by TChris

As TalkLeft reported last year, the Justice Dept. was unenthusiastic about the ABA's Kennedy Commission, created in response to Justice Kennedy's criticism of the excessive reliance on incarceration as a solution to society's problems. The Justice Dept. is just as likely to spurn the Commission's recent conclusions and recommendations.

The primary conclusion should be obvious, although John Ashcroft is sure to disagree with it: "America's criminal justice systems rely too heavily on incarceration and need to consider more effective alternatives." The recommendations (summarized here - pdf) include:

• Restoring proportionality by reserving lengthy sentences for people who do serious harm; repealing mandatory minimum sentences; giving judges the power to tailor sentences to the individual circumstances of the offender and the offense; permitting appellate review of excessive sentences; and developing effective alternatives to incarceration.

• Requiring courts and law enforcement authorities to make greater efforts to eliminate racial disparities in arrests, prosecutions and sentences.

• Expanding opportunities for sentence reductions and for relief from the collateral consequences of a conviction after a sentence ends (such as the restoration of legal rights).

• Assuring that prisons are safe and professionally managed, and eliminating barriers to a prisoner's successful reentry to society.

The full report is available on the Commission's website.

by TChris

The NY Times reports that the FBI is still struggling to implement a long-awaited case management system. (TalkLeft called attention to the GAO's criticism of the project here.)

The Virtual Case File system, which would allow agents to share information easily — a critical shortcoming of the present system — is already two years behind schedule and one bureau official who spoke on condition of anonymity went so far as to suggest that the program might ultimately have to be abandoned.

The system was promised to be operational before the end of this year. Now the plan is to phase it in over an undetermined period of time, adding new capabilities after core functions are shown to work well.

The FBI's current system was already obsolete by the time it was installed. The agency may be repeating that mistake with the slow rollout of the unproven VCF system.

The Washington Post today reports on the many religious demoninations suppporting the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The United Methodist Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ have made statements supporting the controlled use of marijuana for medical reasons.

"According to our tradition, a physician is obligated to heal the sick," begins a resolution adopted in November by the Union for Reform Judaism. The statement acknowledges the medical use of marijuana as a 5,000-year-old tradition and encourages the federal government to change marijuana's status from a prohibited substance to a prescription drug.

The Bush Administration, the Justice Department and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy remain adamantly opposed. Your vote in November could make a difference on this issue, as John Kerry has a far more progressive view on the issue.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released the following reports, testimony, and correspondence:

First Report: US Attorneys: Performance-Based Initiatives are Evolving. GAO-04-422, May 28. Highlights are here.

Second Report: Survey of Supervisors at U.S. Attorneys' Offices. GAO-04-616SP, May 28

by TChris

Connecticut's Public Safety Commissioner wants to install cameras on I-95 to photograph the license plates of speeders, who would then be mailed tickets. But will that make the interstate a safer place to drive? The British experience has produced ambiguous results. In some locations near speed cameras, accident rates seem to have increased as drivers catching sight of a camera slam on their brakes.

The real motivation for the speed cameras may be to increase revenue from traffic tickets without hiring more police to catch speeders. That explains the concurrent proposal to have specialized traffic courts that won't give tickets the low priority that the Public Safety Commissioner thinks they now receive. But more courts cost more money, and you can be sure that more tickets will be contested if no witness can confirm who was driving the speeding car.

by TChris

A few days ago, TalkLeft called attention to a NY Times editorial favoring laws that require the police to videotape interrogations. The editorial cited a study (pdf) demonstrating that recording custodial confessions benefits the police and prosecution while helping to protect the accused from coercive interrogation tactics that produce false confessions. That's why, according to the study, police agencies that use recording are uniformly in favor of the practice.

All states should require the recording of custodial interrogations. Former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan, now with Jenner & Block, explains why the proposal makes sense:

"We found a major problem concerning disputes as to what occurred when suspects under arrest are brought to a police station for questioning," said Sullivan. "The simple solution is for law enforcement agencies to require that all in-custody interviews be recorded in their entirety."

Recording custodial interrogations saves time and money, creates compelling evidence and is effective in resolving disputes involving allegations of police misconduct and whether confessions are voluntary.

Not surprisingly, Texas has enacted another dumb, probably unconstitutional law--delivery of a controlled substance to a minor--via the womb. It's now a felony to smoke pot while pregnant --punishable by two to 20 years in prison. Alma Baker has become the first casualty of the law--receiving a five year deferred sentence for smoking pot in her backyard while pregnant with her twins. The presence of pot was discovered in their bloodstream when born.

