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Juvenile Diversion Programs: Comparing Minnesota County Characteristics To Determine Their Role In Pre-Trial Diversion Programs, Kaydin Schmitt

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The main goal of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate offenders and prevent youth from entering the adult justice system. One approach is through the use of diversion programs. The state of Minnesota requires all counties to offer at least one type of pre-trial diversion program. However, there is no ubiquitous program; the number and types of programs differ between counties, and the reason for these differences between jurisdictions is under-researched. I analyze the number and types of pre-trial diversion programs in Minnesota counties and compare them to various county characteristics to determine which characteristics play a role in …

Understanding Violent-Crime Recidivism, J.J. Prescott, Benjamin Pyle, Sonja B. Starr

Articles

People convicted of violent crimes constitute a majority of the imprisoned population but are generally ignored by existing policies aimed at reducing mass incarceration. Serious efforts to shrink the large footprint of the prison system will need to recognize this fact. This point is especially pressing at the time of this writing, as states and the federal system consider large-scale prison releases motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those convicted of violent crimes constitute a large majority of older prisoners, who are extremely vulnerable to the spread of the virus behind bars. Excluding them from protective measures will deeply undermine those …

Equality's Understudies, Aziz Z. Huq

Michigan Law Review

Review of Robert L. Tsai's Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation.

What Recourse Do Vulnerable Immigrants Have?: Violations Of The Vawa Confidentiality Provisions And The Pursuit Of An Even Playing Field, Trevor S. Gallaway

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Divided States Of America: Why The Right To Counsel Is Imperative For Migrant Children In Removal Proceedings, Catrina L. Guerrero

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Lessons Learned, Lessons Offered: Creating A Domestic Violence Drug Court, Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, Dr. Stacy Speedlin Gonzalez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Family Secrets And Relational Privacy: Protecting Not-So-Personal, Sensitive Information From Public Disclosure, J. Lyn Entrikin

University of Miami Law Review

This Article seeks to map contemporary relational privacy issues in the context of the evolving “right of privacy” in the United States. Generally, the Article explains why the so-called “personal” right of informational privacy, whatever its legal foundations, cannot be realistically confined to an individual right given the dramatic scientific and technological developments in the twenty-first century. In particular, the Article proposes that both state and federal law must grapple with the inherently relational nature of privacy interests with respect to DNA profiles, which inherently implicate the privacy interests of one’s biological relatives, whether known or unknown.

Part I summarizes …

Ten Years Fighting Hate, David A. Hall

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (“the Act”). One of the goals of the Act was to broaden protections against crimes motivated by hatred for a person’s group membership (her perceived race, national origin, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or religion). The Act intends to address the need for US law to recognize the particularly destructive and virulent nature of crimes motivated by this kind of animus toward minority groups. Such crimes can often have an outsized effect, because they are intended to …

Facing The Future With Fosta: Examining The Allow States And Victims To Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act Of 2017, Caitlyn Burnitis

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

On April 11, 2018, President Trump signed the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) package into effect. This law amends Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act that provides safe harbors for website hosts. Under the amended law, these safe harbor laws that provide websites civil liability immunity for the actions of their users would now exclude enforcement of federal and state sex trafficking laws. While many praised the passage of this law, many others raised concerns about its effect on free speech, prosecution, and sex workers. …

The Martin Institute Prints, Spring 2020, Stonehill College: The Martin Institute For Law And Society

The Martin Institute: Prints

No abstract provided.

Non-Traditional Church Involvement As A Life-Course Turning Point: Qualitative Interviews With Religious Offenders, William Hunter Holt

Dissertations

This research project conducted and then analyzed qualitative interviews from former and current addicts and criminal offenders who are voluntarily participating in the Christian faith at the same non-traditional, Protestant church. An abridged case study of this church is also provided for background and context. Life-course theory and grounded theory are utilized.

Both the offenders and this church were chosen in an attempt to better understand how the offenders’ involvement at this house of worship, along with their faith in general, have impacted them. Obtaining the perspectives of the offender is essential for three reasons. First, qualitative research conducted in …

The Revolving Door Of Recidivism, Laura E. Bull

Classical Conversations

With the rise in the use of prisons, recidivism also grew. Recidivism, in the broadest sense, is the act of a past offender coming back into contact with the justice system. Prisons have been used as far back as the fourth century, but over time their purpose has changed. Today in the United States, the main purpose of prisons is rehabilitation. The most recent law, the First Steps Act, reflects the desire to reduce the trend of recidivism. Many programs have been used as a method of reducing recidivism. Recidivism is a cycle of pain, creating jaded prisoners and placing …

