End-of-month round up of all sorts of stories and commentaries
March madness has been something of a work reality for me with all sorts of events and travel keeping me from fully keeping up with all the sentencing and criminal justice news of the month. (The distractions of great March sports, from golf to college basketball to (fantasy) baseball, are also part of this story.) As regular readers know well, my not-so-clever trick for catching up here on blog-worthy stories and commentaries is through a big round-up post. So:
From the ABA Journal, “Eighth Amendment: 5th Circuit rules for prisoner allowed to sleep no more than 3.5 hours per night“
From The Atlantic by Keith Humphreys and Rob Bovett, “Why Oregon’s Drug Decriminalization Failed: The sponsors of the law fundamentally misunderstood the nature of addiction“
From the Brennan Center, “Why Inclusive Criminal Justice Research Matters“
From the Benhind the Bench Newsletter, “The Eugenics Origins of “Habitual Offender” Sentencing Laws“
From CNN by Mark Osler, “Biden’s failures in criminal justice could cost him an election“
From CNN, “The push to put Trump back in the White House is getting a boost from people he pardoned before leaving“
From the Los Angeles Times, “Days before Easter, Newsom announces dozens of pardons and commutations“
From Rick Nevin, “Young male imprisonment rates still falling in 2022, and the Sentencing Project get it wrong again“
From Newsweek by Jeff Hood, “President Biden Should Follow Through on Ending the Death Penalty“
From Newsweek by Cliff Stearns,The Death Penalty Is Important for America“
From the New York Times, “Woman Who Was Charged With Murder After Abortion Sues Texas Prosecutor“
From NPR, “Texas appeals court acquits Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction“
From R Street by Christi Smith, “Trauma-Informed Corrections: Part Four of a Four-Part Series“
From Scientific American by the editors, “Opinion: Evidence Does Not Support the Use of the Death Penalty“
From USA Today, “‘A stunning turnabout’: Voters and lawmakers across US move to reverse criminal justice reform“
From WYPR News, “Judges use ‘arbitrary,’ ‘horrendous’ reasons to keep teens in adult court“
This lengthy and eclectic list of items that were piled up in my “to read” queue do not have any clear themes and certainly do not capture the month that was. But I hope there is something of interest for everyone, and I always welcome readers to flag additional items of interest. With proposed sentencing guidelines and more notable SCOTUS action (and even more great sports and an eclipse here in Ohio), I am already gearing up for an exciting April.