j u s t c r i m

"California Policy Led to Corrections Tragedy"

California Policy Led to Corrections Tragedy - Northwestern Law researcher says state pandered to public’s fear of violent crime ... (By Hilary Hurd Anyaso, Northwestern NewsCenter, June 2, 2011. Commentary)

EVANSTON, Ill. --- California’s misguided public policy created the state’s corrections tragedy, which led to severely overcrowded prisons, said Malcolm Young, director of Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Program for Prison Reentry Strategies.

Young responded to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Brown v. Plata) stating that the conditions in California’s prisons violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The court ordered the state to reduce its prison population by more than 40,000 inmates.

“California politicians drove their state’s prison population from less than 25,000 in 1980 to more than 172,000 in 2008,” said Young. “Ignoring research, objective experience and some of the most informed experts in the country, California’s elected officials pandered to the public’s fear of violent crime: campaigning and voting for some of the most punitive sentencing laws in the nation, including ‘three strikes,’ tolerating punitive parole policies and rejecting almost every meaningful reform effort no matter the political party of origin.”

The court said that California’s prison conditions led to “needless suffering and death.” Reportedly, suicide rates in the state’s prisons have been 80 percent higher than the nationwide average.

“The inhumane, deadly and bankrupting facts documented in the Plata litigation are the result,” Young said. “Plata gives us a hard-fought narrow majority opinion unfortunately offset by dissents that will fuel ideologically driven public policy.”

The public policy that created California’s corrections tragedy is given credence in the dissenting opinions though it is refuted by well-documented experience in at least 10 other states that reduced incarceration and crime, Young said. He cited New York “whose leaders took crime policy in an opposite direction than California’s, reducing its prison population by 19.7 percent from 1999 to 2009 while experiencing a 34.7 percent reduction in violent crime and a 28 percent reduction in property crime.”

Young is the author of several reports analyzing crime policies, the use of incarceration, early release and crime rates in Illinois, California and New York and comparing trends in other states. Reports include “Controlling Corrections Costs in Illinois: Lessons from the Coasts” (Northwestern University School of Law, June 2009) and “Setting the Record Straight: The Truth about ‘Early Release’ from Illinois Prisons” (Northwestern University School of Law, October 2010).

 

 

 

 

Drug War Has Failed And Governments Should Explore Legalizing Marijuana, Says Report

NEW YORK -- The global war on drugs has failed and governments should explore legalizing marijuana and other controlled substances, according to a commission that includes former heads of state, a former U.N. secretary-general and a business mogul.

A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy argues that the decades-old "global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world." The 24-page paper will be released Thursday.

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won," the report said.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Decarceration - Criminology & Public Policy

Barker, V. (2011), Decarceration. Criminology & Public Policy, 10: 283–286. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-9133.2011.00708.x

"The San Andreas Fault makes California a major site of continental transformation and combustion. The same might be said of its fiscal policies and imprisonment rates—public policies that are literally crushing the state. Faced with a federal court order to reduce its prison population by 25% and a $20 billion budget deficit, state officials in California are under tremendous pressure to govern differently, spend less, and imprison less. Under such twin pressures, California could become a major site of decarceration. This moment is noteworthy because it could indicate a break in, if not a reversal of, 20 years of prison growth in California. In addition, it could provide critical support to an emerging movement toward “penal moderation,” which is the movement toward less repressive and milder penal sanctions, evident in more than half of the U.S. states and in Europe. In 2009, for example, 26 states reduced their prison populations (Greene and Mauer, 2010). Large-scale changes in California and elsewhere could offer a powerful rebuke to the policies and practices of mass incarceration, policies that have left many people, especially young minority men, permanently excluded from sustainable social and economic life (Clear, 2007; Petersilia, 2003)...."

 

The Crime Report: "California Prisons Must Downsize, But How Will It Happen?"

