Ted Gest of The Crime Report recently wrote about the ambitious plans of the new Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School. The institute is assessing the state of knowledge on crime and justice in the U.S. from 1975, projecting to 2025.
Last week, the institute, with support from the Robina Foundation and National Institute of Justice, assembled eight leading scholars to discuss key issues in the field: guns-Philip Cook; policing-Lawrence Sherman; rehabilitation-Frances Cullen; sentencing-Michael Tonry; race and crime-Jeffrey Fagan; deterrence-Daniel Nagin; drug policy-Peter Reuter; youth violence-Franklin E. Zimering.
Starting today, and over the next several weeks, we will take a look at the work of all eight experts as reported by Gest for The Crime Report. Gest is President of Criminal Justice Journalists and Washington-based contributing editor of The Crime Report.
Philip Cook, Duke University
Cook separated knowledge on guns into four subjects: weapon type, how big the gun violence problem is, access to firearms, and whether widespread gun ownership deters crime.
On the first issue, the wide availability of guns in the U.S. "intensifies criminal violence," he said.
In a variation on a well-known slogan, Cook said, "Guns don't kill people--they just make it real easy."
On the extent of the problem, Cook noted that the annual gun-death toll in the U.S. approximates the number of motor-vehicle deaths, when suicides are included. Guns are the leading cause of death for young black males.
The social cost "goes well beyond the immediate victims," he said, noting that in places with high rates of gun violence, it can terrorize communities, reduce property values, and be a drag on economic development. Wide availability of guns can contribute to a rise in murder rates but not robberies and assaults.
Firearms may not be so easily available to criminals as is widely believed, he said, citing research showing a 'very high transaction cost." Law enforcement and the courts, not new government regulations, offer the best hope for reducing gun violence, in Cook's view.
To read more: http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2012-04-crime-and-justice-in-america-1975-2025
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Milestone: mattmangino.com marks 1,000 post
Yesterday's post, 'Texas executes man for 'execution' style killing' was my 1,000th post at mattmangino.com. The first was an op-ed I wrote for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on November 9, 2009. Between the those two posts I have included 57 blogs, The Cautionary Instruction, for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette legal page Ipso Facto. I posted 28 articles I've written for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly and 27 columns written for the Youngstown Vindicator.
I have written on the death penalty, chronicling every execution in 2010, 2011 and 2012. I've offered the occasional book review and have written extensively on crime, prison overcrowding, sex offender legislation, evidence-based practices, police procedures, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Castle Doctrine, the Constitution and much, much more.
My posts have often utilized the news of the day to point out certain oddities, absurdities and inconsistencies in the criminal justice system. I have also used this site to provide some insight into the workings or failings of the system.
Thanks for reading a former prosecutor's musings on crime and punishment in America!
I have written on the death penalty, chronicling every execution in 2010, 2011 and 2012. I've offered the occasional book review and have written extensively on crime, prison overcrowding, sex offender legislation, evidence-based practices, police procedures, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Castle Doctrine, the Constitution and much, much more.
My posts have often utilized the news of the day to point out certain oddities, absurdities and inconsistencies in the criminal justice system. I have also used this site to provide some insight into the workings or failings of the system.
Thanks for reading a former prosecutor's musings on crime and punishment in America!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Texas executes man for 'execution' style killing
The 17th Execution of 2012
Beunka Adams was executed by the state of Texas on April 26, 2012. Adams said he was a stupid kid in a man's body at the time of the murder, which started at a convenience store southeast of Dallas and ended in a remote area several miles away.
"Everything that happened that night was wrong," Adams said as he stared at the death chamber ceiling, never looking at the people who gathered to watch his final moments. "If I could take it back, I would. ... I messed up and can't take that back," reported The Associated Press.
His death was carried out less than three hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal to postpone the execution, the fifth this year in Texas.
Adams expressed love to his family Thursday and asked those witnessing his execution to avoid letting any hate they had for him consume them. "I really hate things turned out the way they did," he said according to the AP. "For everybody involved, I don't think any good came out of it."
