Youth Violence Level 'Absolutely Unacceptable," Duncan Says ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The high level of violence involving youth in the United States is "absolutely unacceptable" and must be reduced before it gets worse, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a summit on preventing youth violence yesterday in Washington, D.C.. Duncan, who ran the Chicago public school system before joining the cabinet of President Obama, acknowledged that he had failed to make headway on the problem in Chicago, where "we were losing one child every two weeks," and he lamented the fact that when some young people in his home city talk about their future, they say "if I grow up" rather than "when." A prime purpose of the two-day summit was to provide a forum for six cities--Boston, Detroit, San Jose, Chicago, Memphis, and Salinas, CA., to discuss the various types of programs to fight youth violence that they have developed over the past year in collaboration with federal officials. Today, Attorney General Eric Holder told participants that they are "ending a powerful message - that, in this country, we will not give up on our children. Let me say that again. We will not give up on our children. We will protect them in every way we can." |
Jurors Ignore Judges' Warnings, Use Social Media During Trials ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jurors who've grown accustomed to social networking on smartphones seem unimpressed by judges' admonitions to avoid blogging, texting, and posting on Twitter.com in court and during deliberations, reports California Lawyer magazine. Incidents of willful disobedience--if not juror misconduct--seem to increase by the day. A judge in Michigan fined a juror $250, and ordered her to write an essay on the Sixth Amendment, for saying on her Facebook page-before the defense had presented its case-that she thought the defendant was guilty. Five jurors in the corruption trial of former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon friended one another on Facebook and continued to post comments about their jury service, even after being told not to by the judge. A juror in West Virginia failed to disclose during voir dire that she knew the defendant and had contacted him on MySpace after receiving her jury summons. The state Supreme Court overturned the defendant's fraud conviction, becoming one of the first courts in the nation to base its juror-misconduct ruling on a person's messages to a "friend" on a social networking site. Reuters Legal has reported that jurors' Internet research, blog comments, and tweets have called into question at least 90 verdicts since 1999 |
TX Conservative Voters Favor Drug Treatment for Low Level Offenders ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Texas legislators consider measures promoting cost-effective alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders, the Right on Crime organization issued a survey showing that an "overwhelming majority of Texas voters, including conservatives, support using the budget challenge as an opportunity to downsize our $5 billion corrections system," says Right on Crime's Marc Levin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The Grits for Breakfast blog quotes the survey of 802 registered voters as finding that 68 percent of 68 percent of conservative voters favored policymakers applying the same level of scrutiny to the size and cost of the Texas prison system as to other government programs, 77 percent of conservative voters favored requiring nonviolent, first-time felony offenders to work and pay restitution while on mandatory probation supervision to help close Texas' budget shortfall, and 76 percent of conservatives favor stronger court oversight and mandatory treatment instead of prison for low-level drug possession offenders with no prior felonies. |
High Court to Weigh Jail Strip Searches on Minor Charges ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a jail had the right to strip-search a man mistakenly held for seven days after a routine car stop six years ago in Burlington County, N.J., reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The court agreed to hear the case of Albert Florence, who spent seven nights in two jails in 2005. He was strip-searched at both facilities before a judge confirmed that he had been arrested in error and let him go. "They strip-searched him twice in the most horrific way imaginable," said Florence's attorney, Susan Chana Lask. "At that point, you're just degraded." Florence, a manager of a car-leasing company, is among a large number of people across the U.S. whose controversial strip searches after arrests on minor infractions, have divided the lower courts. While most appellate courts have held that such searches are unconstitutional, four recent decisions have upheld the practice as a way of maintaining prison security |
Planning to Go on a Police-Ridealong? You May See a Shooting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Police officers say the best way for citizens to understand their job is to spend a shift on patrol, but it's dangerous work, as a Glendale, Az., woman found out last month, says the Arizona Republic. Patty Bird, 52, accompanied her daughter-in-law, police Sgt. April Arredondo, on the graveyard shift. She looked on as Arredondo fatally shot a man who got off his motorcycle and fired a weapon at the women. Bird said she had ridden with Arredondo in hopes of getting a better understanding of her job. "There is an inherent risk to riding along because you never know what the next call is going to be," said Detective Frank Mendoza, a Chandler police spokesman. Most police departments require citizens to sign a liability waiver. Some have limited who can participate and what can happen on the ride-along. Phoenix prohibits officers from participating in pursuits with a civilian in the car. Residents on ride-alongs have witnessed police shootings in Jacksonville, Fl., and in Imperial Valley, Ca., in the past two years. |
Cincinnati Police Shootings Have Declined a Decade After Riots ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A decade after a Cincinnati police shooting provoked riots, the Cincinnati Enquirer says things have changed dramatically. In the six years before the riots, 15 men - all African-American - died in confrontations with police. In the last 10 years? Eight, six of them black. Cincinnati officers have been involved in fewer police shootings since 2004 than their counterparts in the larger cities of Cleveland and Columbus as well as Dayton, Toledo, and Akron. The reasons for that decline include everything from technology and training to luck. Cops are still cops, as Chief Tom Streicher said before he retired in March. They're adrenaline junkies who have to think fast in dangerous situations. The 1,068 working in Cincinnati now, he said, are better trained, more carefully watched and more mindful of the power they wield and the effect it can have on people. "There's no one single thing you can point to," Streicher said. "There's an improved approach to how we conduct business and it starts with training. We've continued to ask ourselves: Even if an action is right, is there a better way to do business?" |