Monday, April 04, 2011 09:49

As financially battered California enacts huge budget cuts, it has no choice but to downsize its sprawling system of 33 prisons, which consumes 10 percent of the state budget and swallows more taxpayer dollars than higher education — a fact that, if public opinion surveys are accurate, Californians abhor, reports Stateline.org. A single prison bed costs taxpayers $44,500 a year.

via www.thecrimereport.org

Targeted Policing versus Mass Incarceration ... The latest from Criminology & Public Policy - Volume 10, Issue 1 - February 2011 - Wiley Online Library

( ht sentencing law & policy )

"Mass incarceration is the criminological issue of our time. A close contender is so-called hot-spots policing.  The former invites condemnation from most criminologists.  The latter inspires confidence that smart policing can reduce crime. In their provocative and important paper that is the focus of this special issue of Criminology & Public Policy, Steven Durlauf and Daniel Nagin (2011) bring the two issues together and propose that we might be able to achieve crime reductions by shortening prison sentences and using the cost savings to support more and better policing.  They rest their case squarely in a deterrence framework.  They argue that increasing the severity of punishment through marginal increases in the length of prison sentences has weak deterrent effects, at best; by the same logic, shortening prison sentences should not produce appreciable crime increases.  In contrast, increasing the perceived certainty of punishment can reduce crime without increasing imprisonment levels through targeted policing strategies that reduce criminal opportunities.  If the authors are right, this is a win-win strategy for crime control and criminal justice policy. ..."

via onlinelibrary.wiley.com

deinstitutionalization || mass incarceration

Harcourt, Bernard E., Reducing Mass Incarceration: Lessons from the Deinstitutionalization of Mental Hospitals in the 1960s  (January 26, 2011).

U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 542; U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 335. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1748796

Abstract:    
In 1963, President Kennedy outlined a federal program designed to reduce by half the number of persons in custody in mental hospitals. What followed was the biggest deinstitutionalization this country has ever seen. The historical record is complex and the contributing factors are several, but one simple fact remains: This country has deinstitutionalized before. As we think about reducing mass incarceration today, it may be useful to recall some lessons from the past. After tracing the historical background, this essay explores three potential avenues to reduce mass incarceration: First, improving mental health treatment to inmates and exploring the increased use of medication, on a voluntary basis, as an alternative to incarceration; in a similar vein, increasing the use of GPS monitoring and other biometric monitoring, and moving toward the legalization of lesser controlled substances. Second, encouraging federal leadership to create funding incentives for diversionary programs that would give states a financial motive to move prisoners out of the penitentiary and into community-based programs. Third, encouraging impact litigation of prison overcrowding, as well as documentaries of prison life, as a way to influence the public perception of prisoners. With regard to each of these strategies, however, it is crucial to avoid the further racialization of the prison population and merely transferring prisoners to equally problematic institutions.

Crime in America: Law and Disorder: Facing the Legal and Economic Challenges to the American Criminal Justice System

6th Annual Harry F. Guggenheim Conference on Crime in America: Law and Disorder: Facing the Legal and Economic Challenges to the American Criminal Justice System is taking place on Jan. 31st and Feb 1st, 2011. Watch a live stream of the conference over the next two days.

Livestream via www.thecrimereport.org

State prison healthcare: Lawmakers express frustration over excessive prison health costs - latimes.com

Inmates sit for dinner at the California State Prison in Lancaster. A federal overseer of the state's prison system has suggested freeing the sickest inmates as a way to cut costs. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times / June 10, 2010)

ShareRelated California Gov. Jerry Brown defends cutting redevelopment agencies

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles TimesJanuary 27, 2011E-mailPrint Text Size

via www.latimes.com

[ the get tough on crime crowd complains about the cost of incarceration ... ]

Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union » Sing it, Newt! Gingrich and Allies Promote Criminal Justice Reform

It might seem hard to find something the left and right agree on these days, but we're thrilled to see both sides of the political spectrum reaching an important consensus when it comes to our country's correctional system. As a non-partisan organization, the ACLU has always realized that reforming the criminal justice system is not a political issue, but one of fairness, justice and now, economic necessity. We're glad to see others getting that, too.

Last week, Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan, president of Justice Fellowship, the criminal justice reform division of Prison Fellowship Ministries, put out a call in The Washington Post for their Republican brethren to pave the way to reduced prison populations and costs and join their "Right on Crime" campaign (read our take on the campaign's launch here). Gingrich and Nolan boldly point out: "Our prisons might be worth the current cost if the recidivism rate were not so high, but . . . half of the prisoners released this year are expected to be back in prison within three years. If our prison policies are failing half of the time, and we know that there are more humane, effective alternatives, it is time to fundamentally rethink how we treat and rehabilitate our prisoners."