He took about a dozen breaths, then started to wheeze and snore. Eventually, he became still. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. CDT, nine minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow into his body, reported the AP.
Adams and another man were sent to death row for the slaying of Kenneth Vandever, 37, who was in a convenience store on Sept. 2, 2002, in Rusk, about 115 miles southeast of Dallas, when two men wearing masks walked in. The men announced a holdup; one of them was carrying a shotgun.
After robbing the store, Adams and Richard Cobb, both from East Texas, drove off with the two female clerks and Vandever in a car belonging to one of the women.
Testimony at Adams' trial, reported the AP, showed he gave the orders during the holdup and initiated the abductions. They drove to a remote area about 10 miles away in Cherokee County, where Adams ordered Vandever and one woman to get inside the car trunk and then raped the other woman. Testimony also showed he forced all three to kneel as they were shot.
Vandever was fatally wounded. The women were kicked and shot again before Cobb and Adams, believing they were dead, fled. Both women were alive, however, and one was able to run to a house to summon help.
He asked for forgiveness and I forgive him, but he had to pay the consequences," said one of the women, Nikki Ansley, referring to Adams after witnessing his execution. She survived being raped and shot but continues to suffer painful injuries from the gun blast.
The AP usually does not identify victims of rape, but Ansley has publicly acknowledged it and agreed to be interviewed.
Donald Vandever, the father of the slain man, told the AP that Adams' execution "doesn't really change anything." "As far as I'm concerned, it was way too easy on him," he said.
To read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/texas-man-executed-for-ro_0_n_1458584.html
Beunka Adams was executed by the state of Texas on April 26, 2012. Adams said he was a stupid kid in a man's body at the time of the murder, which started at a convenience store southeast of Dallas and ended in a remote area several miles away.
"Everything that happened that night was wrong," Adams said as he stared at the death chamber ceiling, never looking at the people who gathered to watch his final moments. "If I could take it back, I would. ... I messed up and can't take that back," reported The Associated Press.
His death was carried out less than three hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal to postpone the execution, the fifth this year in Texas.
Adams expressed love to his family Thursday and asked those witnessing his execution to avoid letting any hate they had for him consume them. "I really hate things turned out the way they did," he said according to the AP. "For everybody involved, I don't think any good came out of it."
He took about a dozen breaths, then started to wheeze and snore. Eventually, he became still. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. CDT, nine minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow into his body, reported the AP.
Adams and another man were sent to death row for the slaying of Kenneth Vandever, 37, who was in a convenience store on Sept. 2, 2002, in Rusk, about 115 miles southeast of Dallas, when two men wearing masks walked in. The men announced a holdup; one of them was carrying a shotgun.
After robbing the store, Adams and Richard Cobb, both from East Texas, drove off with the two female clerks and Vandever in a car belonging to one of the women.
Testimony at Adams' trial, reported the AP, showed he gave the orders during the holdup and initiated the abductions. They drove to a remote area about 10 miles away in Cherokee County, where Adams ordered Vandever and one woman to get inside the car trunk and then raped the other woman. Testimony also showed he forced all three to kneel as they were shot.
Vandever was fatally wounded. The women were kicked and shot again before Cobb and Adams, believing they were dead, fled. Both women were alive, however, and one was able to run to a house to summon help.
He asked for forgiveness and I forgive him, but he had to pay the consequences," said one of the women, Nikki Ansley, referring to Adams after witnessing his execution. She survived being raped and shot but continues to suffer painful injuries from the gun blast.
The AP usually does not identify victims of rape, but Ansley has publicly acknowledged it and agreed to be interviewed.
Donald Vandever, the father of the slain man, told the AP that Adams' execution "doesn't really change anything." "As far as I'm concerned, it was way too easy on him," he said.
To read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/texas-man-executed-for-ro_0_n_1458584.html
AZ man executed: "I regret nothing"
The 16th Execution of 2012
Thomas Arnold Kemp was executed by the state of Arizona at the state prison in Florence on April 25, 2012 for killing a Tucson college student after robbing him of $200 in1992.
As Kemp lay strapped to a table in the death chamber, he was asked if he had any final words. According to The Associated Press he responded that he did, then said simply: "I regret nothing."
