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- Showing 9 posts filed under: Region: North America and Caribbean [–] published between Aug 01, 2012 and Aug 31, 2012 [Show all]
In sentencing criminals, is Norway too soft? Or are we too harsh?
from the article by Liliana Segura in The Nation responding to this article:
....“Western Europeans regard 10 or 12 years as an extremely long term, even for offenders sentenced in theory to life,” he said.
Today, there are more than 41,000 people serving life without parole in the United States compared to fifty-nine in Australia, forty-one in England and thirty-seven in the Netherlands. That’s according to a study released this spring, which found that we are “in the minority of countries using several sentencing practices, such as life without parole, consecutive sentences, juvenile life without parole, juvenile transfer to adult courts, and successive prosecution of the same defendant by the state and federal government.”
Aug 31, 2012 Definition, Country:Norway, Region: North America and Caribbean, Distinguishing, Case:Violence, Region: Europe, Case:Homicide, Country:USA, Theory
BC gang activity wilting under police heat
from the article by Robert Freeman in the Chilliwak Progress:
Gang activity in B.C. has wilted under the heat of Lower Mainland police forces, including the Chilliwack RCMP, says UFV criminologist Darryl Plecas.
While the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit has put a “significant dent” in gang leadership, according to CFSEU spokesman Sgt. Bill Whelan, Plecas said “proactive” policing by municipal police forces like those in Chilliwack, Abbotsford and West Vancouver has given new recruits second thoughts about the gang lifestyle.
Aug 29, 2012 Country:Canada, Diversion, Police, Gang, Region: North America and Caribbean
Restorative justice for veterans: The San Francisco Sheriff 's Department's Community of Veterans Engaged in Restoration (COVER)
from the article by Sunny Schwartz and Leslie Levitas:
....Veterans represent a rapidly growing segment of the jail population whose characteristics mirror those of the general jail population and include histories of substance abuse, inconsistent work histories and challenges related to maintaining family relationships.
Like most prisoners, they receive few services while incarcerated to address the myriad of health, mental health, and psychosocial issues that contribute to their incarceration and pose challenges upon release. The military discharge status of most justice-involved vets—less than honorable—makes them ineligible for many of the benefits and services offered by the Veterans Administration (VA).
Aug 22, 2012 Offender, Reform, Community, Other, Case:Violence, Region: North America and Caribbean, Prison, Country:USA
Restorative justice and its effects on (racially disparate) punitive school discipline
from the paper by David Simpson:
....Finally, I investigated whether the implementation of Restorative Justice significantly reduced racial disproportionality in school discipline vis-à-vis African American students. In particular, I analyzed whether the disparity in black suspension percentage as compared to white suspension percentage—measured by the difference between black suspension percentage and white suspension percentage)—was reduced by a greater amount in schools that implemented Restorative Justice than in those that did not.
I confined my analysis on this point to only those schools that had white as well as black enrollment of over 20 students. I did so because otherwise small fluctuations in total suspension numbers and/or enrollment numbers would have improperly skewed my results.
Aug 21, 2012 School, Minority, Guidelines, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Country:USA
Restorative justice for juvenile offenders
from the entry by Harold Dean Trulear on Think Christian:
The recent Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, which concerns the imposition of life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders, offers an important opportunity for people of faith to revisit our civic responsibilities with respect to children and youth.
Aug 15, 2012 Juvenile, Biblical, Practice, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA
New home for juveniles recruited to drug trade
from the article by Julian Aguilar in the New York Times:
Freddie knows he is lucky. If he were six months older, he could be in a state prison.
Or he could have been labeled a snitch and treated as such by Mexican cartel operatives.
Aug 10, 2012 Court, Case:Drug Crimes, Diversion, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA
Punishment v. restoration: A comparative analysis of juvenile delinquency law in the United States and Mexico
from the article by Beth Caldwell in the Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law:
....Within Mexico, the State of Oaxaca has developed a code that incorporates these human rights principles and sets forth procedures for using restorative justice conferences as an alternative to the adversarial court system.... Oaxaca’s approach exemplifies the restorative model contemplated in Mexico’s national constitutional reforms.
Aug 08, 2012 Juvenile, Practice, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA, Country:Mexico
Colorado Victim chooses restorative justice and meets with offender
by Lisa Rea
This is an excellent article, well written with the right emphasis and explanation of restorative justice, telling the story of Sharletta Evans. She chose to meet the man who killed her young son. This was made possible after the passage of legislation carried by Representative Pete Lee.
Aug 04, 2012 Dialogue, Victim, Offender, Practice, Case:Violence, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA
Denver woman feels the power of restorative justice after son murdered
from the article by Kevin Simpson in the Denver Post:
....When legislation last year cleared the way for a pilot program in restorative justice with the Colorado Department of Corrections, Evans — who had testified on behalf of the measure — embraced the opportunity to go first. She and her older son Calvin Hurd, who was 6 when gunshots peppered the car where he sat sleeping with his brother, began more than six months of preparation for a direct dialogue with Johnson.
Part of that involved revisiting the crime. Evans had driven with her two children to a northeast Denver duplex to pick up her grandniece because there had been a drive-by there the previous night. She left her sons in the car.
Aug 03, 2012 Dialogue, Victim, Offender, Practice, Case:Violence, Region: North America and Caribbean, Prison, Country:USA
