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States' Brilliant Budget Solution: Sacrifice Public Education to Spend More on Ineffective Prisons » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union

California's governor wants to eliminate the entire $30 million the state spends on public libraries, while spending more than $50 million to imprison two dozen bedridden inmates who pose no threat to public safety.

Unfortunately, these types of absurd budget "solutions" are more common than you might think. There's no shortage of debate about how to deal with fiscal crises around the nation; the protests in Wisconsin and other states over budget cuts reflect the passion surrounding this hot topic.

But there's one thing everyone who cares about the budget, our safety, and basic fairness should be able to agree on: reducing our already bloated and inefficient prison system is a good start.

via www.aclu.org

ZotZine Feature - Crossing cultures :: University of California, Irvine

Indigenous cultural artifacts share space with family photos on the walls and shelves of Justin Richland's UC Irvine office: kachina dolls, Hopi ceremonial rattles and a skate deck made by Lakota-owned Wounded Knee Skateboards.

The items reflect ancient traditions as well as ways in which Native Americans are adapting their culture to the modern era. It's fitting that Richland, associate professor of criminology, law & society, anthropology and law, straddles both worlds.

As co-founder and board member of The Nakwatsvewat Institute, he works with the Hopi tribe in Northern Arizona to settle disputes out of court in a manner mindful of their heritage. The nonprofit's name comes from a Hopi term meaning "moving forward together in a friendly way."

via zotzine.uci.edu

ZotZine Feature - Vice and virtue

Amid the riot of books, papers, student exams, posters and paraphernalia in John Dombrink's office at UC Irvine, one thing stands out: little yellow sticky notes he's tacked onto a row of file drawers labeled "sin."

Dombrink — who once considered the priesthood before finding his true calling — specializes in sin. The professor of criminology, law & society and sociology studies immoral, unethical or unlawful behavior and how our definitions of these evolve over time. Gambling, euthanasia, stem cell research, illicit drugs, same-sex marriage — if it gets people riled up over what's right and wrong, he's intrigued.

"Anytime there's ferment, it's valuable to me," Dombrink says. "I'm interested in the letter of the law but even more in how mores shift and people's beliefs change. On issues like stem cells and same-sex marriage, there's advancement and backlash. Looking at these animates me — and accounts for most of the mess in this office."

via www.zotzine.uci.edu

ARCAblog: The Journal of Art Crime: Essayist Simon Cole on Connoisseurship

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin

In one of ARCA’s three scholarly responses to David Grann’s “The Mark of a Masterpiece,” published in The New Yorker in July 2010, Simon A. Cole penned an editorial essay, “Connoisseurship All the Way Down: Art Authentication, Forgery, Fingerprint Identification, Expert Knowledge” in the fourth issue of The Journal of Art Crime (Fall 2010).

Simon A. Cole is Associate Professor & Chair of the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification (Harvard University Press, 2001) and Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting (University of Chicago Press, 2008, with Michael Lynch, Ruth McNally & Kathleen Jourdan). His work has been published in numerous criminology journals, Art Journal, and Suspect (MIT Press, 2005), the 10th issue of the design award winning series Alphabet City. He is co-editor of the journal Theoretical Criminology.

via art-crime.blogspot.com

“Irvine 11” charged with conspiracy | 89.3 KPCC

The Orange County District Attorney has charged the so-called “Irvine 11” with conspiring to disrupt a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine last year. In a statement, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas defended the misdemeanor charges against the Muslim students saying “we cannot tolerate a preplanned violation of the law, even if the crime takes place on a school campus and even if the defendants are college students.” Last month, AirTalk broke the story that an Orange County grand jury had been convened and was considering conspiracy charges against the students. Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UCI’s School of Law, said the students didn’t have a first amendment right to disrupt the speech, but that the criminal charges aren’t warranted. UCI had already taken disciplinary action against the disruptive students and suspended the Muslim Student Union (MSU) for the fall 2010 quarter. The MSU is also serving two years of probation. If convicted, the students face possible fines, probation, community service or jail time. Are the charges fair or overly harsh? What impact will they have?

via www.scpr.org

Wrongful Convictions and DNA Evidence | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR

Cornelius Dupree Jr., center, raises his hands in celebration with his lawyer Nina Morrison, left, and attorney Barry Scheck in Dallas on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. Dupree served 30 years for rape and robbery before being exonerated by DNA evidence.