"Embarrassing Reversal"--9/11 Trial Shifted to Military Panel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In what McClatchy Newspapers calls an "embarrassing reversal," Attorney General Eric Holder ordered that confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged co-plotters stand trial before a military commission at Guantanamo rather than in a civilian court. Holder blamed the decision on Congress for prohibiting the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S., even for trial. Holder said wanted to try the five in Manhattan or possibly the Otisville Federal Prison, 70 miles northwest of New York, near the Pennsylvania and New Jersey borders. The decision on the trial came one day before the House Judiciary Committee was to hold a hearing on military commissions where relatives of 9/11 victims were expected to hold up pictures of their dead loved ones to protest administration policy. |
GOP: Unprecedented U.S.-Mexico Border Security Isn't Enough ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Along the U.S.-Mexico border, fortification has reached an all-time peak, says the San Diego Union-Tribune. The ranks of Border Patrol agents top 17,600. Nearly 650 miles of additional fencing is up. Four unmanned drones patrol. Twelve hundred National Guard soldiers are on the ground. Camera systems numbering 467 sweep the perimeter and 10,800 ground sensors lie in wait. Given this unprecedented expansion in resources during the past decade, U.S. government officials said the southwest border is the tightest it has ever been. Skeptics and "border security first" supporters are convinced it is still not enough. Congressional Republicans are drafting legislation to further bolster border security - add more customs officers, anti-narcotics teams and surveillance equipment. "No one has described what a secure border looks like. We have no baseline and we have no target," said David Shirk of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. "It's a great example of a moving standard and for the last 20 years, that standard has been moving up with no targets in sight." |
California Innocence Project Finds More Prosecutorial Misconduct ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ California courts last year found that Los Angeles County prosecutors withheld evidence, intentionally misled jurors, or committed other types of misconduct in 31 criminal cases, says an Innocence Project report quoted by the Los Angeles Times. The decisions involved convictions dating back as far as 1984 and were among 102 California cases in which the group found that courts identified prosecutorial misconduct. In 26 of the cases, courts cited the misconduct in decisions to order a new trial, set aside a sentence,or bar evidence, said the Northern California Innocence Project, based at the Santa Clara University School of Law. The study is part of an effort by the Innocence Project to highlight the scope and effects of prosecutorial misconduct, which the group says has led to wrongful convictions and costly retrials. The project has called for greater transparency in how government agencies respond to such cases and has urged the State Bar of California, which investigates claims of attorney wrongdoing, to examine all prosecutorial misconduct findings. Judges are not required to report cases to the bar if they decide the misconduct was harmless. "What we want is scrutiny," said Maurice Possley, a visiting fellow at the Innocence Project. "If they're not getting the cases or looking at the cases, that sends a message that this sort of behavior is tolerated or acceptable." |
Garrido to Admit Dugard Kidnapping, Avoid Trial ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phillip Garrido, the sex offender charged with kidnapping 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard from in 1991 and holding her captive for 18 years, will plead guilty Thursday and spend the rest of his life in prison, says the San Francisco Chronicle. Stephen Tapson, who represents Garrido's wife, Nancy, said that it appears likely she will stand trial. Phillip Garrido, the sex offender charged with kidnapping 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard from in 1991 and holding her captive for 18 years, will plead guilty Thursday and spend the rest of his life in prison, says the San Francisco Chronicle. Stephen Tapson, who represents Garrido's wife, Nancy, said that it appears likely she will stand trial. Tapson said prosecutors and defense attorneysare arguing over the sentence for Phillip Garrido, 59, "whether it will be 500 or 600" years. Michael Cardoza, an ex-prosecutor, said a decision by Garrido to plead guilty would probably be motivated by a desire to keep the details of the case out of news headlines, and by the hope that his plea could help his wife's case. "When he goes off to state prison, he doesn't want all of the information about the case to be fresh in the minds of state prisoners - they, too, watch the news and read the newspapers [ ] and one thing about the hierarchy of the state prison system is real clear: Anything to do with children puts you at the lowest level." |
Indy Postpones Gun Turn-in After Prosecutor Questions Plans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Indianapolis police department is postponing an event that would have allowed people to turn over their guns to police, no questions asked, says the Indianapolis Star. The postponement came after Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry called Indianapolis Public Safety Director Frank Straub to express concerns about the event. Curry said his office didn't like that the police could be collecting -- and destroying -- guns that might have been used in crimes. An email message from a police official said the event was delayed to "address issues concerning forensics and how best to ensure that surrendered firearms were not used in crimes." Experts say these events usually don't appeal to criminals because criminals tend to get rid of guns on their own. |
The Crime Report Wins National Council Award ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ James Ridgeway and Jean Casella received a 2010 Prevention for a Safer Society (PASS) award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for their Feb 18, 2010 article in The Crime Report, "Locking Down the Mentally Ill." (http://www.thecrimereport.org/archive/locking-down-the-mentally-ill ) . The article was one of two online entries to win the nationwide honor. The PASS awards annually recognize the best reportage of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and child welfare systems by print and broadcast journalists, TV news and feature reporters, producers, writers, film-makers and authors. The awards are intended to spotlight stories that "illustrate current realities or the promise of reform, especially those that help people understand the complex causes of crime, and what must be done to prevent and control it," the NCCD said. |
This project is set up to let users post and discuss articles that are involved with Criminal Justice. Everyone is free to post their ideas or opinions.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Articles for 5 April 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment