Criminal Law

Corrections Sentencing Blogroll

Posted on February 01, 2008
In my adios post yesterday, I promised to put up my usual sources as a blogroll for you to use to keep up with areas and topics that you used to come here for. Here it is. Be sure to look at all of them when you have time, just to see what they have to offer if you don't already know...

Turn Out the Lights

Posted on January 31, 2008
This will be my last substantive post on this blog, for reasons described here. As I considered the kind responses I received to my wondering how to deal with this blog taking up so much of my non-work life, I realized that cutting back or focusing on more specific topics really wouldn?t get it done...

Can This Be Our New National Motto, Please?

Posted on January 31, 2008
?You can?t live in fear. Stuff happens.?Fulton County, Ga., Sheriff Myron Freeman, saying he isn't uneasy about the south Fulton neighborhood where he lives despite burglars' theft from his home of his personal cellphone and his department-issued handgun

Water, Water Nowhere

Posted on January 31, 2008
When I talk about the coming additional costs to state and local govs from the transitional expenses related to global warming and its scary cousins, peak oil and declining water supplies, and the impact of those costs on all current programs and spending, like corrections sentencing, I usually focus on the weather elements...

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Boy, Do I Sympathize

Posted on January 31, 2008
If you want to live a moment in the life of people trying to get chicken salad out of chicken data from crim just agencies, read this story from ID on (possible) mixups in the state?s report on child sex abuse prosecutions and why they (might have) happened...

More NCJRS Abstracts, January 31, 2007

Posted on January 31, 2008
AMONG THE LATEST RESEARCH POSTED AT http://www.ncjrs.gov/. CHECK FOR OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST THERE AS WELL.NCJ 221056Patricia Gonzalez; Tony Romero; Christine B. CerbanaParent Education Program for Incarcerated Mothers in ColoradoJournal of Correctional Education Volume:58 Issue:4 Dated:December 2007 Pages:357 to 373This study examined the short-term impact on 219 incarcerated mothers of the Partners in Parenting (PIP) curriculum, a skill-based program that focuses on strengthening family relationships and promoting positive behaviors...

Why I Miss Wisconsin

Posted on January 30, 2008
A friend from WI sent me this, knowing all the levels that this is a remarkable story, even for WI. You have to read the whole thing, but here are a few teasers:Heavy drinking only seems to make everyone better looking, and it sure doesn't improve judgment...

Want Proof?

Posted on January 30, 2008
Of what brainless and scared stupid people we?ve become? Check out Gideon?s catch at ?a public defender? blog of a guy in trouble now because one of his MySpace friends linked to a porn site, meaning a kid on the first guy?s page could click and then click and find porn...

The Dangers of Recidivism

Posted on January 30, 2008
Aren?t limited to the act by offenders itself. We also run into serious problems with its definition, as Corey Rayburn Yung discusses and links to in this post at Sex Crimes Blog. If we insist that public safety is the central focus of corrections sentencing (and leave aside whether it?s best attained through prevention, deterrence, incapacitation, all of the above, none, whatever), then recidivism is the central number we have to address...

A More Direct Tie?

Posted on January 30, 2008
Between the home mortgage crisis and corrections sentencing?Broke homeowners linked to arsons

Beaten to the Draw Again

Posted on January 30, 2008
Looks like business schools are going to be the first to combine games, agent-based modeling, and simulation of real-life situations to test and train students on possible applications of their academic learning. Am I concerned that I?ve been begging the criminology and foundation types to get into this for a couple of years now and still no one is noticing? No, because I?m a mature person...

Addiction and Genetic Risk

Posted on January 30, 2008
For several decades, scientists have known that most of the risk for habitual heavy smoking (smoking a pack each day) is largely influenced by genetics. This conclusion comes from the study of identical and fraternal twins from Scandinavia, North America, Australia and (more recently) China...

When You Don't Have to Worry about Heating Costs

Posted on January 30, 2008
"Tents" will house up to 448 prison inmates

So Little Kids Could Do Coke?

Posted on January 30, 2008
In young children, psychostimulants relieve symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder, yet in adolescents and adults, those same medications can cause euphoria and are often abused.What is behind these differing drug responses?Temple University scientists have identified a potential molecular mechanism, the neurotrophin system comprised of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor TrkB, as the cause of age differences in stimulant response...