A Texas judge this week declared Cornelius Dupree an innocent man, clearing him thirty years after he was wrongfully accused of rape and robbery. More than two-hundred-sixty Americans have been exonerated by DNA evidence since nineteen-eight-nine. Many, like Cornelius Dupree, were victims of eyewitness misidentification. In other cases, improper forensic science, false confessions, or unreliable snitches played a role. The criminal justice community is trying new ways to avoid false imprisonment– from independent investigations to post-conviction case reviews. Using DNA to overturn wrongful convictions.

via thedianerehmshow.org

[UCI's Bill Thompson, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, appears as a guest on NRP's Diane Rehm Show Thursday, January 6, 2011. The show will discuss causes of false convictions]

Attorney General Eric Holder Names 18 Experts to New Science Advisory Board

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER NAMES 18 EXPERTS TO NEW SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder today named 18 experts - scholars and practitioners in criminology, statistics, sociology, and practitioners in the criminal and juvenile justice fields - to the newly created Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Science Advisory Board. Laurie O. Robinson, OJP's Assistant Attorney General, recommended the creation of the advisory board as a means of bridging the divide between research and practice in criminal justice fields. The first meeting of the board will take place early in 2011.

"This Administration is committed to using science to help inform and guide policy development. By providing advice and counsel to the Department of Justice, the members of this advisory board will help us focus on evidence-based approaches to prevent and reduce crime," said Attorney General Holder.

via www.ojp.usdoj.gov

student loans ... crushing debt

Highlights from "Placing the Blame as Students Are Buried in Debt" (RON LIEBER Published: May 28, 2010 the New York Times):   ... universities like N.Y.U. enrolled students without asking many questions about whether they could afford a $50,000 annual tuition bill. Then the colleges introduced the students to lenders who underwrote big loans without any idea of what the students might earn someday — just like the mortgage lenders who didn’t ask borrowers to verify their incomes..." "... federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts..."

ucla law prof stephen bainbridge on latest uci law school hire

ProfessorBainbridge.com - "The Vocational and Avocational Journal of a Corporate Law Professor" (Posted 04/13/2010) - UC Irvine Law School Hires Felon Lerach:

"William Lerach was once the scourge of corporate America as a leading plaintiff's securities lawyer. We now know, of course, that he was making illegal and unethical payments to the people who served as his stooge plaintiffs. He plead guilty to one felony count and has been disbarred by the California Bar. Yet, the new law school at UC Irvine has seen fit to hire him to teach a course on Regulation of Free Market Capitalism — Why Have We Failed?

"I understand that Lerach is a big time Democrat who plans to be active in "progressive" politics now that he can't practice law anymore, but I'm still stunned that even as left-liberal a law school as UCI would hire this felon reprobate..."   [RESTOFPOST]

brian leiter | uci law class

Brian Leiter's Law School Reports : New UC Irvine Law Schools Recruits Class with Numerical Credentials That Will Give UCLA and USC Real Competition.

uci school of law

WSJ LAW BLOG -- "Zot! UC Irvine School of Law — More Selective than Yale? Zot! That’s what fans of UC Irvine Anteaters’ baseball team exclaim after their team gets a strikeout (paying homage to the supposed noise an anteater makes after catching an ant). It also might be what Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the fledgling UC Irvine School of Law, is saying after bringing home the most selectively chosen incoming class of first-year students in the nation... [MORE]