by Guest Blogger | Nov 8, 2016 | Excessive Force, Police Coercion
The Justice Department recently announced that it would begin the nationwide collection data on police shootings and other violent encounters with the public in 2017. The news comes after a series of protests and investigations since 2014 stemming from several deadly...
by melanson_admin | Jun 15, 2016 | New Rulings, Wiretapping
The DEA has constructed a massive wiretapping operation in the Los Angeles suburbs, which secretly intercepts tens of thousands of Americans’ phone calls and texts in order to monitor drug traffickers across the U.S. This goes on despite the objections of the...
by melanson_admin | May 15, 2016 | Excessive Force, Police Coercion
The situation is all too familiar: the police race to a home in response to a 911 call. It’s a domestic disturbance, another fight. Autumn Steele and her husband were once again fighting again, and he makes the emergency phone call. Things happen fast and the officer...
by melanson_admin | Apr 15, 2016 | Excessive Force, Police Coercion
The spread of amateur video footage recording police arrests and sometimes the deaths of civilians has the public concerned not only about the use of force by the police, but also about officer credibility. Footage from bystanders’ cellphones and from security cameras...
by melanson_admin | Mar 15, 2016 | Juvenile Court, Prison Reform
Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy recently announced in a proposed policy on bail reform and juvenile justice that he would divert thousands of people aged 18 to 20 from the adult to that juvenile corrections system. He said he wants to consider other options to...
by Guest Blogger | Feb 15, 2016 | Prison Reform
Long before United States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy denounced the “human toll” of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons in his concurring opinion in Davis v. Ayala this past June (see “Eight Principles for Reforming Solitary Confinement” in the Fall 2015...
by Guest Blogger | Jan 6, 2016 | Drug Addiction, Prison Reform
Here’s a startling statistic: someone dies of a drug overdose every 12 minutes in the United States. An addiction to a prescription drug such as like Vicodin, OxyContin, or Percocet can lead to heroin abuse or the possession of a controlled substance—and the...
by Guest Blogger | Dec 15, 2015 | DNA Evidence
It seems like technology is everywhere we turn. Sometimes this is a good thing, and other times it can have serious negative effects. There is secret code in our criminal justice system. But courts are refusing to publish the source code for forensic software, making...
by Guest Blogger | Nov 15, 2015 | Prison Reform, Wrongful Imprisonment
Citizens in Louisiana couldn’t believe there was still a debtor’s prison in the U.S. They were abolished almost 200 years ago. As the name implies, those without money who failed to pay their debts were sent to prison. This was, in effect, still happening in New...
by Guest Blogger | Oct 19, 2015 | Murder, Robbery, Violent Crime
Although violent crime has been an issue in the city of Newburgh, New York for some time, a number of initiatives and additional funding have helped the Newburgh police department reduce crime through mid-year 2015. The city of Newburgh, New York has had an issue with...
