You know how it is: first you get an assignment for Fortune
magazine, and the next thing you know, you're taking pictures of people
smoking pot. At least, that's how it worked for photographer Robyn Twomey. The Fortune
story focused on the business of medical marijuana, and mostly entailed
shooting pictures at pot dispensaries; but in the process Twomey got to
know and photograph Jordan, a 19-year old who has a rare form of
leukemia. This led to a series of over 30 portraits of medical marijuana
clients as they administered their medication.
In these images, the smoke becomes part of the portrait: it's a
gesture, it's a visualization of the subjects' breath, it's their
environment. The smoke competes with the subject for our attention, and
the strength of these pictures comes from the tension between the two.
Read on...
Your resource for news, research, opinion and comment in the world of Criminology and Criminal Justice, brought to you by the Criminology Library, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto
U.S. Attorney General: Time To Restore Voting Rights Of Every Person Who Has Completed Their Criminal Sentence
In the United States, some 5.8 million Americans can’t vote because they have a current or previous felony conviction — more than
the individual populations of 31 U.S. states. That figure includes one
in 13 African American adults. In Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia, one
in five African Americans are barred by these felon disenfranchisement
policies, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.
Citing these figures and many others, Holder called out state laws that block ex-felons from voting as a vestige of Reconstruction-era voter suppression, and called for for states to repeal every law that prohibits those who have completed their sentence from voting. Holder’s address Tuesday morning at a criminal justice reform symposium is the latest in his “Smart on Crime” initiative that has included scaled back prosecution of crimes with mandatory minimum sentences, less targeting of those complying with state marijuana laws, diversion out of prison and improvement of offender re-entry, and a move to cut short the sentences of some drug offenders.
Read on...
Citing these figures and many others, Holder called out state laws that block ex-felons from voting as a vestige of Reconstruction-era voter suppression, and called for for states to repeal every law that prohibits those who have completed their sentence from voting. Holder’s address Tuesday morning at a criminal justice reform symposium is the latest in his “Smart on Crime” initiative that has included scaled back prosecution of crimes with mandatory minimum sentences, less targeting of those complying with state marijuana laws, diversion out of prison and improvement of offender re-entry, and a move to cut short the sentences of some drug offenders.
Read on...
Crime and punishment with Anthony Doob
On February 6, Professor Emeritus Anthony N. Doob of the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies will deliver the annual John Ll. J. Edwards Lecture.
Doob is one of the three-most cited scholars in Canada and one of the top 25 most-cited scholars worldwide. He is renowned for his insights into our youth justice system, sentencing and imprisonment and for his influence on policy. Writer Kim Luke of Arts & Science Communications asked Doob to share his thoughts on Canada’s criminal justice system.
Read ...
Three Policies That Can Save Other Drug Users From Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Fate
Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead on his bathroom floor Sunday night, with two bags of what is believed to be heroin beside him. If Hoffman did, as suspected, die of a drug overdose, he is one of an estimated 105 people who die every day from that cause. In 29 states, drug overdoses now kill more people than auto accidents. And use of heroin has more than doubled, over the past decade, while overdoses of legal opiates — painkillers — have skyrocketed.
Cop Who Allegedly Said ‘We Don’t Have Time For This’ Before Shooting Schizophrenic Teen Dead Has Been Indicted
A police officer who allegedly yelled “we don’t have time for this” before shooting and killing a schizophrenic teen has been indicted on manslaughter charges.
Officer Bryon Vassey was one of three officers from different North Carolina precincts to respond to a call by the family of 18-year-old Keith Vidal last month. The teen, who suffered from schizophrenia and weighed just 90 pounds, had apparently picked up a small screwdriver and wasn’t putting it down. But his parents say the two other officers already had the scene under control when Vassey walked in. They say the third officer simply tased Vidal, then took out a firearm and shot him dead, saying “we don’t have time for this.”
Records show Vassey was at the Vidal residence for just 70 seconds before calling in that shots had been fired, reports the North Carolina Star News.
Read on...
Officer Bryon Vassey was one of three officers from different North Carolina precincts to respond to a call by the family of 18-year-old Keith Vidal last month. The teen, who suffered from schizophrenia and weighed just 90 pounds, had apparently picked up a small screwdriver and wasn’t putting it down. But his parents say the two other officers already had the scene under control when Vassey walked in. They say the third officer simply tased Vidal, then took out a firearm and shot him dead, saying “we don’t have time for this.”
Records show Vassey was at the Vidal residence for just 70 seconds before calling in that shots had been fired, reports the North Carolina Star News.
Read on...
Inside the Shocking 'Kids For Cash' Juvenile Justice Scandal
Today a special on "kids for cash," the shocking story of how thousands
of children in Pennsylvania were jailed by two corrupt judges who
received $2.6 million in kickbacks from the builders and owners of
private prison facilities. We hear from two of the youth: Charlie
Balasavage was sent to juvenile detention after his parents unknowingly
bought him a stolen scooter; Hillary Transue was detained for creating a
MySpace page mocking her assistant high school principal. They were
both 14 years old and were sentenced by the same judge, Judge Mark
Ciavarella, who is now in jail himself — serving a 28-year sentence.
Balasavage and Transue are featured in the new documentary, "Kids for
Cash," by filmmaker Robert May, who also joins us. In addition, we speak
to two mothers: Sandy Fonzo, whose son Ed Kenzakoski committed suicide
after being imprisoned for years by Judge Ciavarella, and Hillary’s
mother, Laurene Transue. Putting their stories into context of the
larger scandal is attorney Robert Schwartz, executive director of the
Juvenile Law Center. The story is still developing: In October, the
private juvenile-detention companies in the scandal settled a civil
lawsuit for $2.5 million.
