Criminal Defense News of the Week
by: Sduclos • November 20, 2012 • no comments
Release Your Elders
The ACLU just released a new report that found that states would save an average of more than $66,000 per year for each low-risk inmate over 50 released early, even when post-release costs are accounted for. The report also details how prisoners over 50 are likely to cost more than younger inmates and are less likely to re-offend after release. Read the summary on MSNBC.
Pennsylvania PDs Sue the County
Luzerne County Pennsylvania is a classically underfunded, understaffed, and overworked public defender's office. After a series of complaints and concerns from his PDs that they might let something slip or violate someone's right to effective assistance of counsel, Chief Public Defender Al Flora, Jr. decided to stop it. First, his office began refusing new case assignments to catch up. Three months later, he filed a class-action suit seeking an injunction and asking for more resources for his office. Read more in HuffPo.
Stop and Frisks' Disproportional Impact on LGBTQ Community
As protests against NY stop and frisk policies grow, new voices are joining the fold to show how the practice disproportionally impacts marginalized groups. A new article in the Huffington Post details the discrimination and abuse faced by LGBTQ Blacks and Latinos. Unlike other targeted groups, transgender and gender-nonconforming people are profiled as sex workers, sexually harassed, and suspected of giving fake identification when their IDs do not conform to their gender.
Rodney King - Famous Drug Addict, WHAT?!
The reports on Mr. King's death are eye-opening about how the media (and presumably the public, the jury pool) view people living with addiction. These were within the first few sentences reported on Mr. King's death by NYT and LA Times:
"He was a drunk, unemployed construction worker on parole when he careened into the city's consciousness in a white Hyundai early one Sunday morning in 1991" - LA Times
"Mr. King, whose life was a roller coaster of drug and alcohol abuse, multiple arrests and unwanted celebrity, pleaded for calm during the 1992 riots." - NYT
Surprisingly, CNN was the first article I saw that did not preface Mr. King's story by harping on addiction issues and criminal history. They addressed the issue later in the piece. Is having a criminal history really that inconsistent with having valuable civil rights?
