Digital Commons Network^™

A Necessary And Proper Role For Federal Courts In Prison Reform: The Benjamin V. Malcolm Consentdecrees, Harold Baer Jr., Arminda Bepko

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sexually Violent Predator Legislation And The Sexual Psychopath Act: Will New York "Police" Their Sexual Predators Via Civil Commitment?, Stephanie M. Adduci, M.A.

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

An Integrated Perspective On The Collateral Consequences Of Criminal Convictions And Reentry Issues Faced By Formerly Incarcerated Individuals, Michael Pinard

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the emergent focus on the collateral consequences of criminal convictions and the reentry of formerly incarcerated individuals. Specifically, the article details the ways in which legal scholars, policy analysts, elected officials, legal services organizations and community based organizations have begun to address these components of the criminal justice system. The article argues that these various groups have compartmentalized collateral consequences and reentry by focusing almost exclusively on one component to the exclusion of the other. In doing so, they have narrowed the lens through which to view these components, and have therefore missed opportunities to develop integrated …

Improving Eyewitness Identifications: Hennepin County's Blind Sequential Lineup Pilot Project, Amy Klobuchar, Nancy K. Mehrkens Steblay, Hilary Lindell Caligiuri

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the effectiveness of Hennepin County's blind sequential lineup pilot project in improving eyewitness identification accuracy. By implementing a protocol where photos are shown one at a time by an administrator unaware of the suspect, the study aims to reduce misidentifications and enhance the reliability of eyewitness testimony in criminal investigations.

Leaving Homeroom In Handcuffs: Why An Over-Reliance On Law Enforcement To Ensure School Safety Is Detrimental To Children, Jennie Rabinowitz

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note critiques the increasing reliance on law enforcement and criminal justice systems to address school safety, arguing that such measures are often costly, ineffective, and disproportionately impact minority students. It advocates for alternative strategies, such as early intervention, education, and student empowerment, to prevent violence and create safer school environments. These approaches, the note suggests, not only reduce reliance on punitive measures but also address underlying issues and foster positive student outcomes.

Making America ‘The Land Of Second Chances’: Restoring Socioeconomic Rights For Ex-Offenders, Deborah N. Archer, Kele S. Williams

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Past, Present, And Future Of Violent Crime Federalism, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The history of the federal involvement in violent crime frequently is told as one of entrepreneurial or opportunistic action by presidential administrations and Congress. The problem with this story, however, is that it treats state and local governments as objects of federal initiatives, not as independent agents. Appreciating that state and local governments courted and benefited from the federal interest is important for understanding the past two decades, but also for understanding the institutional strains created by the absolute priority the feds have given to counterterrorism since September 11, 2001. Intergovernmental relations are at a crossroads. For two decades, the …

Death And Deterrence Redux: Science, Law And Causal Reasoning On Capital Punishment, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

The essay shows that the new deterrence studies are fraught with numerous technical and conceptual errors: inappropriate methods of statistical analysis, failures to consider several relevant factors that drive murder rates such as drug epidemics, missing data on key variables in key states, the tyranny of a few outlier states and years, weak to non-existent tests of concurrent effects of incarceration, statistical confounding of murder rates with death sentences, failure to consider the general performance of the criminal justice system, artifactual results from truncated time frames, and the absence of any direct test of the components of contemporary theoretical constructions …

Indecent Standards: The Case Of U.S. Versus Weldon Angelos, Eva Nilsen

Faculty Scholarship

In today's highly punitive culture, perhaps Weldon Angelos' fifty-five-year sentence does not seem unusual. He's a 25-year-old man who was convicted in December 2003 of selling marijuana, possessing firearms while drug dealing, and money laundering. ³ The facts proven at trial are that on three occasions in June and July, 2002, Angelos sold eight one-ounce bags of marijuana for $350 each to a government informant. ⁴ The purchaser testified that a firearm was visible during two of these drug sales.⁵ Police seized another gun from Angelos' home five months later pursuant to a warrant.⁶ At no time was …

Detection Avoidance, Chris William Sanchirico

ExpressO

In practice, the problem of law enforcement is half a matter of what the government does to catch violators and half a matter of what violators do to avoid getting caught. In the theory of law enforcement, however, although the state’s efforts at "detection" play a decisive role, offenders’ efforts at "detection avoidance" are largely ignored. Always problematic, this imbalance has become critical in recent years as episodes of corporate misconduct spur new interest in punishing process crimes like obstruction of justice and perjury. This article adds detection avoidance to the existing theoretical frame with an eye toward informing the …

Prison Rape Elimination Act (Prea) Summary Of Responses From Juvenile Focus Group On Staff Sexual Misconduct And Youth On Youth Sexual Assault (Focus Group: Juvenile Justice Agencies - Addressing Rape Of Youth In Correctional Custody, Overview Of Current Efforts, Close Out And Reactions (Delivery Strategies, Products)), Brenda V. Smith, Andie Moss