Employability Certificates and Budget Cuts

Posted on January 30, 2008
IA may be joining the small group of states which try to improve offender reentry chances with ?certificates of employability? under a gov proposal this year. The state is also looking at ?racial impact statements,? a concept that could have a big impact (sorry) on the behavior of a lot of agents in state crim just, pushed strongly by the Sentencing Project folks...

One Reason Relapse Is Easy

Posted on January 30, 2008
Using a brain imaging technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have discovered that cocaine-related images trigger the emotional centers of the brains of patients addicted to drugs -- even when the subjects are unaware they've seen anything...

Die, You Gravy Sucking Pigs

Posted on January 29, 2008
This post gives you the latest blogosphere reaction to the brainiac quote we cited yesterday from the deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, with a tip of the hat to Steve Martin for the post title, which I copied. All of them are good and splat-perfect, but this is my favorite:Hey, here's another suggestion: let's stop teaching people the Heimlich maneuver...

I'd Love to Hear What Juno Would Say

Posted on January 29, 2008
Mental Health Screenings, Risk Behavior Interventions Needed In Juvenile Justice System

Another TECHNOCORRECTIONS Breakthrough

Posted on January 29, 2008
A new chemical synthesis method based on a catalyst worth many times the price of gold and providing a far more efficient and economical method than traditional ones for designing and manufacturing extremely novel pharmaceutical compounds is described by its University at Buffalo developers in a review article in the journal Nature...

Can a State Go Bankrupt?

Posted on January 29, 2008
Treatment is sought for addictsSTATE BANKRUPTING ITSELF BY JAILING THEM, PANEL TOLDState officials are asking Gov. Steve Beshear and the legislature to consider steering criminal suspects with addiction problems into intensive treatment rather than a jail cell...

Four Years to Probation

Posted on January 29, 2008
In case you were wondering what cell in your sentencing grid to put ?faking having sextuplets and taking money for them? if it ever comes up in your state.

So the Deterrence Thing Isn't Working

Posted on January 29, 2008
Important story in USA Today today on multigenerational crime, how it runs in families who show how to do time, and how we brainiacs in corr sent are only now starting to glom onto the problem. Excerpts:Nearly half of the 2 million inmates in state prisons across the USA ? 48% ? say they have relatives who also have been incarcerated, according to a Justice Department report in 2004, the most recent comprehensive survey of state prison populations...

I'm Not the Only One Profiting

Posted on January 29, 2008
An Economy Grows Around Britney SpearsNow if I could just see some actual dollars . . . .Will this get it done?Jamie Lynn Spears' TV show, 'Zoey 101,' returns

Looking for a Job?

Posted on January 29, 2008
How DOCs can do EBP and reentry, from Corrections Community:The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) solicits proposals from organizations or individuals for a 12-month cooperative agreement to provide coaching on executive leadership and complex project management to achieve the implementation of evidence based practices (EBP) on offender risk reduction for the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) Community Corrections Act oversight unit and a limited number of local community corrections agencies...

More Phishing

Posted on January 29, 2008
Matthew Bowen follows up on Prevention Works' recent warning and help regarding phishing. This time he brings in the concept of the phishing criminal ecosystem to describe the, well, less than stellar individuals who get involved in this malodorous vandalism...

Big Dufus Brother

Posted on January 29, 2008
One of the interesting things about talking to inmates about their prior criminal histories if you work for a DOC is that they will almost inevitably tell you about more offenses than you have a record of, in part usually because they've bought into the notion that the government really has this wonderful and all inclusive data system with them in it...

More NCJRS Abstracts, January 29, 2007

Posted on January 29, 2008
AMONG THE LATEST RESEARCH POSTED AT http://www.ncjrs.gov/. CHECK FOR OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST THERE AS WELL.NCJ 221130Scott Vollum; Dennis R. LongmireCovictims of Capital Murder: Statements of Victims' Family Members and Friends Made at the Time of ExecutionViolence and Victims Volume:22 Issue:5 Dated:2007 Pages:601 to 619This study attempts to examine whether the needs of healing, closure, and psychological adjustment are met with the sentencing of an offender to death, and it attempts to shed light on the experiences and perspectives of covictims regarding the death penalty process and the execution of the individual responsible for their loss...

Things You Never Thought You'd See

Posted on January 28, 2008
Marijuana vending machines in US

Was the Goin' Up Worth the Comin' Down?