Sing it, Newt!

via www.aclu.org

Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan - Prison reform: A smart way for states to save money and lives

We urge conservative legislators to lead the way in addressing an issue often considered off-limits to reform: prisons. Several states have recently shown that they can save on costs without compromising public safety by intelligently reducing their prison populations.

We joined with other conservative leaders last month to announce the Right on Crime Campaign, a national movement urging states to make sensible and proven reforms to our criminal justice system - policies that will cut prison costs while keeping the public safe. Among the prominent signatories are Reagan administration attorney general Ed Meese, former drug czar Asa Hutchinson, David Keene of the American Conservative Union, John Dilulio of the University of Pennsylvania, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHQ.com. We all agree that we can keep the public safe while spending fewer tax dollars if we spend them more effectively.

The Right on Crime Campaign represents a seismic shift in the legislative landscape. And it opens the way for a common-sense left-right agreement on an issue that has kept the parties apart for decades.

via www.washingtonpost.com

The Right-wing Case for Criminal Justice Reform « Prison Law Blog

One out of every one hundred adults in America is incarcerated, a total population of approximately 2.3 million. By contrast, according to a report published in The Economist, the number of imprisoned adults in America in 1970 was only one out of every 400. The United States has 5% of the world’s population, but 23% of the world’s reported prisoners. It is not clear, however, that these high rates of imprisonment are leading to safer communities. …

For this benefit, Americans are paying dearly – between $18,000 and $50,000 per prisoner per year depending upon the state. …

The Conservative Solution

via prisonlaw.wordpress.com

[Detailed analysis of the "Conservative Solution" to mass incarceration and its discontents]

Mass Incarceration in America - American Prospect

Digital Edition of Mass Incarceration in America Mass Incarceration in America.

via www.nxtbook.com

schwarzenegger v. plata oral argument audio available

Play Audio (Schwarzenegger v. Plata (09-1233; argued 11/30/10)

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Court, jail overload is putting true justice in doubt - USATODAY.com

"There's a huge crunch in the judicial system because of a lack of resources," said Margie Paris, dean of the University of Oregon School of Law. "The speed with which we're moving cases along and the quality of justice is really being compromised."

Paris and others cited three common problems:

•Tougher law enforcement without expansion of jail and court infrastructure;

via www.usatoday.com

oral argument transcript - schwarzenegger v. plata

schwarzenegger v. plata oral argument transcript

 

Argument recap: Jousting over prisoner release : SCOTUSblog

Analysis  (Updated to 2:55 p.m.)

In an argument that at times came close to being rowdy, the Supreme Court’s members jousted on Monday over whether to take on themselves the management of the way California provides medical care for some 140,000 prison inmates, or to leave that chore to a lower court that some Justices thought had done it right and some thought had botched the job.  In the end, the final choice seemed likely to reside with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who insisted that the lower court be left with a lot of discretion but who just as plainly showed he was not entirely satisfied with how it had used that leeway.

A deeply engaged Court debates whether, and how, to reshape a lower court’s controversial solution to the serious problem of prison overcrowding, and the health hazards that causes. Justice Kennedy seems to hold the controlling vote.

via www.scotusblog.com

"COLLATERAL COSTS" (Pew Charitable Trusts)

Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility? (Pew Charitable Trusts)  "Over the past 30 years, the United States has experienced explosive growth in its incarcerated population. The Pew Center on the States reported in 2008 that more than 1 in 100 adults is now behind bars in America, by far the highest rate of any nation.  The direct cost of this imprisonment boom, in dollars, has been staggering: state correctional costs quadrupled over the past two decades and now top $50 billion a year, consuming 1 in every 15 general fund dollars..."  (via Sentencing Law & Policy)

when a victory is a loss | just because Cali has a shot @ "winning" its appeal before SCOTUS doesn't mean Cali wins

The Governor is taking this the wrong way ...  Instead of protesting  and appealing the federal order, the CDCR  and the State of California should instead be investing in GED, community college / technical education, libraries, and drug rehabilitation programs in prison.  Incarcerating non-violent offenders is wasteful and counterproductive -- Evidence based corrections suggests California should focus its attention on dangerous offenders.