Presentations

Responses to thirteen questions regarding curriculum related to staff sexual misconduct with youth and youth on youth sexual assault are provided. "The objectives of the focus groups included: (1) to gather data that will inform NIC [National Institute of Corrections] in how to best develop a juvenile oriented curriculum on staff sexual misconduct; (2) to gather data that will guide NIC in identifying the major staff sexual misconduct related issues in juvenile corrections, including what stakeholders should be consulted, and what strategies should be utilized in naming the issues and building knowledge about the PREA [Prison Rape Elimination Act]; and …

Federal Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences: Weapon In The War On Drugs Or War On Blacks, Crystal S. Byrd

McCabe Thesis Collection

This study will attempt to determine the direct and indirect consequences of Federal mandatory minimum drug sentences and drug policy to African Americans. It will examine statistics on drug use, arrest, convictions, and incarceration of African Americans. These statistics will be gathered from several government agencies and will be used to determine if American drug policy discriminates against African Americans. The purpose of this study is to inform and educate African Americans about Federal mandatory minimum drug sentences and the impact they are having on Black communities and to provide links to resources that can be used to promote drug …

Probation Violators: An Examination Of Felony Male Adult Probation Violators In The State Of Nevada, Stefanie Wilson Palacio

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Eighteenth Century Public Humiliation Penalties In Twenty-First Century America: The "Shameful" Return Of "Scarlet Letter" Punishments In U.S. V. Gementera, Paul Ziel

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Revoke First, Ask Questions Later: Challenging Minnesota’S Unconstitutional Pre-Hearing Revocation Scheme, Jeffrey S. Sheridan, Erika Burkhart Booth

William Mitchell Law Review

This analysis of the constitutionality of Minnesota’s prehearing revocation scheme begins by explaining the mechanics of Minnesota’s implied consent statute. Because the United States Supreme Court has established minimum procedural due process protections that must be afforded drivers, this backdrop is examined. After considering the federal standards for procedural due process, the numerous changes to Minnesota’s implied consent statute will be addressed. Next, the current challenge will be discussed, including the factual basis for the challenge, the arguments for the statute’s unconstitutionality, and the district court’s decision. Finally, this note will conclude that, given the dramatic increase in the private …

Neither Big Brother Nor Dead Brother: The Need For A New Fourth Amendment Standard Applying To Emerging Technologies, Casey Holland

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Difficult Times In Kentucky Corrections—Aftershocks Of A "Tough On Crime" Philosophy, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The objective of this article is to cast some light on corrections system problems brought on by elevated (and possibly unnecessary) levels of incarceration, and especially on problems that trouble the Kentucky corrections system and threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the state's justice system. Part II describes how the country came to embrace sentencing policies and practices capable of producing "a penal system of a severity unmatched in the Western world.” Part III describes Kentucky's embrace of equally harsh sentencing policies and practices and the inmate population explosion that has occurred as a direct result of those policies and …

Chained To The Past: An Overview Of Criminal Expungement Law In Minnesota —State V. Schultz , Jon Geffen, Stefanie Letze

William Mitchell Law Review

This article explains Minnesota’s expungement law and analyzes a recent Minnesota Court of Appeals decision that limits the expungement remedy. Specifically, this article begins by examining the effects of a criminal record and the purposes of expungement.8 An expungement’s main purpose is to seal an individual’s criminal record from public view, thereby allowing the individual to fully reintegrate into society. This article then provides an overview of current expungement law and its history. This article also explains different types of criminal records and the different mechanisms used to seal each type of record. The focus of this article is on …

State V. Askerooth: Re-Applying The Terry Principle Of Reasonableness To Traffic Stops Under The Minnesota Constitution, Jodie Carlson

William Mitchell Law Review

This note first discusses the Minnesota Supreme Court’s use of the Minnesota Constitution to provide broader protections for its citizens in the area of Fourth Amendment search and seizure law. This note then explains the rationale for the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision in Askerooth. Finally, this note discusses the Atwater decision and whether it was necessary for the Minnesota Supreme Court to decide Askerooth under the state constitution.

State Sentencing Policy And New Prison Admissions, Ben Trachtenberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

As the academy's focus has turned to sentencing in the wake of Blakely v. Washington and United States v. Booker, most commentators have continued their benign neglect of actual sentencing practices as they occur in state courts, not to mention whether and how such policies are effective in achieving the goals of criminal justice.