Posted on January 28, 2008
(With apologies to Kristofferson?s unforgettable ?The Pilgrim?)Those of us watching the prison buildups of the last couple of decades, especially those of us living in states where communities were competing for new prisons on the unsubstantiated grounds that they help econ development of small towns, could see the vested interests and political power being placed solidly behind the continued growth and maintenance of those prisons...

Policy to Law?

Posted on January 28, 2008
Empirical Legal Studies continues an interesting discussion on whether law schools should be more interdisciplinary, incorporating more social science in particular, and provides a great historical perspective on the debate (while highlighting one of my legal scholar heroes, Edward Levi)...

Quick Hits

Posted on January 28, 2008
If you want some thought provoked, drop by these blogs today and get pummeled: Pam Clifton at Think Outside the Cage has good stuff up on law enforcement?s salutary role in offender reentry if they?ll take it on and on the damage to incarcerated parents when their kids go through a corrupt foster care system; CrimProf Blog has a statistically rich and depressing post up on OH?s problems with DNA evidence care and efforts by the gov there to upgrade their system; All in the Mind lets us know that Australia is having the same problem with political interference with science and evidence-based research that we find in our country; and Psychology and Crime News has a post linking you to two good stories once again calling into question the entire enterprise of eyewitness testimony, either through the witness? inability to deal errors or through their susceptibility to peer influence.

Hate to Go All Fuddy on You

Posted on January 28, 2008
But, seriously, what does this say about our senses of citizenship and mutual responsibility?States hooked on slots revenues

Don't Drop the Soap

Posted on January 28, 2008
The name of a new board game developed by the son of KS?s governor."Fight your way through 6 different exciting locations in hopes of being granted parole," the site says. "Escape prison riots in The Yard, slip glass into a mob boss' lasagna in the Cafeteria, steal painkillers from the nurse's desk in the Infirmary...

TECHNOCORRECTIONS and DUI

Posted on January 28, 2008
NE becomes the latest state to bust down on DUI, putting mandatory ignition interlocks in even first-timers? cars. NM says it has the stats to support the move, which it pioneered. What?s good about it is the fact that you don?t get mulligans like so many states provide before they start cracking down...

We're from the Government and . . .

Posted on January 28, 2008
Add the Feds to that list of fiscal problems facing the states as the economy recedes.Stimulus plan could ravage state budgets

Meth Use Down in UT

Posted on January 28, 2008
So say the latest stats. Let?s wait and watch to see if ID, with its new Meth Project effort, has a similar decline to UT, without a Meth Project, and attributes the decrease to the Project, hmm? It would be a nice example of a point we make here frequently regarding our tendency to mistake our rain dances for effectiveness when it rains even though other states that don?t do the dances get rain, too.

Twitching, Screaming Deaths Can Be a Great Deterrent

Posted on January 28, 2008
There?s an antidote to heroin overdose that costs less than $10, can be administered by nonprofessionals, and has been successful in saving lives and maybe even in deterring further use according to the one study that?s been done. So what?s the problem? Much of the science blogosphere is howling over this statement about that antidote by the deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, who opposes the antdote?s use:"First of all, I don't agree with giving an opioid antidote to non-medical professionals...

Arbitrary Justice

Posted on January 27, 2008
I taught the basic American government freshman survey course for 17 years, did all the usual topics you find in the textbooks, espoused wisely on the intricacies that I could add from personal experience as a former budget analyst, practicing school board member, campaign consultant...

Black Lung Drug

Posted on January 27, 2008
Although I'm critical of our drug policies regarding pot, it's because I see them as so hypocritical (and thus legitimacy-draining) and wasteful given the opportunity costs for other areas of corr sent and crim just that they supplant, not because I think pot is a good thing for anyone not using it for (real) medicinal purposes...

More NCJRS Abstracts, January 27, 2007

Posted on January 27, 2008
AMONG THE LATEST RESEARCH POSTED AT http://www.ncjrs.gov/. CHECK FOR OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST THERE AS WELL.NCJ 221005Rebecca L. Jackson; Derek T. HessEvaluation for Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders: A Survey of ExpertsSexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume:19 Issue:4 December 2007 Pages:425 to 448This study surveyed 41 experts who conduct sex offender civil commitment evaluations, in order to identify the features of their evaluations...

Game On for TECHNOCORRECTIONS

Posted on January 26, 2008
And remember how I said the other day that it might not start here?"Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails...

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