Just because California has a decent shot of "winning" its appeal before the conservative five @ SCOTUS doesn't mean California wins.

California prison case goes to Supreme Court >The justices agree to hear an appeal from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on whether federal judges can force the state to order the release of 46,000 inmates to relieve overcrowding.

ffs, release non-violent offenders already

Who should control California's prison budget? U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in -- (LATIMES.COM) -- Judges have been intervening in prison management to mandate reforms, taking control from state corrections officials. Overcrowding is at the center of the case.

"The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide as early as Monday whether to review the three-judge order to reduce overcrowding. Some observers of the legal tug of war over inmate treatment believe the conservative justices on the high court want to weigh in on what they may see as judicial activism. When the state appealed the reduction order, the justices suspended a two-year deadline for releasing inmates or building prisons to house them..." [RESTOFSTORY]

save billions - lower non-violent incarceration

Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) - Lowering Non-Violent Incarceration Rate by Half Would Result in Billions in Savings for Cash-Strapped State and Local Governments

"As state and local governments grapple with record budget shortfalls, a new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that the high rate of incarceration in the U.S. is a significant factor in these budgetary strains. The report, “The High Budgetary Costs of Incarceration,” estimates that cutting the incarceration rate for non-violent offenders would reduce state and local budgets by almost $15 billion per year, about one-fourth of their annual corrections budgets.  The study finds that the rate of incarceration in 2008 — 753 per 100,000 people — was about 240 percent higher than it was in 1980. According to the report, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, a rate that is seven times higher than the average for other rich countries..."  [RESTOFSTORY]

california-centric -- federal sentencing reporter issue ...

Professor Berman @ Sentencing Law and Policy reminds us the Federal Sentencing Reporter Volume: 22, Number: 3 February 2010 focuses on the California mass incarceration problem.  

just and fair on crime

"It is time for California, and our nation as a whole, to take the Supreme Court's decision [GRAHAM v. FLORIDA ( No. 08-7412 )] to its next logical step and join the rest of the world by  revisiting inflexible life-without-parole sentences for young offenders... 

"Let us hope that state legislators will see their way through the all-too-common "tough on crime" mantra and find a way, instead, to be smart, just and fair on crime."

(Youthful Offenders Deserve Second Chance, LATIMES via SENTENCING LAW & POLICY)

"Our appetite for vengeance sometimes seems insatiable"

Michigan Law Review [Vol. 108:993] - BOOK REVIEW:  WHY CARE ABOUT MASS INCARCERATION? James Forman, Jr.*  Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice. By Paul Butler. New York: The New Press. 2009. Pp. ix, 214. $25.95. [via SENTENCING LAW & POLICY]

"Advocates for less punitive crime policies in the United States face long and dispiriting odds. The difficulty of the challenge becomes clear if we compare our criminal justice outcomes with those of other nations: We lock up more people, and for longer, than anyone else in the world. We continue to use the death penalty long after Europe abandoned it, we are the only country in the world to lock up juveniles for life, and we have prisoners serving fifty-year sentences for stealing videotapes from Kmart.1 Our courts offer little relief: the German Constitutional Court prohibits a sentence of life without parole for murder while the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the same sentence for possession of a pound and a half of cocaine.2 Our appetite for vengeance sometimes seems insatiable: politicians make careers out of being tough on crime, only to lose elections to those who are yet tougher;3 Alabama sheriffs deny food to inmates to turn a profit;4 jokes about raping prisoners are part of popular culture.5 *"

the unsustainable status quo

"California lawmakers act to repeal early-release law.  (LATIMES.COM)  The state Senate voted unanimously to roll back the program after lawmakers expressed concerns about its possible effect on public safety. The legislation now moves to the Assembly..."

"magicians, creating an illusion of change"

The following is an excerpt from Dwight Abbott's letter, Magicians, Creating an Illusion of Change.  Abbott is the author of I Cried, You Didn’t Listen - serving four life sentences at Salinas Valley State Prison, Soledad, California.

