Digital Commons Network^™

Evidentiary Rulings As Police Reform, Seth W. Stoughton

Faculty Publications

How can law be a mechanism for police reform? The most familiar answer, for legal scholars who work on the regulation of law enforcement, is as a deterrent: the law sets some limit on police behavior and imposes some sanction for violations. But the deterrent model is not the only method through which the law can affect police behaviors. In this article, Stoughton contends that evidentiary considerations have the potential to change both police training and agency culture. Stoughton’s contention is based on the observation that evidentiary considerations have shaped not just police behavior but also the culture of policing …

Banning The Bing: Why Extreme Solitary Confinement Is Cruel And Far Too Usual Punishment, Elizabeth Bennion

Indiana Law Journal

The United States engages in extreme practices of solitary confinement that maximize isolation and sensory deprivation of prisoners. The length is often indefinite and can stretch for weeks, months, years, or decades. Under these conditions, both healthy prisoners and those with preexisting mental-health issues often severely deteriorate both mentally and physically. New science and data provide increased insight into why and how human beings (and other social animals) deteriorate and suffer in such environments. The science establishes that meaningful social contacts and some level of opportunity for sensory enrichment are minimum human necessities. When those necessities are denied, the high …

Process Costs And Police Discretion, Charlie Gerstein, J. J. Prescott

Articles

Cities across the country are debating police discretion. Much of this debate centers on “public order” offenses. These minor offenses are unusual in that the actual sentence violators receive when convicted — usually time already served in detention — is beside the point. Rather, public order offenses are enforced prior to any conviction by subjecting accused individuals to arrest, detention, and other legal process. These “process costs” are significant; they distort plea bargaining to the point that the substantive law behind the bargained-for conviction is largely irrelevant. But the ongoing debate about police discretion has ignored the centrality of these …

Prisoners' Rights Lawyers' Strategies For Preserving The Role Of The Courts, Margo Schlanger

Articles

This Article is part of the University of Miami Law Review’s Leading from Below Symposium. It canvasses prisoners’ lawyers’ strategies prompted by the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”). The strategies comply with the statute’s limits yet also allow U.S. district courts to remain a forum for the vindication of the constitutional rights of at least some of the nation’s millions of prisoners. After Part I’s introduction, Part II summarizes in several charts the PLRA’s sharp impact on the prevalence and outcomes of prison litigation, but demonstrates that there are still many cases and situations in which courts continue to …

Imprisonment Inertia And Public Attitudes Toward "Truth In Sentencing", Michael O'Hear, Darren Wheelock

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mass Incarceration: Why Are Solutions So Difficult In California?, Michael Vitiello

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

An Overlooked Key To Reversing Mass Incarceration: Reforming The Law To Reduce Prosecutorial Power In Plea Bargaining, Cynthia Alkon

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Dignity And The Eighth Amendment: A New Approach To Challenging Solitary Confinement, Laura L. Rovner

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails has come under increasing scrutiny. Over the past few months, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy all but invited constitutional challenges to the use of solitary confinement, while President Obama asked, “Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day for months, sometime for years at a time?” Even some of the most notorious prisons and jails, including California’s Pelican Bay State Prison and New York’s Rikers Island, are reforming their use of solitary confinement because of successful litigation …

Remarks On Collateral Consequences Of Mass Incarceration, William C. Hubbard

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

The Smarter Sentencing Act: Achieving Fairness Through Financially Responsible Federal Sentencing Policies, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 911 (2015), Colleen Shannon

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

First Amendment Right To Record Police: When Clearly Established Is Not Clear Enough, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 101 (2015), Matthew Slaughter

UIC Law Review

First Amendment jurisprudence supports the recognized right to film police activity as articulated by the circuits. Some commenting circuits have held the right is clearly established, while others have declined to extend their holdings so far. Practically, citizens are restrained from freely exercising their right to film police activity in public even in circuits that have found the right clearly established. Because reasonable restrictions have not yet been clearly articulated, such uncertainty will inevitably lead to a chilling effect on the otherwise protected activity. A national standard should affirmatively memorialize such a right, as well as articulate objective reasonable restrictions …

Slavery By Another Name: 'Voluntary' Immigrant Detainee Labor And The Thirteenth Amendment, Anita Sinha