Debt Bondage: How Private Collection Agencies Keep The Formerly Incarcerated Tethered To The Criminal Justice System, Bryan L. Adamson

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article examines the constitutionality of statutes which allow courts to transfer outstanding legal financial obligations to private debt collection agencies. In Washington State, the clerk of courts can transfer the legal financial obligation of a formerly incarcerated person if he or she is only thirty days late making a payment. Upon transfer, the debt collection agencies can assess a “collection fee” of up to 50% of the first $100.000 of the unpaid legal financial obligation, and up to 35% of the unpaid debt over $100,000. This fee becomes part of the LFO debt imposed at sentencing, and like that …

From Public Health To Public Wealth: The Case For Economic Justice, Barbara L. Atwell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines how we can overlay the principle of serving the common good, which undergirds public health law, onto financial well-being. It suggests that we apply public health law principles to corporate law and culture. In matters of public health, we view quite broadly states' police power to protect the public good. Government is also empowered to protect the general welfare in matters of financial well-being. Using the “general welfare” as a guidepost, this Article challenges the conventional wisdom that corporations exist solely to maximize profit and shareholder value to the exclusion of virtually everything else. It proposes two …

Mhpaea & Marble Cake: Parity & The Forgotten Frame Of Federalism, Taleed El-Sabawi

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Safe Consumption Sites And The Perverse Dynamics Of Federalism In The Aftermath Of The War On Drugs, Deborah Ahrens

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In this Article, I explore the complicated regulatory and federalism issues posed by creating safe consumption sites for drug users—an effort which would regulate drugs through use of a public health paradigm. This Article details the difficulties that localities pursuing such sites and other non-criminal-law responses have faced as a result of both federal and state interference. It contrasts those difficulties with the carte blanche local and state officials typically receive from federal regulators when creatively adopting new punitive policies to combat drugs. In so doing, this Article identifies systemic asymmetries of federalism that threaten drug policy reform. While traditional …

Recognizing The Need For Mental Health Reform In The Texas Department Of Criminal Justice, Kara Mchorse

St. Mary's Law Journal

The ways in which mental health care and the criminal justice system interact are in desperate need of reform in Texas. The rate of mental illness in Texas is higher than the current state of mental health care can provide for. While state hospitals were once the primary care facilities of those with mental illness, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has taken on that role in the last few decades; and when the criminal justice system becomes entangled with mental health care, it often leads to “unmitigated disaster.” If Texas continues to allow the TDCJ to act as …

What Can We Expect Of Law And Religion In 2020?, Leslie C. Griffin

SMU Law Review Forum

The United States is in a religion-friendly mood—or at least its three branches of government are. The Supreme Court is turning away from its Free Exercise Clause analysis that currently holds that every religious person must obey the law. At the same time, the Court is rejecting its old Establishment Clause analysis that the government cannot practice or support religion. The old model of separation of church and state is gone, replaced by an ever-growing unity between church and state. This Article examines how much union of church and state this Court might establish.

Defending Progressive Prosecution: A Review Of "Charged" By Emily Bazelon, Jeffrey Bellin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

"Progressive prosecutors" are taking over District Attorney's Offices across the nation with a mandate to reform the criminal justice system from the inside. Emily Bazelon's new book, Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, chronicles this potentially transformative moment in American criminal justice.

This Essay highlights the importance of Charged to modern criminal justice debates and leverages its concrete framing to offer a generally applicable theory of prosecutor-driven criminal justice reform. The theory seeks to reconcile reformers' newfound embrace of prosecutorial discretion with long-standing worries, both inside and outside the academy, about the dangerous accumulation …

Unsecured (Black) Bodies: How Baltimore Foreshadows The Dangers Of Racially Targeted Dragnet Policing Let Loose By Utah V. Strieff, Lucius T. Outlaw Iii

New Mexico Law Review

Through Utah v. Strieff, the Supreme Court has added to law enforcement’s arsenal of stripping people of their citizenship and humanity. This article strives to add to the growing criticism of Strieff in three ways.

First, it adds to the chorus of work exposing and criticizing the flawed legal reasoning of the majority opinion.

Next, by using Baltimore, Maryland’s recent policing history, this article shows how racially targeted dragnet policing was already a fact of life pre-Strieff for many black residents of our cities, and how this discriminatory policing tactic is fortified and encouraged by Strieff.