... "What should be obvious to anyone reading this is that there is no need to release so much as one convict who has not yet completed his or her sentence. Instead, release those who have, and are presently among the 30,000 “technical” parole violators who, at any given time, languish in California’s overcrowded prisons for up to one year, trapped by a broken system which has recidivism rates of close to 70 percent, the highest in the United States.

If you want to know what you get for the $32,000 it costs to imprison these parole violators ($1 billion annually), take a look, for example, at San Quentin’s South and West cell blocks, where hundreds of men lie sweltering in bunks stacked three high out on the tiers, who must duck and dodge the trash thrown from the four tiers above. They are among the 30,000 parole violators who should be released, and thus end — even if only temporarily — the overcrowding crisis, eliminating the need to release inmates who have not completed their sentences. Once prisoners have completed a prison sentence, they should remain in society, unless they commit a new crime.

Thus, having temporarily resolved the overcrowding problem, those truly interested in serious reform of this failed system will have time to sit back, take a deep breath, and present a multitude of ideas that have worked in other states, without the necessity for short-term fixes demanded when the system is in crisis, and inmates are dying.

I cannot end without drawing on my five decades of experience in this system to add that whatever plan is given over to CDCR to improve conditions inside its prisons, will be abused. I have lived it. The CDCR is comprised of magicians, creating the illusion that it is a faithful steward of the people and their billions of tax dollars that allow them to operate. Their magic gives those who want to believe the illusion that its intentions are honorable. The truth is quite the opposite.

[Both prisoners' letters are available in their entirety online:  Two Inmates' Views on California's Prison Overcrowding Crisis.  New America Media, Commentary, Dwight Abbott and Michael Cabral, Introduction by Michael Kroll, Posted: Apr 13, 2010]

texas, again

Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire "is a history of imprisonment, race, and politics from slavery to the present, with an emphasis on Texas, the most locked-down state in the nation. Sweeping in scope and exhaustively researched, it tries to answer some of the most vexing questions of our time: Why has the United States built the largest prison system in the world, unlike anything in the history of democratic governance, and why have racial disparities in criminal justice worsened over the past two generations, despite the landmark victories of the civil rights movement? Drawing on a decade of archival, legal, and legislative research, combined with scores of interviews, this book argues that the history of American criminal justice is a more southern story than most have acknowledged (the prison boom began and has remained most pervasive in the South) and that the politics of race and reaction have played a more prominent role in the expansion of incarceration than elevated crime rates. By drawing parallels between the development of segregation and convict leasing in the aftermath of Reconstruction and the rise of mass imprisonment in the wake of integration, Texas Tough contends that America’s imprisonment crisis has taken shape as the latest chapter in America’s tragic racial history and that a concerted nationwide effort will be required to move the country toward a more equitable and genuinely democratic future..."

downsize your prison industrial complex

Downscaling Prisons: Lessons from Four States (PDF; 531 KB).  Source: Justice Strategies and The Sentencing Project.  From press release:

 

“Downscaling Prisons: Lessons from Four States,” released by Justice Strategies and The Sentencing Project, finds that four states – Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York – have reduced their prison populations by 5-20% since 1999 without any increases in crime. This came about at a time when the national prison population increased by 12%; and in six states it increased by more than 40%. The reductions were achieved through a mix of legislative reforms and changes in practice by corrections and parole agencies. The reforms included" ... [read more]

non-revocable parole || mass incarceration

California Reeling - California, in Financial Crisis, Opens Prison Door  (RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD. New York Times.  March 23, 2010):  "California is the only state that places all prisoners on parole at release, no matter the offense, Professor Petersilia [formerly of UCI] said, and usually for one to three years. If a parolee is arrested or fails a drug test or misses an appointment with a parole officer, the offender lands back in prison.

Now, low-level offenders will not need to meet regularly with a parole officer and must be convicted of a new crime to be sent back..."

