The Legal Aid Society’s Post

For the twelve days of Christmas, here is number 3 of the "12 studies of note" that are must-reads over the holidays.  From the Council for Court Excellence Jails & Justice: Tracking Change, July 2023: "This report comes at a critical time when policymakers are attempting to introduce and pass legislation to address public safety issues in the District without adequate research or community engagement, proposing reforms that would expand the District’s criminal legal system footprint and infringe upon the due process rights of its citizens. This report card reviewed the Jails & Justice Task Force recommendations -- plans to rightsize the DC justice system-- that were slated to be implemented in Fiscal Years (FY) 2021 and 2022, and found that only two (or roughly 2%) of the 77 recommendations reviewed were fully implemented by the District." Council for Court Excellence. https://lnkd.in/e27xDVMZ

The problem is not your blueprint. But you ask the right question - what decade? The main issue is this is a bandwagon so large it seems that even in an age of division and dysfunction that it is one place our lawmakers find a seat no matter their political bent. Call it a twisted "New York State of Mind." Few people with opinions in general or on the Lippman Commission specifically have the least bit of experience in jailing. The monitor in NY has a twice vested interest in continuing down the rabbit hole as the class - plaintiffs former lawyer and now someone raking in so much money it is beyond cavil. Perception and reality are often two different things. But this is a decades old issue. It hardly is a new problem. As groundbreaking Jurist Anna M. Kross noted during her 13 year tenure at Rikers - jail is not always appropriate for the young, indigent, mentally ill, sex workers, or those addicted to drugs or alcohol. And yet who still populates the NYC Jail system? I wish you all the best in bridging the gaps between the ignorant who also happen to be the loudest and perhaps most dangerously, the ones with the power of the purse to make things happen. Just look at all the Real Estate folks on the Lippman commission and follow the money. Its a good start and will answer some questions people find uncomfortable in this dialogue about Rikers.

Such a pivotal decision carries lasting consequences. It will shape legal precedents, influence future rulings, and affect the judiciary’s crucial role in balancing legal principles with societal evolution. These decisions don’t just resolve cases; they chart the future of legal norms and societal values. #madoc #doc #ma #mytern #teji

The article from Forbes discusses the journey of Kay Rogers, a former Butler County (Ohio) Auditor who, after serving time in prison for fraud charges, is now running for Congress. This story highlights the essential nature of context in background screening. Accuracy and truth are not always synonymous in background checks. It's crucial to use the screening process to gather information that brings us closer to the "truth" about a candidate. Background checks are unique in that they provide a snapshot of an individual's past, but what truly matters is what the individual has done since then. This is where you find the deeper truth and, often, discover individuals who can be invaluable assets to your team. In Rogers' case, her journey from conviction to a congressional candidacy underlines the importance of considering the entirety of a person's story — not just a single chapter. This approach aligns with our belief in prioritizing accuracy while recognizing the humanity in every story.

News 8 Facts You Should Know About Racial Injustice in the Criminal Legal System Racial discrimination has been ingrained in the criminal legal system from its earliest days and persists today. 02.05.21 By Daniele Selby Rodney Reed in Allan B. Polunsky Unit, West Livingston, Texas in 2015. (Image: Courtesy of Massoud Hayoun/ Al Jazeera) Updated on Feb. 6, 2022: This piece has been updated to reflect recent statistics. While Black History Month is a time to celebrate the progress that has been made and to honor those who fought for equal rights for Black people in the United States, it’s also an occasion to reflect on how far we have to go. The legacy of slavery, racist Jim Crow laws, and hateful lynchings has translated into modern-day mass incarceration and the disproportionate imprisonment of Black people. No where is that seen more clearly than in prisons like the Mississippi State Penitentiary — also known as Parchman Farm — and Louisiana’s Angola prison, which were built on and modeled after slave plantations and where several Innocence Project clients have been incarcerated. Racial discrimination and bias has been ingrained in the criminal legal and law enforcement system from its earliest days and continues to pervade every level of the system today. The Innocence Project, with your support, is committed to addressing these injustices. These eight statistics highlight the ways in which racial inequality persists in the criminal legal system today and contributes to wrongful conviction. 1. More than half of death row exonerees are Black. Of the 185 people exonerated from death row since 1973, about 53% are Black, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Historically the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to Black people in the U.S., and they are still overrepresented on death row. Today, the states that sentence the most people to death are those that once carried out the most lynchings.

