FBI and California statistics showing a huge drop in violence and crime by young people of all races – particularly African Americans – to record low levels threatens the simplistic, often crazed gun-violence debate. The desperate need of interest groups for ever-rising epidemics of youthful gun violence was epitomized yet again by sports pundit Bob Costas’s irresponsible commentaries (borrowed secondhand from pundit Jason Whitlock with no evident fact-checking by either) berating “gun…
Blog Dec 6, 2012
Human Rights Day: A cause for reflection
December 10th marks the annual celebration of Human Rights Day , a special anniversary in the global fight for human rights. On that day, in 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) . The document was born out of the unprecedented violence and dislocation from World War II. It codified values of human equality, political freedom, and socio-economic dignity. As such, the UDHR preamble begins: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the…
Have you ever been in a room of highly educated individuals discussing sentencing and bail reform in California? I was just recently. On Tuesday November 27, 2012 I attended the Little Hoover Commission hearing as an expert witness. The conversation was extremely dynamic and thought provoking with significant dialogue on the fairness and constitutionality of the uniform bail industry in California. Despite the varying intricacies discussed there was a glaring omission: the collateral…
Blog Dec 2, 2012
Reform cuts marijuana possession arrests 86% in 2011, upends California drug policing
Just-released 2011 arrest statistics from the state Criminal Justice Statistics Center show that pioneering legislation downgrading simple marijuana possession from a criminal offense into an infraction – an effort to deter passage of Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana outright – has detonated a revolution in California drug-law enforcement. California’s new arrest figures read like something out of a drug policy reformer’s dream – but with unexpected twists (see table).…
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) , the health reform law passed by the Obama administration and Congress in 2010, will have vast implications for the provision of health services to incarcerated individuals, including expanded access to mental health and substance abuse treatment. An underappreciated impact of California’s AB 109 adult corrections realignment is that county jails are now the primary providers of medical care for long-term realigned inmates. The Community…