Read on...
Read on...
Study: DNA exonerations declined in 2013, while non-DNA exonerations rose sharply
A new report from the National Registry of Exonerations puts the total
number of exonerations in the U.S. at 1,300. Read the report here. Some of the report's most surprising findings below.
The trends in 2013 reflect several long-term trends in exonerations in America:
*Twenty-seven (27) of the 87 known exonerations that occurred in 2013 -- almost one-third of the total number for the year -- were in cases in which no crime in fact occurred, a record number.
*Fifteen (15) known exonerations in 2013 -- 17 percent -- occurred in cases in which the defendants were convicted after pleading guilty, also a record number. The rate of exonerations after a guilty plea has doubled since 2008 and the number continues to grow.
*Thirty-three (33) known exonerations in 2013 -- 38 percent -- were obtained at the initiative or with the cooperation of law enforcement. This is the second highest annual total of exonerations with law enforcement cooperation, down slightly from 2012, but consistent with an upward trend in police and prosecutors taking increasingly active roles in reinvestigating possible false convictions.
In 2013, Reginald Griffin, who had been sentenced to death in Missouri, was exonerated, bringing the total number of death row exonerations to 143 across 26 states since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Read on...
The trends in 2013 reflect several long-term trends in exonerations in America:
*Twenty-seven (27) of the 87 known exonerations that occurred in 2013 -- almost one-third of the total number for the year -- were in cases in which no crime in fact occurred, a record number.
*Fifteen (15) known exonerations in 2013 -- 17 percent -- occurred in cases in which the defendants were convicted after pleading guilty, also a record number. The rate of exonerations after a guilty plea has doubled since 2008 and the number continues to grow.
*Thirty-three (33) known exonerations in 2013 -- 38 percent -- were obtained at the initiative or with the cooperation of law enforcement. This is the second highest annual total of exonerations with law enforcement cooperation, down slightly from 2012, but consistent with an upward trend in police and prosecutors taking increasingly active roles in reinvestigating possible false convictions.
In 2013, Reginald Griffin, who had been sentenced to death in Missouri, was exonerated, bringing the total number of death row exonerations to 143 across 26 states since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Read on...
Who’s Behind the Rapid Decline in Abortions in the U.S.?
The abortion rate has hit a 30-year low, but anti-choicers had
nothing to do with it. The true force behind the drop in the number of
abortions is contraception, brought to you by Planned Parenthood and
pro-choice activists who have effectively made it universal.
That’s right: universal. About 99 percent of sexually active women have used birth control before and a great majority are still using it. The worrying thing is, however, these numbers were true before conservatives started shutting down clinics left and right.
Slate:
[According to] the Guttmacher Institute, which records the abortion rate by surveying the known abortion providers in the country… between 2008 and 2011, the number of abortions fell to 1.1 million a year, a drop of 13 percent. Overall, abortion has been in a long-term decline for most of the time it’s been legal. In 1981, 29 women per 1,000 ages 15-44 had an abortion. In 2011, it was only 17 per 1,000.
Read on...
That’s right: universal. About 99 percent of sexually active women have used birth control before and a great majority are still using it. The worrying thing is, however, these numbers were true before conservatives started shutting down clinics left and right.
Slate:
[According to] the Guttmacher Institute, which records the abortion rate by surveying the known abortion providers in the country… between 2008 and 2011, the number of abortions fell to 1.1 million a year, a drop of 13 percent. Overall, abortion has been in a long-term decline for most of the time it’s been legal. In 1981, 29 women per 1,000 ages 15-44 had an abortion. In 2011, it was only 17 per 1,000.
Read on...
Why Do We Have Unsafe Abortion in the United States?
In the most recent issue of The New Yorker, Eyal Press, a Nation contributor and the son of an OB/GYN who provided abortions, has a harrowing and important story
about the rogue abortionist Steven Brigham, who has owned substandard
clinics all around the country. Brigham has been involved in
horrifically botched surgical abortions as well as a number of medical
abortions that failed because he used methotrexate, a cheaper, less
effective and more dangerous drug than the commonly prescribed
mifepristone. In some cases, he began a procedure in New Jersey and then
had patients driven to Maryland where he would complete it, so as to
circumvent New Jersey law governing late-term abortion. One of his
patients, an 18-year-old African-American girl who was twenty-one weeks
pregnant, had to be airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital after her uterus
was perforated and bowel damaged.
There have been complaints and investigations about Brigham going back to the 1990s, but somehow he continues to operate, moving from one state to another and opening new clinics when old ones are shut down. On the surface, his case, like that of gruesome Kermit Gosnell, seems like evidence for the anti-abortion movement’s contention that abortion clinics are under-regulated. “The argument about abortion often centers around the morality of killing the unborn,” writes Jillian Kay Melchior in National Review. “But Press’s story really hammers home the impact on the vulnerable women who often find themselves exploited at sketchy abortion clinics.”
Read on...
There have been complaints and investigations about Brigham going back to the 1990s, but somehow he continues to operate, moving from one state to another and opening new clinics when old ones are shut down. On the surface, his case, like that of gruesome Kermit Gosnell, seems like evidence for the anti-abortion movement’s contention that abortion clinics are under-regulated. “The argument about abortion often centers around the morality of killing the unborn,” writes Jillian Kay Melchior in National Review. “But Press’s story really hammers home the impact on the vulnerable women who often find themselves exploited at sketchy abortion clinics.”
Read on...
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