News and commentary roundup: through 2/25/22

Media    

• Daniel Nichanian, who previously built and led the Political Report for the Appeal, recently launched his new project: Bolts magazine, which focuses on local electoral politics and democracy, including a wide vertical on criminal justice.

• The New Yorker profiled a new art exhibit at Sing Sing prison hosted by Rehabilitation through the Arts, an organization that brings art into 6 NY state prisons.   

• There’s a new podcast featuring many leading voices in the field called Abolition X, where “Hosts Vic Mensa, Indigo Mateo and Richie Reseda discuss how abolition isn't just about dismantling the prison industrial complex, but that it's also about imagining a world based on community, accountability and healing. In every episode, incarcerated people, organizers and artists address how abolition intersects with different aspects of culture — from housing to hip hop — and leave us with a new vision of how we can treat ourselves and each other outside of revenge and punishment.”

Commentary

• The effort to recall Chesa Boudin stopped being about San Francisco a long time ago, writes Adam Johnson. Right-wing media is obsessed with local San Francisco criminal justice politics, why? Johnson illustrates how SF is a prop in a larger story.

• I much appreciated this commentary on the theft of packages from the train yard in L.A., which as you may recall was spun up into a major national story. Beyond the question of why the thefts (which seem most tied to the company massively cutting its security force), is the question of how we become so comfortable with the tradeoff of lives for property: 

The image of the Lincoln Heights rail hub is a powerful and arresting one, but so is the image of an overcrowded prison, if we care to look. The argument we are being called to accept here says that the vision of train tracks covered in packing and shipping detritus is of more significance than the specter of dozens of men forced to share a single toilet, or prisoners growing old and sick behind bars, living out their days without a minimum standard of medical care. Many people may still accept it, but they should know that it is the choice they’re making, and understand who is asking them to make it.

• Criminologist John Pfaff highlighted the opportunity cost of policing with a 2017 economic analysis, which found that whereas $1 in govt spending could cut crime by $1.60 when spent on police, but $5-30 when spent on other interventions. He makes a great point about how we often fail to ask/answer “compared to what?” questions about criminal legal policies. 

• Professor Dorothy Roberts urges us to consider abolishing the child welfare system, drawing strong parallels to the abuses of the criminal legal system. She advocates a system that provides for people’s needs “without the threat of coercion or violence.”

• I was fascinated to read deep reflections by 5 police abolitionists on the lessons of 2020 and 2021 and what they mean for the future. There are some really interesting recaps of important campaigns in here; I learned a lot by reading it. 

• Bianca Tylek penned an oped for Teen Vogue (one of the best media outlets writing on criminal justice work today) calling for an end to the 13th Amendment’s exception clause, which allows slavery as punishment for a crime.  

• Former Texas governor Rick Perry wrote a glowing op-ed praising criminal justice reform in Oklahoma being led by conservatives. 

Substance abuse is best treated as a health issue, not a criminal one

• The Brookings Institute reported on a new study finding that increasing the number of substance use treatment centers is associated with decreasing violent and property crime.  

• “Oregon has become the first state to acknowledge that it is impossible to treat addiction as a disease and a crime simultaneously,” said Maia Szalvitz about OR’s recent major drug reforms. 

• Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have charged a dealer with supplying the drugs, containing fentanyl, that led to Michael K. Williams’ death. Criminalizing dealers will not work, argues this commentary; the key to harm reduction is ensuring safe supply. 

Violence

• Everyone agrees that gun violence is a big problem. What to do about it? John Pfaff reports on recent analysis from Philadelphia urging the city to focus on gun violence, not the guns themselves; so many illegal guns flow into cities every day, mostly to people who don’t use them, that clamping down on gun possession doesn’t work to reduce violence. He cautions against the NYC approach of putting massive resources into removing guns from the streets, which can make the problem worse. 

• Philadelphia has a strong bench of leaders proposing alternatives. For example: Dorothy Johnson-Speight founded Mothers in Charge after her son was murdered in 2001. In a passionate op-ed, she calls for more sustained funding for community organizations that intervene in and prevent violence.  

• A reminder that the rise in crime over the past two years has specifically been a rise in gun violence, while other crimes are dropping (though there’s a good deal of local variability). 

• The Washington Post did an in-depth investigation on police training academies, where trainers urge police to aggressively resist reforms, while encouraging and glorifying violence. 

• The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics released data for 2020 (there’s always a long delay). Violent crime fell significantly in 2020 by about 20% relative to 2019. 

• Brutal youth detention leads to worse crimes later. The right question to ask is, “will torture solve this problem and prevent harms in the future?” The answer generally is “no.” 

Elections

• The Marshall Project did a great map showing the inverse relationship between how likely a person is to vote for a judge, and how likely a person is to be affected by that judge’s decisions. 

• In a closely-watched Texas Congressional primary in Austin on March 1, progressive Candidate Greg Casar is polling at 42%, nearly 30 points above his next closest competitor. Casar is known for voting to reduce the police budget and for rejecting criminalization and exclusion as acceptable tactics for tackling homelessness. 

• The challenger in the Las Vegas DA race has committed to end use of the death penalty in one of the deadliest jurisdictions in the country.  

Misc

• President Biden nominated former public defender Ketanji Jackson to the Supreme Court; see the LA Times and the Washington Post on her background. Michelle Childs, who Lindsay Graham supported, would have been terrible. 

• I was riveted by James Kilgore’s account of what actually happened in Camden, NJ, which became famous some years ago for disbanding its police force. 

• A Colorado state senator urged readers and fellow electeds to resist succumbing to crime hysteria and instead look at the evidence to develop good solutions.

• The former NYPD union head, Ed Mulljins, has turned himself in to face prosecution for defrauding his union of over $1million. This is the same man who ruthlessly pursued heavy changes and penalties for petty theft by NYC’s poorest residents. 

• Recent research finds a specific relationship between an increase in the rate of incarceration in a community and lowered test scores of children in a community, down to the classroom level. 

• Atlanta magazine reported on what happens to pregnant people in Georgia county jails.

• If you can stomach it, read this detailed investigation of rampant sexual assault by guards at one of the only women’s federal prisons in the U.S., located in Dublin, CA.  

• One Voice put out a report called I Am Not OK, about mental health challenges for correctional officers. Creating a brutal environment in prison harms everyone involved.

• Carlos Saavedra of the Ayni Institute published this insightful post about the seasons of personal leadership. Every time Carlos gives a workshop, people have a big “aha” moment at this part.