He nodded and smiled at his attorney, then looked at the ceiling and calmly waited. As the execution began, Kemp's eyes closed and his body visibly shook for several seconds before he went quiet and appeared to fall asleep with a few deep breaths.
According to the AP, many death-row inmates in Arizona use their last words to apologize to their victims' family members, and some cry. Others have used their last words to cheer on their favorite sports teams, including Robert Charles Comer, who said at his May 2007 execution: "Go Raiders."
Kemp was sentenced to death for kidnapping Hector Soto Juarez from outside Juarez's Tucson home on July 11, 1992, and robbing him before taking him into the desert near Marana, forcing him to undress and shooting him twice in the head.
Juarez, 25, had just left his apartment and fiancée to get food when Kemp and Jeffery Logan spotted him. They held him at gunpoint and used his debit card to withdraw $200 before driving him to the Silverbell Mine area, where Kemp killed Juarez.
The two men then went to Flagstaff, where they kidnapped a married couple traveling from California to Kansas and made them drive to Durango, Colo., where Kemp raped the man in a hotel room. Later, Kemp and Logan forced the couple to drive to Denver, where the couple escaped. Logan soon after separated from Kemp and called police about Juarez's murder.
Logan led police to Juarez's body, and Kemp was arrested. Logan was later sentenced to life in prison.
Kemp had argued his conviction was unfair because then-prosecutor Kenneth Peasley repeatedly told jurors that Kemp's homosexuality was behind Juarez's kidnapping and murder, and that the jury hadn't been properly vetted for their feelings about gay men.
None of Juarez's family members were at the execution, and prison officials said Kemp didn't have any family members of his own there, either.
Kemp's lack of regret Wednesday mirrors remarks he gave at his sentencing in 1992 when he was given the chance to argue that he should be spared from the death penalty. Instead, Kemp said he had no regrets outside of not killing Logan when he had the chance.
"I don't show any mercy, and I am certainly not here to plead for mercy," he said at the sentencing according to the AP.
"The so-called victim was not an American citizen and, therefore, was beneath my contempt," Kemp said and then referred to Juarez using a racial slur. "If more of them ended up dead, the rest of them would soon learn to stay in Mexico where they belong."
In a rare move, Kemp also declined to seek mercy from Arizona's clemency board, often an inmate's last chance to argue why they don't deserve to be killed.
In a letter written March 29, Kemp said such a hearing "provides public humiliation of the prisoner without any chance that the board might actually recommend a commutation."
The letter was provided to the AP through Kemp's Tucson attorney, Tim Gabrielsen.
"In light of the board's history of consistently denying requests for commutations, my impression is that a hearing in my case would be nothing short of a dog and pony show," Kemp wrote according to the AP.
Kemp was the third Arizona inmate to be executed using one drug, pentobarbital. Before that, the state used a three-drug method. It made the change because its supply of one of the drugs had expired.
Kemp was allowed to choose a last meal the night before his execution. He ate a bacon cheeseburger, French fries, a slice of boysenberry pie, strawberry ice cream and a root beer.
To read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/i-regret-death-row-inmate-thomas-arnold-kemp-words-lethal-injection-article-1.1067549#ixzz1tL7TjKZ7
Thomas Arnold Kemp was executed by the state of Arizona at the state prison in Florence on April 25, 2012 for killing a Tucson college student after robbing him of $200 in1992.
As Kemp lay strapped to a table in the death chamber, he was asked if he had any final words. According to The Associated Press he responded that he did, then said simply: "I regret nothing."
He nodded and smiled at his attorney, then looked at the ceiling and calmly waited. As the execution began, Kemp's eyes closed and his body visibly shook for several seconds before he went quiet and appeared to fall asleep with a few deep breaths.
According to the AP, many death-row inmates in Arizona use their last words to apologize to their victims' family members, and some cry. Others have used their last words to cheer on their favorite sports teams, including Robert Charles Comer, who said at his May 2007 execution: "Go Raiders."
