‘CARE’ courts in California. 

• The “End the Exception” campaign is working to remove the exception from the 13th Amendment to the constitution that permits slavery for people who have been convicted of a crime. Here’s their production of ‘the most famous speech never given’ by President Lincoln. Fast Company has some good background on this production. 

 Solutions and Wins

• The Justice Department is proposing a new rule for states allocating federal crime victim compensation fund money, after an AP investigation last year found that Black victims were far more likely to be denied funds. The new rules would strictly limit the discretion of states to deny claims. Congratulations to the Alliance for Safety and Justice for their work on this!

• Jason Hernandez, whose decades-long federal drug conviction was commuted after 17 years, has taken over the neighborhood store outside of Dallas where he first sold drugs and turned it into a market and educational center called La Tiendita.  

• Chicago's Mayor fulfilled his campaign promise not to renew the city’s controversial $49 million ShotSpotter contract.  The gunshot detection system is linked to overpolicing in communities of color and, contrary to marketing, very susceptible to human error. Research noted by the Arnold Foundation’s executive vice president of criminal justice and further summarized in The Trace shows that ShotSpotter is a net negative and its supposed benefits aren’t backed up by evidence. 

• Bolts has a great story on the recent landmark ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court banning the use of life without the possibility of parole sentences for children up to the age of 21 (previously the ceiling was 18). Bolts tracks the trends around the country that are opening the way to considering redemption for many more people. 

• New data shows that Larry Krasner’s diversion program is working. 

Politics 

• The NY Working Families Party is calling out Mayor Adams for using a fight in Times Square between migrants and police to score “cheap political points.” In fact, the police lied – they are the ones who started the fight. The Mayor has claimed there is a “crime wave” - there’s no evidence of that. Indeed, research shows that immigrants commit less crime than others.    

• The Atlanta city government is requiring signature matching on ballot petitions in order to prevent a public vote on whether to build ‘cop city’, the deeply unpopular urban warfare police training complex. Meanwhile, churches and nonprofits have become ensnared in the state’s effort to destroy the ability to bail people out of jail, and the FBI and Georgia police conducted ‘SWAT’-style raids on activists’ homes. This is a pretty scary escalation of repressive tactics. 

• The Houston Chronicle has endorsed Sean Teare to replace Kim Ogg for prosecutor in the March primary. This is a big one to watch! Relatedly, Bolts Magazine has a thorough rundown on Texas criminal justice primaries coming up in March. 

• Sadly, the Chicago Tribune has endorsed Eileen Burke for Cook County DA (Kim Foxx is not running for reelection). Burke is known for relentlessly pursuing charges against an innocent child whose confession was coerced. She has, however, learned to speak the language of reform.

Commentary and Analysis

• Richard Wallace wrote for the Non Profit Quarterly on the need for reparations for the deep and lasting harms caused by the drug war. 

• Shira Hassan’s in-depth essay refines language used by abolitionist activists and organizers. 

• Richie Reseda in Forbes describes what businesses can learn from people who’ve been to prison. 

Research

• I missed this article from last year: research found that counties where Fox news has a lower channel number (leading to more viewers) tend to elect judges who impose harsher sentences. 

• A recent paper from Harvard finds that electing Democrats as mayors has no effect on crime one way or the other, but “decreases the Black share of arrests by a modest amount.” Also, check out the lead author’s research agenda - lots of interesting work there!

• The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition produced what I believe to be the first ever survey of people in prison to assess the impacts of low staff to prisoner ratios; there’s currently a 20% vacancy rate on the staff, and 25% of the staff are on the verge of retirement. Yet the state is considering sending even more people to prison with increased penalties. Here’s a chart from the report, showing how the people who could help ensure successful reentry are being reassigned and overworked: