Nonviolent Drug Convictions

Author : Human Rights Watch (Organization)
Publisher : Human Rights Watch
ISBN 13 : 1564324508
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Decades of Disparity written by Human Rights Watch (Organization) and published by Human Rights Watch. This book was released on 2009 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using national drug arrest data from 1980 to 2007, this report illuminates the persistence and extent of racial disparities in the so-called?war on drugs? in the United States. Although blacks and whites engage in drug offenses at roughly comparable rates, blacks have been consistently arrested for drug offenses at rates that are from 2.8 to 5.5 times higher nationwide than white drug arrest rates. In addition, this report reveals that among individual states, black drug arrest rates in a single year, 2006, ranged from 2 to 11.3 times higher than white rates. Finally, the report shows that since 1980, the preponderance of drug arrests have been for possession, not sales. Millions of Americans have acquired a criminal record because they engaged in the minor non-violent offense of drug possession. Human Rights Watch calls on the United States to revise its drug control policies to reduce reliance on criminal prosecution and address these troubling racial disparities.

Author : Michelle Alexander
Publisher : The New Press
ISBN 13 : 1620971941
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century by Entertainment Weekly‚ Slate‚ Chronicle of Higher Education‚ Literary Hub, Book Riot‚ and Zora A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller—"one of the most influential books of the past 20 years," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—with a new preface by the author "It is in no small part thanks to Alexander's account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system." —Adam Shatz, London Review of Books Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S." Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.

Author : John Pfaff
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465096921
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Locked In written by John Pfaff and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Pfaff, let there be no doubt, is a reformer...Nonetheless, he believes that the standard story--popularized in particular by Michelle Alexander, in her influential book, The New Jim Crow--is false. We are desperately in need of reform, he insists, but we must reform the right things, and address the true problem."--Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker A groundbreaking examination of our system of imprisonment, revealing the true causes of mass incarceration as well as the best path to reform In the 1970s, the United States had an incarceration rate comparable to those of other liberal democracies-and that rate had held steady for over 100 years. Yet today, though the US is home to only about 5 percent of the world's population, we hold nearly one quarter of its prisoners. Mass incarceration is now widely considered one of the biggest social and political crises of our age. How did we get to this point? Locked In is a revelatory investigation into the root causes of mass incarceration by one of the most exciting scholars in the country. Having spent fifteen years studying the data on imprisonment, John Pfaff takes apart the reigning consensus created by Michelle Alexander and other reformers, revealing that the most widely accepted explanations-the failed War on Drugs, draconian sentencing laws, an increasing reliance on private prisons-tell us much less than we think. Pfaff urges us to look at other factors instead, including a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred in the mid-1990s, when prosecutors began bringing felony charges against arrestees about twice as often as they had before. He describes a fractured criminal justice system, in which counties don't pay for the people they send to state prisons, and in which white suburbs set law and order agendas for more-heavily minority cities. And he shows that if we hope to significantly reduce prison populations, we have no choice but to think differently about how to deal with people convicted of violent crimes-and why some people are violent in the first place. An authoritative, clear-eyed account of a national catastrophe, Locked In transforms our understanding of what ails the American system of punishment and ultimately forces us to reconsider how we can build a more equitable and humane society.

Author : David Alan Sklansky
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674259696
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Pattern of Violence written by David Alan Sklansky and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A law professor and former prosecutor reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system—from mass incarceration to police brutality. We take for granted that some crimes are violent and others aren’t. But how do we decide what counts as a violent act? David Alan Sklansky argues that legal notions about violence—its definition, causes, and moral significance—are functions of political choices, not eternal truths. And these choices are central to failures of our criminal justice system. The common distinction between violent and nonviolent acts, for example, played virtually no role in criminal law before the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet to this day, with more crimes than ever called “violent,” this distinction determines how we judge the seriousness of an offense, as well as the perpetrator’s debt and danger to society. Similarly, criminal law today treats violence as a pathology of individual character. But in other areas of law, including the procedural law that covers police conduct, the situational context of violence carries more weight. The result of these inconsistencies, and of society’s unique fear of violence since the 1960s, has been an application of law that reinforces inequities of race and class, undermining law’s legitimacy. A Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have motivated mass incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, encouraged toleration of prison violence, and limited responses to mass shootings. Reforming legal notions of violence is therefore an essential step toward justice.

