Blog Sep 27, 2010
Dropping Out and Imprisonment
In a previous blog I discussed the relationship between dropping out and crime among juveniles. In this blog I noted that that compared to high school graduates dropouts “earn lower wages, pay fewer taxes, are more likely to commit crimes, are less likely to be employed, are more likely to be on welfare, and are less healthy.” “” On my web site I expanded on this by exploring what the Children’s Defense Fund has called the prison pipeline or the connection between the…
The latest figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that drug and immigration offenses constitute a large proportion of the cases processed in the criminal justice system, along with a rising number of immigration cases. Starting with the latest numbers from the series ” Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2006 ” we find that between 1994 and 2006 drug cases constituted the largest proportion of felony cases, ranging from 34% to 37%. During the same period the proportion…
Blog Sep 4, 2010
Racial Bias and Certification
A story from the Chicago Reporter is merely the most recent of a long line of studies going back 30 years documenting the racial bias of the certification process. Certifying juveniles as adults was part of an overall conservative “law and order” crackdown on juvenile crime starting during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Research began almost immediately during that time documenting the disproportionate number of African-American youth who were certified. As the studies poured…
Blog Sep 3, 2010
Brewer, Arpaio and CCA
Over the summer reports started to emerge that revealed that two key advisors for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had close ties to Corrections Corporation of America . Specifically local CBS affiliate KPOH reported that “two of Brewer’s top advisers have connections” to private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Lawrence Lewis, writing for the Daily Kos , reported that “Paul Senseman, Brewer’s deputy chief of staff, is a former lobbyist for CCA. His wife…
The current economic crisis has already had an impact on the crime problem. Cases of reported runaway youth have been rising, stemming directly from the current crisis. Many states have been releasing prisoners by the hundreds, if not thousands, in order to save money. For the first time since 1972 we saw a reduction in the overall prison population in 2009 . A survey of 233 police departments by the Police Executive Research Forum in early 2009 found that 43 percent of the…