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Full-Text Articles in Law
Discretion And Disparity In Federal Detention, Stephanie Holmes Didwania
Discretion And Disparity In Federal Detention, Stephanie Holmes Didwania
Northwestern University Law Review
The uniquely American phenomenon of mass incarceration plagues the pretrial space. People awaiting trial make up roughly 20% of those held in criminal custody in the United States. Largely overlooked by bail-reform advocates, pretrial detention in the federal criminal system presents a puzzle. The federal system detains defendants at a much higher rate than the states—more than 60% of U.S. citizen-defendants were detained pending trial by federal courts last year. But federal defendants virtually never fail to appear in court, and they are rarely arrested for new crimes while on pretrial release. And unlike state court systems, cash bail is …
Equal Protection Under The Carceral State, Aya Gruber
Equal Protection Under The Carceral State, Aya Gruber
Northwestern University Law Review
McCleskey v. Kemp, the case that upheld the death penalty despite undeniable evidence of its racially disparate impact, is indelibly marked by Justice William Brennan’s phrase, “a fear of too much justice.” The popular interpretation of this phrase is that the Supreme Court harbored what I call a “disparity-claim fear,” dreading a future docket of racial discrimination claims and erecting an impossibly high bar for proving an equal protection violation. A related interpretation is that the majority had a “color-consciousness fear” of remedying discrimination through race-remedial policies. In contrast to these conventional views, I argue that the primary anxiety …
Combating Discrimination Against The Formerly Incarcerated In The Labor Market, Ifeoma Ajunwa, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Combating Discrimination Against The Formerly Incarcerated In The Labor Market, Ifeoma Ajunwa, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Northwestern University Law Review
Both discrimination by private employers and governmental restrictions in the form of statutes that prohibit professional licensing serve to exclude the formerly incarcerated from much of the labor market. This Essay explores and analyzes potential legislative and contractual means for removing these barriers to labor market participation by the formerly incarcerated. First, as a means of addressing discrimination by the state, Part I of this Essay explores the ways in which the adoption of racial impact statements—which mandate that legislators consider statistical analyses of the potential impact their proposed legislation may have on racial and ethnic groups prior to enacting …
Assessing Dangerousness Amidst Racial Stereotypes: An Analysis Of The Role Of Racial Bias In Bond Decisions And Ideas For Reform, Lydette S. Assefa
Assessing Dangerousness Amidst Racial Stereotypes: An Analysis Of The Role Of Racial Bias In Bond Decisions And Ideas For Reform, Lydette S. Assefa
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
The problems of mass incarceration in the United States and its burdens on the economic and social well-being of local communities, counties, and states have received increased attention and have spurred conversations on prison and jail reform. More recently, reform efforts have appropriately focused on the bond system and the role of pretrial detention in fueling jail and prison overcrowding. The bond process presents a unique opportunity for reform because defendants at this stage are presumed innocent and, as the Supreme Court has affirmed, these defendants possess fundamental rights to liberty and a presumption towards pretrial release. Yet jurisdictions, such …
Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Professor Destiny Peery
Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Professor Destiny Peery
Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy
No abstract provided.
Litigating Police Misconduct: Does The Litigation Process Matter? Does It Work?
Litigating Police Misconduct: Does The Litigation Process Matter? Does It Work?
Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy
No abstract provided.
Democratizing Criminal Justice Through Contestation And Resistance, Jocelyn Simonson
Democratizing Criminal Justice Through Contestation And Resistance, Jocelyn Simonson
Northwestern University Law Review
Collective forms of participation in criminal justice from members of marginalized groups—for example, when people gather together to engage in participatory defense, organized copwatching, community bail funds, or prison labor strikes—have a profound effect on everyday criminal justice. In this Essay I argue that these bottom-up forms of participation are not only powerful and important, but also crucial for democratic criminal justice. Collective mechanisms of resistance and contestation build agency, remedy power imbalances, bring aggregate structural harms into view, and shift deeply entrenched legal and constitutional meanings. Many of these forms of contestation display a faith in local democracy as …
Racing Abnormality, Normalizing Race: The Origins Of America's Peculiar Carceral State And Its Prospects For Democratic Transformation Today, Jonathan Simon
Racing Abnormality, Normalizing Race: The Origins Of America's Peculiar Carceral State And Its Prospects For Democratic Transformation Today, Jonathan Simon
Northwestern University Law Review
For those struggling with criminal justice reform today, the long history of failed efforts to close the gap between the promise of legal equality and the practice of our police forces and prison systems can seem mysterious and frustrating. Progress has been made in establishing stronger rights for individuals in the investigatory and sanctioning stages of the criminal process; yet, the patterns of over-incarceration and police violence, which are especially concentrated on people of color, have actually gotten worse during the same period. Seen in terms of its deeper history however, the carceral state is no longer puzzling: it has …
Bail: Reforming Policies To Address Overcrowded Jails, The Impact Of Race On Detention, And Community Revival In Harris County, Texas, Marcia Johnson, Luckett Anthony Johnson
Bail: Reforming Policies To Address Overcrowded Jails, The Impact Of Race On Detention, And Community Revival In Harris County, Texas, Marcia Johnson, Luckett Anthony Johnson
Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy
Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. federal government and many state and local governments adopted “get tough” policies against crime. These new strict policy initiatives produced an explosion of incarceration in prisons throughout the country. They also impacted local jails as well, particularly in the numbers of persons detained pre-trial. This Article explores this phenomenon and its implications for local governments, as well as its unforeseen consequences on communities, particularly communities of color. The Article uses Harris County, Texas to exemplify the systematic problems resulting from the over-jailing of its citizens, particularly persons who are detained pre-trial. We attempt to …