_________________________

The progressive "Non-Revocable Parole" law is described at the Cal.  Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation site and codified at Cal. Penal Code Section 3000.03.

smaller prison count breaks 38-year trend

Smaller prison count breaks 38-year trend. (Stateline.org - State policy & politics, updated daily):

Mississippi is a tough-on-crime state, and in 1995, like many tough-on-crime states, it approved a version of “truth in sentencing” — a popular law requiring inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their prison terms before they could be considered for parole. More than half the states have similar laws on the books.

Mississippi, however, changed course two years ago. Responding to budget constraints and a surge in its prison population — from about 12,000 inmates in 1995 to more than 22,000 in 2008 — lawmakers revisited truth in sentencing. They changed the law so nonviolent offenders would be eligible for parole after serving a quarter, not 85 percent, of their sentences. Over the course of the next year, more than 3,000 inmates were released an average of 13 months earlier than they otherwise would have been.

The move put Mississippi at the leading edge of a major national change, one that appears to be the result of teeming prisons, a deep recession and changing attitudes toward corrections. For the first time in 38 years, state prison populations declined in 2009, according to a 50-state survey released Wednesday (March 17) by the Pew Center on the States, the parent organization of Stateline.org..."

behind bars II

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University releases "Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population Report"  -

Lowlight:  "65 Percent of all U.S. Inmates Meet Medical Criteria for Substance Abuse Addiction, only 11 Percent Receive any Treatment..."

a psa for frontline prison programming

The Prison Law Blog pulls together a great short list of current Frontline shows on prison and crime related issues.  Check it out:

"The PBS documentary series Frontline also makes its programming available online at www.pbs.org. Here are a few Frontline episodes to start with if you’re interested in prison and jail issues — note that each of these websites includes not just streaming video of the episode itself, but also links to a range of related resources and information:

• “The Released” (2009): What happens to mentally ill offenders after they leave prison, and why do so many return? A sequel of sorts to 2005’s The New Asylums (see below).
• “When Kids Get Life” (2007): What should be done with children who commit murder?
• “The Meth Epidemic” (2006): Why has meth use exploded in the U.S. and what policy solutions might work?
• “The New Asylums” (2005): Why are so many mentally ill men and women in prison, and what kind of treatment to they receive there? Focused on the Ohio state prison system.
• “The Plea” (2004): Examining the plea bargaining process that resolves 95%+ of criminal cases in the U.S.
• “Burden of Innocence” (2003): After years of wrongful imprisonment, what happens to men who are exonerated once they get out of prison?"

California prison reduction policy takes effect

Air Talk:  Jan. 25, 2010

"California is implementing a plan to release about 6,500 inmates over the next year, under a state law that starts today. In an effort to reduce prison overcrowding and save money on the state budget, the plan calls for inmates deemed low-risk offenders to earn early release credits by completing rehabilitation and education programs. The state also will stop monitoring low-level offenders after release, meaning they are less likely to return to prison for minor parole violations. Opponents of the plan argue that it threatens public safety. How much money will this plan save the state? And is the approach sensible?"   Guests: 

Frank Stoltze, Reporter, KPCC

Paul Weber, President, Los Angeles Police Protective League

Clay Parker, Sheriff of Tehama County in Northern California and president of the California State Sheriff's Association

Secretary Matthew Kate, California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation

Joan Petersilia, Professor of Law, Co-Director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center

one in 100 - mass incarceration

Levy-Pounds, Nekima, Can These Bones Live? A Look at the Impacts of the War on Drugs on Poor African-American Children and Families (2009). Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal, Forthcoming; University of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-30. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1519089

"It is no secret that there is currently an incarceration crisis in America. A Pew Report issued in February of 2008 [See, One in 100] proved one of our worst fears, as the United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In fact, according to the report, one in every one hundred adult Americans is presently incarcerated. One has to look no further than the last twenty years to identify the source of the boom in our nation’s prison population: Namely, the war on drugs..."

when is a state battery statute a battery under the federal armed career criminal act?

See the transcript of today's SCOTUS oral argument in Johnson v. U.S.(08-6925) here.  Or visit the ScotusWiki here ...

"Whether under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act a prior state conviction for battery is in all cases a “violent felony,” even when the state held that offense does not have as an element the use or threatened use of physical force." [which hardly seems a battery but still the mass incarceration urge presses forward]