The law came about through the legislature's redefinition of the term "individual."

The law defines an individual as "a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth."

NORML reports that according to a 1997 scientific review authored by John P. Morgan and Lynn Zimmer, "Studies of newborns, infants, and children show no consistent physical, developmental, or cognitive defects related to prenatal marijuana exposure."

The New York legislature is close to final approval of a bill allowing doctors to presecribe marijuana for medical purposes.

A bipartisan agreement on legislation that would let doctors prescribe marijuana to ease the pain and other medical symptoms of very sick patients could be reached before the year is out, state lawmakers said Wednesday. A bill initially introduced in 1997 by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, that would legalize pot for medical use was overwhelmingly passed Tuesday by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and is now in the Rules Committee -- the last stop before a full house vote.

by TChris

It may be counterintuitive, but it is undeniable that persons arrested for crimes they didn't commit sometimes give false confessions.

There are a wide array of reasons. Juveniles are often manipulated into confessing. Tricky questioning, physical coercion or suggestions that a confession is the best way to avoid a lengthy sentence, or the death penalty, persuade many adults to admit crimes they did not commit.

An editorial in the NY Times notes that videotaping of police interrogations is a critical safeguard against interrogation tactics that lead to false confessions. Just as significantly, videotaping preserves the exact words used by a suspect -- protecting against misunderstanding, spinning, quoting out of context, and outright fabrication of the suspect's statement.

Honest officers have no objection to the transparency that videotaping brings, because it protects them from false claims that they used coercive questioning techniques and it prevents a defendant from falsely denying that the statement was made. That's why police in the few jurisdictions that require recording are enthusiastic about the practice. As the Times suggests, "the states and localities that do not require recorded interrogations now should start to do so."

Police in Portugal will be allowing fans to smoke pot without penalty at the big game Sunday--they'll be watching out for drunks instead:

ENGLAND fans will be allowed to smoke dope before Sunday’s crunch clash with France — to keep them calm. Cops in Lisbon plan to crack down on drunk supporters while turning a blind eye to those spotted puffing on a spliff. Pot-smoking fans have been assured they will not be arrested, cautioned — or even have their drugs confiscated. Last night experts said the Portuguese police’s “Here We Blow” policy would reduce chances of a punch-up between rival fans....Fans who seem to be drunk may be breath-tested and refused entry.

[link via Drug War Rant.]

by TChris

It's time to change three-strikes laws, and voters know it.

According to a new poll released Thursday, 76 percent of likely voters said they were inclined to support a November ballot initiative that would soften the three-strikes law that Californians overwhelmingly passed a decade ago. Just 14 percent of respondents were opposed, the Field Poll reported.

The initiative would require that the third strike be a violent felony, so that petty theft or drug possession wouldn't trigger a 25 year minimum sentence. It's a good start -- incremental improvement is better than none at all -- but true justice requires that judges tailor sentences to the offender in light of the facts of the case. Any three-strikes law, as any other law that requires a mandatory minimum sentence, prevents a judge from showing mercy and compassion when it is due. A better reform would be abolition of three-strikes sentencing altogether.

by TChris

Today's New York Times Magazine features articles that will interest those who follow white collar crime:

Former prosecutor Mark Costello asks whether harsh sentences are a reasonable response to corporate crime. Along the way, he tells some amusing stories. More importantly, he asks us to think about sentencing philosophy: whether it makes sense to destroy someone's life to make ourselves feel better, whether it's fair to give a break to those who plea bargain while hammering those who go to trial and lose.

As we prepare to ratchet up the ''war'' on corporate fraud with new shock-and-awe-type sentences, perhaps we should pause, or go slowly at least. Perhaps we should respect the muddle, the humane confusion underneath the act of punishing all criminals -- the violent and nonviolent alike. Nine years as a prosecutor taught me this: when we use force (here, a jail cell) without the calm of a theory, the result is rarely something we are proud of.

Also of interest: Bruce Porter's profile of Jay Jones, serving a sentence for conspiring to defraud investors; the insights of an economist who started a bagel delivery service, where payment depended on an honor system, into white collar crime (one insight: people farther up the corporate ladder are more likely to cheat on payment than those who don't hold executive positions); the role that corporate investors play in contributing to, or controlling, corporate crime; and an essay in pictures that provides "a glimpse of the human cost of WorldCom's collapse."