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

During the McCarthy era, Congress passed an obscure law authorizing detained immigrants to work for a payment of one dollar a day. The government justified the provision, which was modeled after the 1949 Geneva Convention’s protections for prisoners of war, in the context of the period’s relative heightened detentions of noncitizens. Soon afterwards, the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 diminished the use of detention drastically, and the practice of detainee labor lay dormant for decades. Modern changes to immigration law and its systems have rendered immigration detention today the largest mass incarceration movement in U.S. history. …

Cost-Effective Juvenile Justice Reform: Lessons From The Just Beginning “Baby Elmo” Teen Parenting Program, Shani M. King, Rachel Barr, Jennifer Woolard

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article reviews the literature describing the rise of mass incarceration and its effects on individuals, families, and communities. The Article then describes the Just Beginning “Baby Elmo” Program, a cost-effective, sustainable parental instruction and child visitation intervention created for use with incarcerated teen parents. This intervention is designed to increase the quality of interaction between parent and child, increasing the likelihood that the teen father and child will form a positive relationship and maintain that relationship after release from detention—thereby increasing the child’s resilience and reducing the risk of recidivism for the teen father. The “Baby Elmo” Program is …

Reducing Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Jails: Recommendations For Local Practice, Jessica M. Eaglin, Danyelle Solomon

Articles by Maurer Faculty

People of color are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. One in three African American men born today will be incarcerated in his lifetime. In some cities, African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested when stopped by police. With the national debate national focused on race, crime, and punishment, criminal justice experts are examining how to reduce racial disparities in our prisons and jails, which often serve as initial entry points for those who become entangled in the criminal justice system.

This report, which relies on input from 25 criminal justice leaders, pinpoints the drivers of racial …

A Description Analysis Of Disciplinary Cases Of Law Enforcement Officers In The State Of Florida Over A Ten-Year Period, Brian V. Frank

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

A distrust of government is as old as the country itself. Police officers hold a great deal of power, as they have the ability to take the one thing the American people hold sacred: freedom. Ethical violations by police officers enrage the public and cause great concern for law enforcement administrators. Past research has focused on the individual aspects within law enforcement along with criminological and sociological theories. The most recent research in law enforcement ethics shows fragmentation and a lack of standardization within the areas of screening, training, and managing for integrity. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, …

Building The Case Against Human Trafficking: Developing And Evaluating A Training Module For Law Enforcement Officials, Katie Sanders

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since the passage of federal legislation to address human trafficking in the United States, efforts to measure and combat the crime have continued to grow (Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000). Measuring human trafficking has continued to be a difficult task for researchers, law enforcement, and victim services providers. The combined efforts of these groups has lead to the recognition that without more widespread identification of victims and perpetrators of human trafficking—a crime referred to as modern-day slavery—estimates will continue to be inaccurate. In order to improve the identification process, this specific proposal focuses on law enforcement …

Racial Profiling In The War On Drugs Meets The Immigration Removal Process: The Case Of Moncrieffe V. Holder, Kevin R. Johnson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In Moncrieffe v. Holder, the Supreme Court held that the Board of Immigration Appeals could not remove a long-term lawful permanent resident from the United States based on a single misdemeanor conviction for possession of a small amount of marijuana. The decision clarified the meaning of an “aggravated felony” for purposes of removal, an important question under the U.S. immigration laws. In the removal proceedings, Adrian Moncrieffe, a black immigrant from Jamaica, did not challenge his arrest and drug conviction. Consequently, the Supreme Court did not review the facts surrounding, or the lawfulness of, the criminal prosecution. Nonetheless, the traffic …

Lessons Learned From Ferguson: Ending Abusive Collection Of Criminal Justice Debt, Neil L. Sobol

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Reducing Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Jails: Recommendations For Local Practice, Jessica M. Eaglin, Danyelle Solomon

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

People of color are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. One in three African American men born today will be incarcerated in his lifetime. In some cities, African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested when stopped by police. With the national debate national focused on race, crime, and punishment, criminal justice experts are examining how to reduce racial disparities in our prisons and jails, which often serve as initial entry points for those who become entangled in the criminal justice system.