Author : Heather Ahn-Redding
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739157752
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The 'Million Dollar Inmate' written by Heather Ahn-Redding and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2007-12-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What kinds of beliefs do most Americans hold about crime and violence, and where do these beliefs come from? What kinds of people are sent to prison_are the average inmates dangerous criminals, or are they involved in low-level drug-related, property, or public-order offenses? Who is ultimately paying for their time in prison? The 'Million Dollar Inmate' highlights the financial and social costs of America's incarceration of non-violent offenders. With its focus on the specific population of non-violent offenders, this book provides a unique, sociological approach to the problem of handling such a large population at such tremendous costs_paid, for the most part, by taxpayers. Basing her insight on extensive research into the origins of America's correctional systems, the visible and non-visible costs incurred by the practice of incarcerating non-violent offenders, and the goals of the prison system, Heather Ahn-Redding dares to expose flaws in current correctional practices and suggest ways they can be not only changed but also re-envisioned. Ideally suited to researchers, advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and policymakers.

Author : Jens Ludwig
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780815753377
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Evaluating Gun Policy written by Jens Ludwig and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-05-13 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compared with other developed nations, the United States is unique in its high rates of both gun ownership and murder. Although widespread gun ownership does not have much effect on the overall crime rate, gun use does make criminal violence more lethal and has a unique capacity to terrorize the public. Gun crime accounts for most of the costs of gun violence in the United States, which are on the order of $100 billion per year. But that is not the whole story. Guns also provide recreational benefits and sometimes are used virtuously in fending off or forestalling criminal attacks. Given that guns may be used for both good and ill, the goal of gun policy in the United States has been to reduce the flow of guns to the highest-risk groups while preserving access for most people. There is no lack of opinions on policies to regulate gun commerce, possession, and use, and most policy proposals spark intense controversy. Whether the current system achieves the proper balance between preserving access and preventing misuse remains the subject of considerable debate. Evaluating Gun Policy provides guidance for a pragmatic approach to gun policy using good empirical research to help resolve conflicting assertions about the effects of guns, gun control, and law enforcement. The chapters in this volume do not conform neatly to the claims of any one political position. The book is divided into five parts. In the first section, contributors analyze the connections between rates of gun ownership and two outcomes of particular interest to society—suicide and burglary. Regulating ownership is the focus of the second section, where contributors investigate the consequences a large-scale combined gun ban and buy-back program in Australia, as well as the impact of state laws that prohibit gun ownership to those with histories of domestic violence. The third section focuses on efforts to restrict gun carrying and includes a critical examination of efforts in Pit

Author : United States Government Accountability Office
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781982017545
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nonviolent Drug Convictions written by United States Government Accountability Office and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-12-27 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NONVIOLENT DRUG CONVICTIONS: Stakeholders' Views on Potential Actions to Address Collateral Consequences

Author : Dirk Van Zyl Smit
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 92 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Handbook of Basic Principles and Promising Practices on Alternatives to Imprisonment written by Dirk Van Zyl Smit and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces the reader to the basic principles central to understanding alternatives to imprisonment as well as descriptions of promising practices implemented throughout the world. This handbook offers information about alternatives to imprisonment at various stages of the criminal justice process.

Author : Kevin Jack Riley
Publisher : Rand Corporation
ISBN 13 : 9780833037787
Total Pages : 90 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Just Cause Or Just Because? written by Kevin Jack Riley and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2005 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, Arizona and California overwhelmingly passed ballot initiatives that were expected to divert minor, nonviolent drug offenders from incarceration-jail and prison-to treatment. With respect to the prison population, it was unknown whether low-level drug offenders had a violent or lengthy criminal history that made prosecutors reluctant to drop the low-level drug charge, whether the quantity or type of drug involved influenced the prosecution pattern, and whether there were differences across racial groups in the prosecution of low-level drug offenders. This study was designed to fill those knowledge gaps. The evidence from the period before the implementation of the initiatives supports prosecutors' hypotheses that offenders sent to prison on low-level drug charges generally had more severe criminal histories, were involved with harder drugs, or were caught with substantial quantities. The report's findings also show that marijuana offenders are not first- or second-time offenders and are not treated more "harshly" or more "leniently" than other drug offenders. The authors generally found no differences in treatment of racial/ethnic groups, though in some cases small sample sizes made it difficult to reach definitive conclusions. Plea-bargaining for prison-bound low-level drug offenders appears to be used in a manner consistent with prosecutorial practices aimed at incarcerating drug offenders who are perceived to present a greater threat to the community.

Author : United States Sentencing Commission
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 68 pages
Book Rating : 4.5V/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Guidelines Manual written by United States Sentencing Commission and published by . This book was released on 1988-10 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: