Updates on the latest justice news and commentary 6.30.22
Hello everyone, and thank you to new subscribers for joining! I’m writing to share my rundown of the most interesting news and commentary over the past few weeks. There’s a lot to pay attention to right now, so this is your chance to get a concentrated update! Please feel free to comment on big things I may have missed.
Media
The incomparable Dorothy Roberts, an expert on foster care, gave an interview to Truthout about the impact of the Dobbs decision, concluding that it will lead to many more family separations and child disappearances.
I finally got around to listening to the podcast series by messaging expert Anat Shenker-Osorio, Words to Win By, where she covers successful communications campaigns across issues and around the world. The episodes are all about 30 minutes, and provide incredibly useful ideas and tips as well as a lot of hopeful inspiration. I recommend listening to all of them, but if you can’t spare the time for that, definitely check out this episode about the defeat of a measure in Switzerland that would have required deportation of anyone convicted of a crime.
Keri Blakinger, a prominent formerly incarcerated journalist, recently published her memoir, Corrections in Ink. Check out reviews on NYTimes and by incarcerated writer John Lennon.
I recently came across this October, 2021 panel with Angela Davis, Mike Davis, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, three brilliant scholars and leaders speaking on abolition and cultural freedom.
16-year-old Almeer Nance was convicted of first degree murder in Tennessee, even though he didn't kill anyone, and was sentenced to a minimum of 51 years in prison. Josie Duffy reports on Almeer's case, and TN’s wildly harsh laws.
Solutions and Wins
The small city of West Hollywood voted this week to cut the number of Sheriff’s deputies in its contract with the Sheriff’s department from 60 to 55, and use that money instead to fund 30 on-the-street ambassadors to provide helpful, unarmed support to residents. Congratulations to public safety commissioner Nika Soon-Shiong, who has done outstanding work to chase down the real cost that the Sheriff is imposing on West Hollywood (roughly $360,000 per year per deputy) and the corresponding reduction in quality of service. Alec Karakatsanis has a good rundown. For context on the extremely troubled L.A. Sheriff’s Department, see this superb series from last year that delved into the department’s history of deputy gang violence.
Tanya Watkins, the brilliant and energetic leader of Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, was recognized by the MacArthur Foundation as one of the 2022 Leaders for a New Chicago.
Maureen Onyelobi will be the first person to study law while incarcerated through remote classes at an accredited law school.
In my last memo, I wrote about the power of bringing system leaders and others to visit prisons in Europe. A colleague kindly alerted me that 60 Minutes had done a piece on one of these trips – here it is, so you can see for yourself! Imagine what it would be like if we had this in the U.S.
New research shows that keeping young people on welfare past their 18th birthday, rather than forcing them to re enroll as adults under stricter criteria, leads to substantially fewer criminal legal interactions for those young people.
An evaluation of the STAR program in Denver, which assigns mental health responders to an array of cases rather than sending police, reduced reports of less serious crimes by 34% and did not increase major crimes.
Quick notes on the elections in early June, now that we know outcomes:
The NYTimes, which initially reported in rather breathless tones that the Chesa Boudin recall meant the end of reform in California, subsequently updated its view.
Similarly, HuffPo reported that candidates leading with criminal legal reform did quite well in California elections, as did the L.A. Times in a strong editorial.
A candidate leading with reform-oriented policies ousted the incumbent in Maine’s largest county.
Kimberly Graham, a DA who led with a strong reform message, pulled out a strong win in Polk County, Iowa (see also Bolts coverage).
Bottom line on prosecutor elections: over the past 7 years, we’ve progressed from having virtually no strong candidates for leadership (with a handful of exceptions), to many dozens of DAs running and winning races around the country on a message of increasing fairness, reducing incarceration, and investing resources in real safety solutions. We don’t win everything, but the momentum is clear. Put it this way: we went from not being able to run a mile, to being able to run a 7 min mile on a good day, or an 8 min on a bad day. Our goal is 5 minutes. It’s going to take some time, but the experience, resources, and training is bearing fruit.
Commentary and Analysis
Some of the most insightful work on movement theory is being done by brothers Paul and Mark Engler. I’ve linked to their work in the past, but it really is best understood as a body of work. See here for links to several of their fantastic articles, where they explore inside and outside strategies, how movements can win practical reforms, and more.
Law student Dave McKenna penned a really insightful thread on the social construction of crime, wherein wage theft (which robs people of more than all the robberies and petty thefts and burglaries put together every year) is not treated as a crime, for example. Well worth a read.
Ryan Grim published Elephant in the Zoom, which people began sending to me immediately and referring to in every meeting. It speaks about some major challenges that many organizations have undergone in the past few years, where internal critiques have made progress very difficult. Here is a thoughtful response to the piece.
Writing for Wired, Maya Szalavitz urged readers to think about homelessness scientifically, looking at the evidence about causes and solutions, rather than falling prey to tired and wrong conventional wisdom. For example, harm reduction in the form of needle exchanges works to reduce deaths, whereas incarceration for drug crimes causes more deaths and harm. Similarly, “housing first” has a strong evidence base, whereas arresting homeless people and forcing them to undergo treatment does not.
See also this thread citing many data points from different cities to show that while drug use and mental health challenges may contribute to homelessness, the key driver is lack of housing. The solution must be to build more housing, not to criminalize homelessness.
Misc
Bloomberg reports that New York City is much safer than small town America, however you measure it. There are lots of great charts in this one!
Chesa Boudin drew a lot of support from voters of color in San Francisco, whereas the richest, whitest areas of the city opposed him most strongly.
The Wall Street Journal did an excellent article on a rarely covered topic: the epidemic of violence in rural America. This is often ignored because it doesn’t fit a narrative of violence being an “urban” problem.
The Supreme Court issued some especially bad opinions on criminal justice matters. Top 3:
Making a credible claim of innocence is ‘not enough’ to get the right to test evidence to back it up. This guarantees that innocent people will be executed.
They stripped Americans of the power to sue federal agents for violating our constitutional and civil rights.
You no longer must receive warnings (Miranda warnings) to remain silent in the face of police questioning.