This report, which relies on input from 25 criminal justice leaders, pinpoints the drivers of racial …

Tactical Police Officers, Romantic Attachment And Job-Related Stress: A Mixed-Methods Study, Natalie Fagan

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Stressors stemming from tactical policing such as social isolation and increased work responsibilities often spill over into the home and affect personal relationships. Using attachment theory as the guiding framework, this mixed methods study aimed to obtain a better understanding of the factors involved in maintaining long-term relationships between tactical officers and their romantic partners. Phase I consisted of surveys administered to tactical officers in Kentucky and measured romantic partner attachment, organizational and operational police stressors. Research questions examined how operational and organizational stress correlated with attachment while controlling for demographics. Analysis indicated that holding a rank above an officer …

The Politics Of Botched Executions, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

In this symposium essay, I explore the politics of botched executions, discussing state responses to the latest round of executions gone wrong and the ways in which those responses matter. Part I recounts four botched executions in 2014 and the state responses that accompanied them. Part II makes three observations about those responses-one about states' fealty to the death penalty, one about backlash politics and the scope of the public relations problem, and one about the changing cultural construct of lethal injection in the United States. Part III explores how state responses to botched executions (or the lack thereof) might …

Good Cop -- Bad Cop: Police Violence And The Child’S Mind, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

Police violence against citizens lately has gripped the nation’s attention because of recent cases in Ferguson, Missouri; Staten Island, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; and elsewhere. Children in those communities and nationwide have been directly and indirectly exposed to these well-publicized incidences of police killings and the aftermath of those killings.

Exposure to police violence may cause children physical, cognitive, emotional, and social trauma. Moreover, the exposure may negatively influence children’s mindsets regarding the criminal justice system and police.

Undoubtedly, these events of late are not the first and only instances in which children have been exposed to physically …

Increasing Police Accountability: Restoring Trust And Legitimacy Through The Appointment Of Independent Prosecutors, Kami Chavis Simmons

Faculty Publications

Criminal prosecution of police officers raises a myriad of issues that this Article will begin to explore. First, while there has been a paradigmatic shift in police accountability in recent decades from remedies focusing on individual officers to those focusing on broad organizational reform, this Article will explore the important role that the deterrence rationale of criminal prosecution might play as one tool to address police misconduct. Second, other than deterrence, criminal prosecutions serve numerous goals, including retribution for the harms imposed upon the victims and society for the crimes. Historically, many racial minorities, when compared with their white counterparts, …

Storming The Castle: Fernandez V. California And The Waning Warrant Requirement, Joshua Bornstein

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Promise And Peril Of The Anti-Commandeering Rule In The Homeland Security Era: Immigrant Sanctuary As An Illustrative Case, Trevor George Gardner

Articles

This brief narrative captures the second wave of “immigrant sanctuary”—a term used to describe the state and local government practice of restricting police departments from participation in immigration enforcement. The immigrant sanctuaries of the Homeland Security era are of unique significance given the ongoing dialogue among legal scholars regarding the significance of local law enforcement participation in national and domestic security administration after 2001, as well as the legal framework structuring cooperative security governance.

Despite the broad powers wielded by the federal government in security administration, the Supreme Court’s holding in Printz v. United States serves as a substantial check …

Improving Economic Sanctions In The States, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Contesting Unmodulated Deprivation: Sauvé V Canada And The Normative Limits Of Punishment, Efrat Arbel

All Faculty Publications

Despite a pressing need for judicial guidance on the legalities of administrative segregation, Canadian courts have yet to outline clear, comprehensive principles by which to assess its deployment. While some courts have rebuked the Correctional Service of Canada for the improper use of administrative segregation in specific cases, the regulation of the practice more broadly has proven elusive. This article turns to the Supreme Court of Canada’s prisoner voting rights decision in Sauvé v Canada for guidance in this regard. Since its release in 2002, Sauvé has been applied largely in cases involving political rights, and rarely in cases involving …

Court Of Appeals Of New York, People V. Johnson, Denise Shanley

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Racial Justice Study: An Examination Of Ticket Citations In The City Of Mankato, Minnesota, Meagan Hammers, C. J. Hays, Hannah Laniado

Public Sociology Publications and Projects

This study examines if there is racial disparity in policing in the city of Mankato, Minnesota by examining all traffic ticket citations given for a six-month period in 2014. The authors created a data set and examined statistical relationships between the observed race of those receiving tickets and the types of tickets received. This study discovered statistically significant findings of over policing of minorities; while minorities represent roughly ten percent the population in Mankato, they make up approximately 22% of the population cited. Further, minorities were about three times more likely than whites to receive a ticket for administrative offenses, …

Police, State Security Forces And Constitutionalism Of Human Rights In Zambia, Charles Mwalimu

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.