The Allan Government faces a choice with the Youth Justice Bill: continue ratcheting up a ‘tough on crime’ political agenda which has failed children and the community, or support evidence-based alternatives which work and ensure that every child grows up with their family and community. Increasing police powers and pipelining more children into youth prisons is never the answer. The answer is always building up the community supports needed to help children avoid contact with - and the harms caused by - the criminal legal system in the first place.

MCCURDY, R. (2021). Did Slavery Ever Really End? (Doctoral dissertation, University of Hull). Abstract: The United States of America was founded on the exploitation of African slaves ’labor, and that exploitation continued far after their emancipation. Instead of plantations, the method of labor exploitation is the prison industrial complex. Private corporations work with the government to exploit prisoners ’vulnerable position in society, making them work long hours for low pay to maximize their profit. Despite politicians ’claims of America’s progressive nature relating to racial discrimination against black Americans, the country’s criminal justice institutions have not substantially changed in terms of their functioning on racial prejudices; they have just learned to mask them with racially coded language, shifting to a ‘colorblind ’presentation in which the legislation will target black Americans without explicitly saying so, but criminalize certain behaviors commonly associated with black communities. Understanding the historical background and evolution of systemic racism is crucial to grasping how firmly established it is within the modern institutions of America and why the public accepts the mass incarceration of black Americans. Today’s criminal justice institutions function on implicit racial biases, including law enforcement, prosecutors, criminal courts as well as landmark United States Supreme Court decisions that have upheld systemic racism. This has resulted in the drastic overcriminalization and overrepresentation in the prison population of black Americans. The legislation of the War on Crime and War on Drugs enacted after the 1964 Civil Rights Act permits the legalized discrimination against people with felony convictions which disproportionately affect black communities, including limiting their right to vote, access to government financial assistance and public housing, mirroring many of the policies that were repealed along with Jim Crow laws in the 1960s. The caption below was taken in the maximum-security prison of the state of Louisiana the infamous Angola State Penitentiary.

Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment is often hailed as the end of slavery in the United States. However, the truth is far more complex. As of this week in 2024, Legalized Slavery has persisted in the U.S. for another 159 years under various names. From convict leasing to sharecropping, debt peonage to mass incarceration, and private prisons to warehousing bodies for profit – slavery endures, camouflaged by different disguises. Slavery wasn't abolished; it was reformed. The 13th Amendment transferred the power to own individuals as property from individuals to the state, violating international human rights agreements and our constitutional assumptions. Our justice system has become a revenue generator, and prisons function as economic development programs, all at the cost of human lives and freedoms. But change is happening. Seven states have abolished slavery since 2018, starting with Colorado. In 2024, over 18 states are working to eliminate existing slavery exception clauses. A joint federal resolution is on the table to repeal and replace the 13th Amendment without exceptions. The Abolish Slavery National Network is leading the charge. Through state-by-state voter initiatives and a federal joint resolution, The Abolition Amendment (H.J. Res.53), we are working towards the final solution to end slavery in law and practice. Join us in shaping a future where freedom prevails. #EndSlavery #AbolishSlavery #AbolitionNation #HumanRights #ClassOf2024 #H.J.Res.53

Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment is often hailed as the end of slavery in the United States. However, the truth is far more complex. As of this week in 2024, Legalized Slavery has persisted in the U.S. for another 159 years under various names. From convict leasing to sharecropping, debt peonage to mass incarceration, and private prisons to warehousing bodies for profit – slavery endures, camouflaged by different disguises. Slavery wasn't abolished; it was reformed. The 13th Amendment transferred the power to own individuals as property from individuals to the state, violating international human rights agreements and our constitutional assumptions. Our justice system has become a revenue generator, and prisons function as economic development programs, all at the cost of human lives and freedoms. But change is happening. Seven states have abolished slavery since 2018, starting with Colorado. In 2024, over 18 states are working to eliminate existing slavery exception clauses. A joint federal resolution is on the table to repeal and replace the 13th Amendment without exceptions. The Abolish Slavery National Network is leading the charge. Through state-by-state voter initiatives and a federal joint resolution, The Abolition Amendment (H.J. Res.53), we are working towards the final solution to end slavery in law and practice. Join us in shaping a future where freedom prevails. #EndSlavery #AbolishSlavery #AbolitionNation #HumanRights #ClassOf2024 #H.J.Res.53

Published in the IBT, "At the forefront of this movement stands Amani Sawari, a social justice advocate and founder of SawariMedia. SawariMedia is dedicated to serving incarcerated and informally incarcerated citizens by writing articles on legislation affecting them, focusing on criminal justice reform, voting disenfranchisement," Here's the full article https://lnkd.in/etnDdS4y