Post Tagged with: "criminal justice"

by Marc Hyden: Nebraska’s unicameral legislature just became the first conservative state to repeal the death penalty in over 40 years. How Nebraska did it is even more incredible. Before a bill can reach the governor’s desk in the Cornhusker State, the measure must be voted upon three times, and three […]

by Dianna Muldrow: The criminal justice system is tasked with the critical job of preventing and punishing crime and to further complicate matters the system is expected to do so while fulfilling the more nebulous notion of justice. But how is justice to be reached if the perpetrator is also a […]

by Kate E. Murphy: In examining the issues and costs associated with mental illness in the criminal justice system, mental health courts may strike the best balance between protecting the public safety and preserving individual freedoms. Jails have become this country’s largest mental health care provider, partly because mentally ill […]

by Derek Cohen: For most, Independence Day is spent in happiness and camaraderie with friends and family, reflecting on the nation’s genesis while enjoying a hot dog and a fireworks display. Unfortunately, for too many in Chicago, the lasting memory of this year’s holiday weekend is one of preventable horror. […]

by Matthew P. Cavedon: A particularly maddening sort of violence—seemingly random violence—has been in the news a lot lately. Maddening, perhaps, because as Stephen Pinker’s Better Angels of Our Nature showed, modern society is less violent in many ways than what came before it. How can American violence be at […]

by Matthew P. Cavedon: If the great military strategist Carl von Clausewitz was correct in considering war the continuation of politics, so too is it true that politics often looks a lot like war. Take the way that marijuana reform—the movement to legalize pot for medicinal and recreational purposes—resembles insurgent […]

by Lauren Galik: Recently, there’s been a breakthrough for federal criminal justice reform. In 2013, liberal and conservative leaders came together on the federal level to support major changes to federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws in what was an unusual display of congressional bipartisanship. On the state level, the push […]

The Perils of Letting Law Enforcement “Wet Their Beak:” by Derek Cohen: Imagine you owned a successful food truck.  Each month, you take in roughly $20,000 in cash payments.  Since your business’s insurance policy covers only $10,000 worth of cash-on-hand in the event of a theft, you make a trip […]

by Marc Hyden: Today’s news is filled with stories about the political right’s feud that is pitting the GOP’s old guard against tea partiers. There is no doubt the conservative world is in the midst of change, but there is another movement afoot that has the potential to galvanize a […]

by Ryan Mulvey: Should conservatives and libertarians treat prison reform as a question of government spending, or should they ground their solutions within a comprehensive philosophy of human dignity that attends to the real consequences of crime? The Left has long monopolized the debate on prison reform and the much-needed […]