Finally, …

Online Sex Trafficking Hysteria: Flawed Policies, Ignored Human Rights, And Censorship, Regina A. Russo

Cleveland State Law Review

On April 11, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) into law. The law, passed with bipartisan support, created a new federal offense that prohibits the use or operation of websites with the intent to "promote" or "facilitate" prostitution, expanded existing liability for federal sex trafficking offenses, and amended Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Touted as the "most important law protecting Internet speech," section 230 provides broad protection for online intermediaries that host or republish speech. It immunizes online intermediaries from liability for the things that third-party users …

Can Courts Stop Citizens From Prosecuting Criminal Cases Under The Clean Water Act?, Hannah Gardenswartz

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

On Beauty And Policing, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

“To protect and serve” is the motto of police departments from Los Angeles to Cape Town. When police officers deviate from the twin goals of protection and service, for example by using excessive force or by maintaining hostile relations with the community, scholars recommend more training, more oversight, or more resources in policing. However, police appear to be motivated by a superseding goal in the area of sex work policing. In some places, the policing of sex workers is connected to police officers’ perceptions of beauty, producing a hierarchy of desirable bodies as enforced by those sworn to protect and …

Access To Algorithms, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Federal, state, and local governments increasingly depend on automated systems — often procured from the private sector — to make key decisions about civil rights and civil liberties. When individuals affected by these decisions seek access to information about the algorithmic methodologies that produced them, governments frequently assert that this information is proprietary and cannot be disclosed.

Recognizing that opaque algorithmic governance poses a threat to civil rights and liberties, scholars have called for a renewed focus on transparency and accountability for automated decision making. But scholars have neglected a critical avenue for promoting public accountability and transparency for automated …

The Algorithmic Divide And Equality In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In the age of artificial intelligence, highly sophisticated algorithms have been deployed to provide analysis, detect patterns, optimize solutions, accelerate operations, facilitate self-learning, minimize human errors and biases and foster improvements in technological products and services. Notwithstanding these tremendous benefits, algorithms and intelligent machines do not provide equal benefits to all. Just as the digital divide has separated those with access to the Internet, information technology and digital content from those without, an emerging and ever-widening algorithmic divide now threatens to take away the many political, social, economic, cultural, educational and career opportunities provided by machine learning and artificial intelligence. …

On Beauty And Policing, I. India Thusi

Northwestern University Law Review

“To protect and serve” is the motto of police departments from Los Angeles to Cape Town. When police officers deviate from the twin goals of protection and service, for example by using excessive force or by maintaining hostile relations with the community, scholars recommend more training, more oversight, or more resources in policing. However, police appear to be motivated by a superseding goal in the area of sex work policing. In some places, the policing of sex workers is connected to police officers’ perceptions of beauty, producing a hierarchy of desirable bodies as enforced by those sworn to protect and …

Blue Lives & The Permanence Of Racism, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In true dystopian form, the killing of unarmed Black people by the police has sparked a national narrative about the suffering of police officers. “Blue Lives Matter” has become the rallying call for those offended by the suggestion that we should hold police officers accountable for killing unarmed Black people. According to a December 2016 poll, 61% of Americans believed that there was a “war on police,” and 68% of Whites had a favorable view of the police as compared to 40% of Blacks. Lawmakers around the country have been proposing Blue Lives Matter laws that make it a hate …

The Right To Access To Justice: Its Conceptual Architecture, Daniel Bonilla Maldonado

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The aim of this article is descriptive and analytical, rather than normative. This article aims to contribute to the current understanding of the ways in which modern legal consciousness builds, and is built by, the concept of access to justice. This concept, as part of the web of meanings that structures modern legal culture, provides the context in which modern subjects make sense of who they are and how they should interact with the world around them. This article examines the subjectivities, conceptual geographies, and interpretations of history created by the right to access to justice. It also examines a …

Movement Lawyering, Scott L. Cummings

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article examines the relation between movement lawyering and American legal theory, explores the meaning and content of movement lawyering in the contemporary American context, and reflects on the implications of movement lawyering for the theory and practice of access to justice around the globe. It suggests that the rise of movement lawyering signals frustration with process-oriented solutions to fundamental problems of inequality and discrimination in the legal system, and challenges access to justice proponents to frame their work in connection with a political strategy that builds on movements for progressive legal change. In this sense, the article suggests that …

The Legal Fiction Of The Right To Defense In The Colombian Criminal Justice System, Manuel Iturralde

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the first section of the article, I will discuss Omar's case to show why he did not have a fair trial, and particularly how his rights to access to justice and to defense were infringed, both by the public defense he was provided and by the judges that decided his case.

In the second section, I will show that Omar's case is a tellingillustration of the features of the Colombian criminal justice system, which systematically and disproportionately sentences and imprisons marginalized and poor people-in great measure because they lack the financial resources to pay for better and more motivated …