Kemp was sentenced to death for kidnapping Hector Soto Juarez from outside Juarez's Tucson home on July 11, 1992, and robbing him before taking him into the desert near Marana, forcing him to undress and shooting him twice in the head.
Juarez, 25, had just left his apartment and fiancée to get food when Kemp and Jeffery Logan spotted him. They held him at gunpoint and used his debit card to withdraw $200 before driving him to the Silverbell Mine area, where Kemp killed Juarez.
The two men then went to Flagstaff, where they kidnapped a married couple traveling from California to Kansas and made them drive to Durango, Colo., where Kemp raped the man in a hotel room. Later, Kemp and Logan forced the couple to drive to Denver, where the couple escaped. Logan soon after separated from Kemp and called police about Juarez's murder.
Logan led police to Juarez's body, and Kemp was arrested. Logan was later sentenced to life in prison.
Kemp had argued his conviction was unfair because then-prosecutor Kenneth Peasley repeatedly told jurors that Kemp's homosexuality was behind Juarez's kidnapping and murder, and that the jury hadn't been properly vetted for their feelings about gay men.
None of Juarez's family members were at the execution, and prison officials said Kemp didn't have any family members of his own there, either.
Kemp's lack of regret Wednesday mirrors remarks he gave at his sentencing in 1992 when he was given the chance to argue that he should be spared from the death penalty. Instead, Kemp said he had no regrets outside of not killing Logan when he had the chance.
"I don't show any mercy, and I am certainly not here to plead for mercy," he said at the sentencing according to the AP.
"The so-called victim was not an American citizen and, therefore, was beneath my contempt," Kemp said and then referred to Juarez using a racial slur. "If more of them ended up dead, the rest of them would soon learn to stay in Mexico where they belong."
In a rare move, Kemp also declined to seek mercy from Arizona's clemency board, often an inmate's last chance to argue why they don't deserve to be killed.
In a letter written March 29, Kemp said such a hearing "provides public humiliation of the prisoner without any chance that the board might actually recommend a commutation."
The letter was provided to the AP through Kemp's Tucson attorney, Tim Gabrielsen.
"In light of the board's history of consistently denying requests for commutations, my impression is that a hearing in my case would be nothing short of a dog and pony show," Kemp wrote according to the AP.
Kemp was the third Arizona inmate to be executed using one drug, pentobarbital. Before that, the state used a three-drug method. It made the change because its supply of one of the drugs had expired.
Kemp was allowed to choose a last meal the night before his execution. He ate a bacon cheeseburger, French fries, a slice of boysenberry pie, strawberry ice cream and a root beer.
To read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/i-regret-death-row-inmate-thomas-arnold-kemp-words-lethal-injection-article-1.1067549#ixzz1tL7TjKZ7
Friday, April 27, 2012
The Cautionary Instruction: Bias seeps into fingerprint analysis
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
April 27, 2012
Last fall, I wrote a series of blogs on the Report of the Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions issued by the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission. One portion of the report suggested that cognitive bias in a suspect line-up or photo array could be reduced by implementing some simple procedures.
There is an abundance of research that suggests eyewitness identification can be influenced by things that are said or done during the identification process. Most eyewitnesses are untrained civilians who may be for the first time encountering the criminal justice system.
However, we are learning that even highly trained professionals can be influenced by what they know about a case prior to their analysis of evidence.
Fingerprint analysis had been considered the gold standard of evidence. Until recently the FBI described fingerprint identification as 100 percent infallible, that is no longer the case. “There’s going to be, I think, variability anytime there’s a human involved in the process,” FBI expert Melissa Gische told PBS’s Frontline.
What do we know about fingerprints? Impressions of fingerprints are left behind on various surfaces by the natural secretions of sweat. The friction ridges, the raised portion of the epidermis on fingers consisting of one or more connected ridges, are often the point of comparison.
First, an intentional recording of the fingerprint is made with black ink on a white card or recorded digitally. These are often collected after arrest and kept in a database. At a crime scene a “latent print,” the chance recording of a fingerprint deposited on a surface, is captured through chemical methods and brought into a lab for expert analysis.
