Recommended reading: Brentin Mock's piece in CityLab on Rahm Emanuel and missed opportunities for police reform in Chicago.
Read More
As we record this, the question hanging over Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is whether, and how, Senate Judiciary Committee will treat the accusations of criminal sexual assault made against Judge Kavanaugh by Professor Christine Blasy Ford. Whatever happens, the most important thing is to have a full, complete, and independent investigation of the charges before any hearing or vote.
Read More
It was pretty bad when Chicago judge Jessica Arong O'Brien was found guilty on federal charges of mortgage fraud. It was worse when she refused to give up her seat on the Cook County bench for more than six months after the conviction, continuing to draw a paycheck even after losing her law license.
Read More
Female police officers bring a unique, positive skill set to
the job. They communicate better, and have a special talent
for de-escalation. In an era when we want less force and
more de-escalation, should the future of policing be female?
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has put cities on notice: don’t try to establish facilities where addicts can inject intravenous drugs safely. What is Rosenstein's justification for this policy? And does the evidence bear it out?
Read More
David discusses three recent criminal justice stories on WESA's The Confluence.
Read More
Trial is underway for the Chicago police officer who shot and killed Laquan McDonald in 2014. The killing and ensuing coverup effectively ended the careers of several high-level city officials including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has announced he won't seek re-election.
Read More
When juveniles face criminal charges, most end up on probation. This should put their young lives on track. But too often, it’s just another set of rules, and kids fall into deeper trouble. Can we transform probation for juveniles, so more kids don’t become adult offenders?
Read More
Technically, slavery is illegal in the United States. But there's a big loophole in the 13th amendment: it's perfectly okay to compel someone's labor against their will, for little or no pay, as long as they've been convicted of a crime. Now, inmates across the country are on strike, demanding an end to what they call "modern-day slavery." The history of prison labor in America shows that's not much of an exaggeration.
Read More
Every four years, the whole sports-loving planet is watching soccer’s World Cup. Soccer is the world’s most popular sport – so how did its governing body, FIFA, become the focus of the most massive corruption scandal in sports history? And why was that scandal broken by U.S. law enforcement?
Criminal Injustice returns with a new season on September 4, 2018. Until then, we're reposting some of our favorite past episodes. This episode originally appeared February 20, 2018.
Read More
A new report from the Pennsylvania attorney general details how the Catholic church systematically covered up decades of sexual abuse by priests. In almost all of the cases, the abuse happened so long ago that the statute of limitations prevents prosecution of the abusers and their enablers. Or does it?
Read More
[copy]
Read More
Private prisons hold over 100,000 people in the U.S. Some say they provide needed flexibility as corrections populations change and budgets shrink. But what really happens when punishment is about profit?
Lauren-Brooke Eisen is Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center’s Justice Program and author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration.
Read More
John from Dayton calls in with another question: how does the discovery process work in civil law, and how does it apply in criminal cases?
Read More
The killing of Antwon Rose, an unarmed African American teenager shot by police in East Pittsburgh, PA, is a recent and tragic example of what can go wrong when local law enforcement agencies are too small.
Read More
David joins the panel on WESA's The Confluence July 20 to discuss SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh's judicial record on criminal justice, individual rights, and civil liberties.
Read More
Prisons in the U.S. frequently use long-term solitary confinement, even though the evidence makes clear that solitary has devastating effects on prisoners’ mental and physical health. Some authorities call long-term solitary nothing short of torture. So what can we make of our prisons using solitary for people with significant disabilities? If solitary devastates so-called normal prisoners, what does it do to those with severe physical or cognitive impairments?
Read More
How might we expect Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to rule on criminal justice issues? His record on criminal cases is sparse, but there are some telling details...
Read More
An update on Kentucky lawyer Eric Conn, who pled guilty to one of the biggest cons in the history of Social Security only to flee the country.
Read More