Eager for stories and thoughts on the impact of the coronavirus on criminal justice, crime and punishment
Blogging will likely be light in the coming days as I go to pick up young adults from shuttered school and figure out what online teaching is going to look like in the foreseeable future. While I have already blogged here and here on the potential impact of the coronavirus on prisons and jails, the movement toward mass closures of all sorts raises all sorts of new issues for criminal justice administration and broader realities of crime and punishment. Here are just a few headlines starting to speak to these kinds of issues:
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From the ABA Journal, “SCOTUS and other courts are restricting visitors or canceling proceedings amid coronavirus concerns“
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From CNN, “In hardest-hit states, coronavirus is grinding justice to a halt“
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From the Philadelphia Inquirer, “What do coronavirus court closures mean for the right to a speedy trial?“
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From the City Pulse (in Michigan), “Lansing Police temporarily halts ‘physical response’ to certain crimes amid coronavirus scare“
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From WALA (in Alabama), “Attorney cites coronavirus in seeking non-prison sentence for Mobile doctor“
Though many folks likely have much more important things to do now than comment on a blog, I would still be eager to hear stories and thoughts from readers on what they see and predict as current and potential future impacts of the coronavirus on criminal justice, crime and punishment.