Fingerprint identification came under scrutiny in 2004. The FBI publicly acknowledged the fingerprint misidentification of an Oregon lawyer wrongfully implicated in a terrorist bombing in Madrid.
Since then, the Department of Justice has begun research to set standards for the analysis of fingerprints. As part of that process, the FBI has implemented “blind verification” of analysis by agents unfamiliar with initial examinations.
Through a study conducted in 2004, cognitive neuro-scientist Itiel Dror found that otherwise competent and well-meaning experts were swayed by what they knew about a case submitted for analysis. Dror’s study demonstrated that if an analyst new that the suspect confessed or was arrested, the analyst’s findings could be influenced. Cognitive bias seeped into the process even with the best trained experts.
The solution may be similar to those suggested for eyewitness identification. Bias can be muted by “blind” line-ups or arrays, where the police officer administering the line-up does not know the suspect. For forensic evidence, a blind analysis where the analyst knows nothing about the case, a step further than the FBI’s blind verification, may equally reduce bias.
Visit Ipso Facto
April 27, 2012
Last fall, I wrote a series of blogs on the Report of the Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions issued by the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission. One portion of the report suggested that cognitive bias in a suspect line-up or photo array could be reduced by implementing some simple procedures.
There is an abundance of research that suggests eyewitness identification can be influenced by things that are said or done during the identification process. Most eyewitnesses are untrained civilians who may be for the first time encountering the criminal justice system.
However, we are learning that even highly trained professionals can be influenced by what they know about a case prior to their analysis of evidence.
Fingerprint analysis had been considered the gold standard of evidence. Until recently the FBI described fingerprint identification as 100 percent infallible, that is no longer the case. “There’s going to be, I think, variability anytime there’s a human involved in the process,” FBI expert Melissa Gische told PBS’s Frontline.
What do we know about fingerprints? Impressions of fingerprints are left behind on various surfaces by the natural secretions of sweat. The friction ridges, the raised portion of the epidermis on fingers consisting of one or more connected ridges, are often the point of comparison.
First, an intentional recording of the fingerprint is made with black ink on a white card or recorded digitally. These are often collected after arrest and kept in a database. At a crime scene a “latent print,” the chance recording of a fingerprint deposited on a surface, is captured through chemical methods and brought into a lab for expert analysis.
Fingerprint identification came under scrutiny in 2004. The FBI publicly acknowledged the fingerprint misidentification of an Oregon lawyer wrongfully implicated in a terrorist bombing in Madrid.
Since then, the Department of Justice has begun research to set standards for the analysis of fingerprints. As part of that process, the FBI has implemented “blind verification” of analysis by agents unfamiliar with initial examinations.
Through a study conducted in 2004, cognitive neuro-scientist Itiel Dror found that otherwise competent and well-meaning experts were swayed by what they knew about a case submitted for analysis. Dror’s study demonstrated that if an analyst new that the suspect confessed or was arrested, the analyst’s findings could be influenced. Cognitive bias seeped into the process even with the best trained experts.
The solution may be similar to those suggested for eyewitness identification. Bias can be muted by “blind” line-ups or arrays, where the police officer administering the line-up does not know the suspect. For forensic evidence, a blind analysis where the analyst knows nothing about the case, a step further than the FBI’s blind verification, may equally reduce bias.
Visit Ipso Facto
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Maryland court says no to DNA collection
Maryland's highest court blocked police in most cases from collecting DNA samples when they arrest suspects in violent crimes and burglaries. The collection of DNA in Maryland is similar to what is done in nearly every state with regard to fingerprints.
The Court of Appeals ruled 5-2 that the state violated Alonzo Jay King Jr.'s constitutional rights by using DNA evidence taken from him after a 2009 assault arrest, reported the Baltimore Sun. That sample led to his conviction in a six-year-old rape case, but the court said it violated King's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches without a warrant. The judges ordered that King's rape case be sent back to Wicomico County Circuit Court for a new trial.
Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, told the Sun he was saddened by the court's decision, noting that it came during Victims' Rights Month. The governor said the law was one of the state's most valuable crime-fighting tools and that he has not ruled out an appeal to the Supreme Court.