This Note examines trends in state sentencing policies and prison populations from the perspective of a would-be state reformer hoping to decrease her state's prison budget. Economic pressures, efficiency arguments, and social justice claims have combined to cause some states to desire lower prison populations, …

The Challenge Of Motive In The Criminal Law, Elaine M. Chiu

Faculty Publications

The purchase of illegal drugs by an undercover police officer is commonly known as a “buy and bust” operation. In the twenty-first century, the stakes in the longstanding war on drugs are high as law enforcement and national security agencies join forces to confront the disturbing ties between terrorism and illegal narcotics. In addition to being a weapon in the arsenal of law enforcement, the buy and bust operation also tells an interesting story about motive in the criminal law. This article uses the simple street sale to demonstrate how the criminal law suffers from its ambivalent attitude towards the …

Dangerous Criminals Or Dangerous Courts: Foreign Felonies As Predicate Offenses Under Section 922(G)(1) Of The Gun Control Act Of 1968, Aron J. Estaver

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

There is currently a split among U.S. Circuit Courts regarding 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), a provision of the Gun Control Act of 1968 that makes it a crime for any individual "who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year to possess or receive a firearm in interstate or foreign commerce or affecting interstate commerce." The U.S. Supreme Court will examine the split later this year when it hears the case of United States v. Small. The Author argues that the Supreme Court should determine that Section 922(g)(1) of the …

How Earl Warren's Twenty-Two Years In Law Enforcement Affected His Work As Chief Justice, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Before becoming governor of California, Earl Warren had spent his entire legal career, twenty-two years, in law enforcement. Professor Kamisar maintains that this experience significantly influenced Warren's work as a Supreme Court justice and gave him a unique perspective into police interrogation and other police practices. This article discusses some of Warren's experiences in law enforcement and searches for evidence of that experience in Warren's opinions. For example, when Warren was head of the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, he and his deputies not only relied on confessions in many homicide cases but also themselves interrogated homicide suspects. The seeds …

The Story Of United States V. Salerno: The Constitutionality Of Regulatory Detention, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

Is it constitutional for the government to lock up people without waiting to convict them at trial? If it is, what are the limits on the government's power to lock up anyone it deems dangerous? These are issues raised by preventive detention provisions in bail statutes, and addressed in United States v. Salerno. The controversy about these bail statutes, once so hotly contested, has died down. But the broader questions about the government's power to detain suspected criminals without giving them the benefit of full criminal process remain unresolved, and have taken on a new urgency as the nation confronts …

An Analysis Of The Nypd's Stop-And-Frisk Policy In The Context Of Claims Of Racial Bias, Andrew Gelman, Alex Kiss, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Recent studies by police departments and researchers confirm that police stop racial and ethnic minority citizens more often than whites, relative to their proportions in the population. However, it has been argued stop rates more accurately reflect rates of crimes committed by each ethnic group, or that stop rates reflect elevated rates in specific social areas such as neighborhoods or precincts. Most of the research on stop rates and police-citizen interactions has focused on traffic stops, and analyses of pedestrian stops are rare. In this paper, we analyze data from 175,000 pedestrian stops by the New York Police Department over …

Against Prediction: Sentencing, Policing, And Punishing In An Actuarial Age, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

Actuarial methods – i.e., the use of statistical rather than clinical methods on large datasets of criminal offending rates to determine different levels of offending associated with one or more group traits, in order to (1) predict past, present or future criminal behavior and (2) administer a criminal justice outcome – now permeates the criminal law and its enforcement. With the single exception of racial profiling against African-Americans and Hispanics, most people view the turn to the actuarial as efficient, rational, and wealth-maximizing. The fact is, law enforcement agencies can detect more crime with the same resources if they investigate …

How Racial Profiling And Other Unnecessary Post-9/11 Anti-Immigrant Measures Have Exacerbated Long-Standing Discrimination Against Latino Citizens And Immigrants, Katherine Culliton

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Latinos are uniting with other immigrant communities and people of color in being extremely concerned about unnecessary post-9/11 actions that have led to civil liberties and civil rights violations.1 Although the Latino voting power has presumably increased, infringements of Latinos' and Latinas' civil rights appear to be on the rise. This is because many of the measures taken in the name of fighting terrorism have not been effective at finding terrorists, but have resulted in civil liberties and civil rights violations. Lessening of civil liberties and due process protections disproportionately affects Latino communities, who are less likely to have access …

Presentation By Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Kathy Patterson

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Chimera And The Cop: Local Enforcement Of Federal Immigration Law, Michael M. Hethmon

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The questions of if, when, and how local police can enforce federal immigration laws go to the heart of the legal hunt for the chimera that is contemporary American immigration law.1 In the opening years of this century, the estimated illegal alien population in the United States has reached historic levels. The national response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 transformed what had been largely a municipal conflict between ethnic organizations, the immigration bar, and local governments in high-immigration jurisdictions into a much larger national debate about national security, civil liberties, and federalism.z After the devastating attacks on the …

The New Russian Roulette: Brady Revisited, Jannice E. Joseph

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.