Latest criminal justice news, updates, and commentary 4.30.24
Top reads: Private companies were paid at least $100million clearing homeless encampments in CA; the feds are closing a prison after years of sexual assaults by guards, who will keep their jobs at new prisons; predatory prison telecom company Securus is about to go bankrupt; the Supreme Court let stand a 5th Circuit ruling that the organizer of a protest could be held liable for harm at that protest.
Solutions and Wins
Terra Morehead, a long-time Kansas prosecutor who helped police frame an innocent Black man who spent 23 years in prison, including by intimidating a witness into testifying, has finally been held accountable.
A Philadelphia jury has awarded $16 million to James Dennis, who spent 25 years on death row in solitary confinement after police hid evidence that the only eyewitness said he was “definitely not the killer,” and the fact that he had a corroborated alibi. It is the largest wrongful conviction payout in city history.
Securus, the predatory prison telecom company notorious for charging incredibly high rates for phone calls to the families of incarcerated people, is on the verge of bankruptcy. Congratulations to Worth Rises for its years of determined advocacy to hold Securus accountable.
In Philadelphia, a new program will provide weekly cleaning of 335 city blocks with demonstrated histories of gun violence and persistent trash. This program is based on recent academic studies in Philadelphia finding that cleaning and fixing up city blocks is correlated with lower rates of gun violence. While reducing gun violence does not itself lead to reductions in incarceration, it can turn down the temperature on crime media cycles that can stand in the way of policy changes, leaving room for organizers and advocates to press for human rights and justice reforms that will bring more people home from jail and prison.
The federal Bureau of Prisons abruptly and chaotically closed FCI Dublin, referred to as “the rape club,” after years of constant reports of sexual assaults committed by prison staff against incarcerated women. Advocates called for victims to be released rather than transferred.
In all 10 cities with the most 2023 homicides, homicides are plummeting. Here’s word from the ground in New Orleans. When the trends go up, prosecutors and criminal justice reform are instantly blamed. Yet when homicide falls, we don’t see progressive prosecutors and criminal justice reform getting credit, which makes sense, since prosecutors don’t have influence over murder rates either way. Louisiana Governor Landry surely won’t grant it.
The New York Times published an in-depth piece on violence intervention work in Baton Rouge, featuring the work of Aqeela Sherrills.
Politics and Policy
Bolts Magazine reported on the high stakes in upcoming Arizona prosecutor elections in the wake of the recent abortion ban.
There’s a complicated advocacy effort in Los Angeles to prevent the global consulting giant Accenture from angling in on a years-long, community driven process to shift county priorities towards alternatives to incarceration. Civil Rights Corps is challenging the county’s contract with Accenture, which it claims violates county rules. At stake is whether the county will follow through on its commitment to the “Care First, Jails Last” plan.
There’s a recall campaign against D.C. city council members, who are being blamed for increases in crime based on a budget vote a few years ago. In fact, the actual police budget is higher now than it was. Residents are frustrated that people are being arrested and not charged. The prosecutor’s office says the reason it’s declining so many cases is the city’s forensic lab, which apparently can’t process DNA, rape kit, or ballistic evidence. Without that evidence, they often don’t have probable cause to prosecute. But the politics of the issue dumb all this down, so that city council members who didn’t actually cut police spending are blamed for crimes that have nothing to do with police budgets. This is what we get from an incoherent criminal justice system that wasn’t built to produce safety.
Reports and Research
The Marshall Project reported on a new national study finding that people in prison died from COVID at 3.4 times the rate of the free population, with the oldest hit hardest. Please picture over a million people inside of prisons and jails, without agency or information and certainly without PPE, terrified and struggling to protect themselves however they could against death stalking them. In NY state, prisoners were forced to create hand sanitizer but were not allowed to have it themselves. It was a nightmare then and it’s a nightmare now to see this data.
A study found that cutting people from Medicaid in Tennessee caused a nearly 17% jump in crime rates, with particularly strong effects for non-violent crime. Why? “Losing Medicaid induced changes in economic standing, housing stability, healthcare use, and health, all of which are documented to be determinants of crime.” Bolts Magazine interviewed the study author.
The Prison Policy Initiative published a report on state jail data, with policy recommendations. They find that the growth in jails is driven by people held before trial, meaning they haven’t been convicted, but are languishing inside due to high bails and other causes.
The Unlocking Futures project at the Urban Institute is looking at how communities can shift from economic dependence on jails and prisons towards sustainable development, with a particular focus on rural communities. The work is led by Brown University professor John Eason, who was previously an organizer in Chicago.
Researchers have released a working paper tracking private donations to police departments, finding that there’s a ton more flowing in this direction than previously tracked. Thread.
Law Professor Amna Akbar has a new article on social insurgency (aka movements engaged in mass mobilization) and criminal law reform.
Groups in St. Louis issued a report laying out a framework for evaluating prosecutor offices.
Commentary
Former NY parole commissioner Barbara Hanson Treen made a passionate and elegant case for NY to pass two bills allowing people access to parole. She noted that the NY prison population is aging rapidly, and many people who have undergone real transformation are left to languish.
John Legend and Joscelyn Simonson wrote an op-ed decrying Georgia’s attack on bail funds.
Oregon legislators recently approved recriminalization of low-level drug possession, reversing a landmark reform that voters endorsed in 2020. Although critics of that ballot initiative, Measure 110, cited increasing drug-related deaths as a reason to restart criminal penalties, there is no evidence that decriminalization was the cause of that, argues this Reason article.
Rena Karifa-Johnson published a thought-provoking thread on the question of safety, summarized:
We often talk of safety as an entitlement (for rich people) rather than a product of the choices we make as a society. Safety is something we either choose to work towards building for each other, or not. It’s incoherent to implicitly or explicitly support policy choices that breed poverty, violence, trauma, and desperation, while also refusing to support and pay for things like summer youth employment and supportive housing, and then loudly insist that you deserve to feel safe and the government is failing to make you safe. And even more incoherent to then demand more jailing, because safety hasn’t magically been produced.
A commenter on twitter gave a trenchant response to arguments in favor of deploying the national guard in the NYC subway in response to some high profile assaults:
“No one is disputing the attacks that can be literally counted on one hand. What we are saying is that those utterly unconnected and statistically near irrelevant events are receiving a level of coverage that is unquestionably an act of propaganda to achieve far right goals. The narrative is completely at odds with the reality, and the response is completely at odds with things that would actually help: like funding housing and other support systems. The response is also completely at odds with the real danger New Yorkers face daily: deadly drivers. Over 10 times as many cyclists have already been murdered by drivers in our City this year, than the number of subway attacks.”
Wall of Shame
City and State combed through records to find out that NYPD has paid out $1.2billion more in settlements/judgments than previously reported. They also found that of all payouts since 1969, 69% have been from the past 10 years.
The AP reports that nearly 100 people have died after being injected with sedatives by medics at the direction of police during arrest, even if they weren’t a threat to themselves or others.
Not only does Florida charge prisoners $50 a day for their prison bed, but if a person is released before the final release date (for example, with credit for good behavior in prison) or if the sentence is suspended (meaning, not imposed as long as the person complies with certain conditions), they are still charged for the bed throughout the end of their given sentence.
Remember Crystal Mason, who was sentenced to five years with voting illegally because she voted while on supervised release in Texas? The court acquitted her, and the Tarrant County (Ft. Worth) prosecutor is appealing that ruling, saying she should go back to prison.
A New Hampshire police officer was forced to resign after threatening to “kill fellow police officers in a shooting spree.” At the time, he was under investigation for an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old girl. After resigning, he was hired as a prison guard.