"The concept is simple: When we increase the library of DNA samples in our state, we solve more crimes," O'Malley said in a statement, reported by the Sun. "We take more criminals off the streets more quickly and put them in jail for a longer period of time so that they cannot murder, rape or harm other citizens among us."
The state has collected nearly 16,000 DNA samples since the law took effect in January 2009 and used that evidence to gain 58 convictions, including in 34 burglaries and eight rapes. The court did not address whether the state could retain the samples on file.
To read more: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-04-24/news/bs-md-court-ruling-dna-20120424_1_dna-collection-dna-samples-violent-crimes-and-burglaries
The Court of Appeals ruled 5-2 that the state violated Alonzo Jay King Jr.'s constitutional rights by using DNA evidence taken from him after a 2009 assault arrest, reported the Baltimore Sun. That sample led to his conviction in a six-year-old rape case, but the court said it violated King's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches without a warrant. The judges ordered that King's rape case be sent back to Wicomico County Circuit Court for a new trial.
Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, told the Sun he was saddened by the court's decision, noting that it came during Victims' Rights Month. The governor said the law was one of the state's most valuable crime-fighting tools and that he has not ruled out an appeal to the Supreme Court.
"The concept is simple: When we increase the library of DNA samples in our state, we solve more crimes," O'Malley said in a statement, reported by the Sun. "We take more criminals off the streets more quickly and put them in jail for a longer period of time so that they cannot murder, rape or harm other citizens among us."
The state has collected nearly 16,000 DNA samples since the law took effect in January 2009 and used that evidence to gain 58 convictions, including in 34 burglaries and eight rapes. The court did not address whether the state could retain the samples on file.
To read more: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-04-24/news/bs-md-court-ruling-dna-20120424_1_dna-collection-dna-samples-violent-crimes-and-burglaries
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
California looks to reduce prison population
Yesterday, I wrote about California's effort to have voters decide the fate of the state's death penalty. Today, the the focus is on cutting California's prison population, the nation's largest.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the California prison system unveiled an ambitious plan to cut spending by billions of dollars, close a prison and return inmates being housed out of state. This will be done while meeting court-ordered benchmarks on medical care and overcrowding.
In three years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is expected to be 7.5% of the state's total budget, down from an estimated 9.4% in the upcoming fiscal year. This is largely because of realignment, the process of sending low-level offenders to local jails instead of state prisons to comply with a court order to reduce chronic overcrowding.
"California is finally getting its prison costs under control and taking the necessary steps to meet federal court mandates," Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement, reported the Times.
A portion of the plan will require consent from the Legislature, another will require court approval. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its inmate population to 137.5% of prison capacity, the state expects to fall slightly short, at 141% -- a difference of up to 6,000 inmates -- by the June 2013 deadline, reported the Times.
The death penalty effort and the prison reduction effort are both being driven by budgetary constrains not necessarily evidenced based practices. This does not appear to be about what works but rather what 'might' save money.
To read more: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7322025676604055811#editor/target=post;postID=2927715483798373596
According to the Los Angeles Times, the California prison system unveiled an ambitious plan to cut spending by billions of dollars, close a prison and return inmates being housed out of state. This will be done while meeting court-ordered benchmarks on medical care and overcrowding.
In three years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is expected to be 7.5% of the state's total budget, down from an estimated 9.4% in the upcoming fiscal year. This is largely because of realignment, the process of sending low-level offenders to local jails instead of state prisons to comply with a court order to reduce chronic overcrowding.
"California is finally getting its prison costs under control and taking the necessary steps to meet federal court mandates," Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement, reported the Times.
A portion of the plan will require consent from the Legislature, another will require court approval. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its inmate population to 137.5% of prison capacity, the state expects to fall slightly short, at 141% -- a difference of up to 6,000 inmates -- by the June 2013 deadline, reported the Times.
The death penalty effort and the prison reduction effort are both being driven by budgetary constrains not necessarily evidenced based practices. This does not appear to be about what works but rather what 'might' save money.
To read more: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7322025676604055811#editor/target=post;postID=2927715483798373596
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