A wide-ranging collection of news and opinion from the previous week focusing on criminal justice policy, advocacy, and reform.
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New book, ‘Jack and Norman,’ misses the point on prison re-entry
For formerly incarcerated individuals, community-minded and holistic reentry programs are an important part of lasting success. Jerome Loving’s new book, “Jack and Norman,” which details the story of author and individual with justice involvement, Jack Abbott, and his sponsor, author Norman Mailer, misses this key point. Now on The Huffington Post, read Fortune founder David Rothenberg’s insightful review.
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‘Jack and Norman’ details how Norman Mailer helped free a [justice-involved individual] from prison, only for him to [commit another crime]
In 1981, Norman Mailer threw the heft of his towering celebrity into freeing an [individual with justice involvement] named Jack Henry Abbott. Six weeks later, Richard Adan, a 22-year-old aspiring playwright, slumped to his death in a Bowery alley. The new book “Jack and Norman: A State-Raised Convict and the Legacy of Norman Mailer’s ‘The Executioner’s Song’” compellingly revisits [this] story.
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A plan to prune the city’s thicket of warrants for petty offenses
There are 1.5 million low-level warrants on file in New York, demanding arrests for offenses so minor that many are not even categorized as crimes. Now the city’s five district attorneys are considering throwing out a large number of warrants in an effort to move past the controversies over former policing practices and to spare New Yorkers from being arrested for petty infractions committed long ago.
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Police to strengthen force in New York’s most violent borough
The New York Police Department on Wednesday announced plans to send 75 new investigators to the Bronx to address a steep and longstanding shortage of detectives in the department’s most violent and underserved borough.
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The Innocence Team: Brooklyn businessmen, formerly incarcerated, fight on behalf of the wrongly convicted
“Racism is integrated into the system, no doubt about it,” says Shabaka Shakur, co-owner of Brownstone Bar and Restaurant, located at 277 Gold Street in DUMBO. Derrick Hamilton, Shabaka’s good friend and the other owner of Brownstone Bar, nods in agreement.
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Push for contentious DNA method outlasts the case calling for it
The New York State Commission on Forensic Science, a 14-member panel appointed by the governor to develop standards for forensic laboratories, will hold a public hearing on Friday [, February 10] on whether to authorize familial DNA searching. The forensic method would allow investigators to use DNA found at crime scenes to search databases of offenders’ genetic information with wider parameters to find people who may be relatives of the person who committed the crime.
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Immigration raids hit major cities throughout the US
United States immigration officials arrested hundreds of undocumented residents in a series of raids conducted across at least six states this week.
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[The Illinois Department of Corrections] to open Kewanee Life Skills Re-entry Center
The Illinois Department of Corrections announced Feb. 6 the launch of its first Life Skills Re-entry Center in Kewanee, where offenders who are nearing the end of their sentences will learn skills critical to their success in the community. Kewanee is one of three Life Skills Re-entry Centers slated to open in Illinois, as part of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan to safely reduce the prison population and restructure the state’s criminal justice system.
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Proposal: School districts should handle education for incarcerated [young adults]
In a report about the California’s 58 county offices of education, the Legislative Analyst’s Office argues that the county offices don’t provide high enough quality of services to youth in juvenile detention centers and jails and operate without adequate transparency.