Five Links from a Criminal Justice System: Modern Dance, The Rise and Fall of Restorative Justice in a NY Town, And the Top Stories of 2016

Last updated on: December 31, 2015 at 2:58 pm by Eve Tushnet

Five Links from a Criminal Justice System: Modern Dance, The Rise and Fall of Restorative Justice in a NY Town, And the Top Stories of 2016 2015-12-31T14:58:07-04:00 Eve Tushnet

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m super breaking my supposed rule that I won’t link to the Marshall Project here because you should be following them on Twitter. You should be following them on Twitter! And you can donate to their work here. Anyway, check out their “Next Year in Criminal Justice“:

The challenge at the end of any year on any beat is to make sense of the great majority of stories that fall somewhere in the middle. What’s going to “trend” in 2016 in criminal justice, and what’s not, and how can anyone possibly tell? Here are my best guesses organized into two categories. Themes and topics I think you’ll be hearing a great deal about in 2016. And stories you’ve heard a lot about this past year that might for one reason or another recede from the headlines. Y’all can remind me next December about how right or wrong I was.

“Miami’s Notorious Jail Fights Back Against Rape”:

…As is often the case, success in prevention uncovers more contagion. Since establishing reforms, the number of reports about sexual abuse and harassment at the jails more than doubled, from 18 reported incidents in 2010 to 41 in 2013. In 2014, the total was 26. With changes like the ones in Miami, such spikes are not unusual, said Marcia Morgan, the executive director of Migima, a corrections consulting firm hired by Just Detention International to evaluate the Miami jail project from 2010 to 2013. “I think the bigger piece is the cultural change,” said Morgan. “There was a lot of fear in the beginning that inmates will just report all the staff, so why should we educate these inmates anyway?”

more–notable to me for the role of self-image here. Rape jokes were hilarious until it turned out that this guy’s specific actual jail was notoriously unsafe, and then suddenly they were embarrassing. That change of heart is… encouraging, from a certain angle. Also “…Miami’s system, the country’s eighth largest, became one of the first large urban jails to comply with federal prison standards for protecting inmates from sexual assault. It was a ‘monumental achievement,’ a federal monitor wrote in 2014.”

“Watch Alvin Ailey Dancers Rehearse a Piece About Being Locked Up”:

The holiday season can trigger certain, sometimes painful childhood memories for choreographer Kyle Abraham — it was the time of year when his mother would receive a phone call from her brother in prison. “Once the phone calls ended, the sadness set in,” he says. “On both ends.”

That palpable feeling of separation helped inspire his latest work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, “Untitled America: First Movement” (watch an exclusive clip from a rehearsal, below). The piece is the first of a three-part modern dance series that will explore the impact of prison on families.

more–always pleased when two of this blog’s interests collide.

“We Owe It to Freddie Gray: Inmate ‘Wild Rides’ Must End”:

The prisoner transport vehicle has been called “a casket on wheels” by Baltimore city prosecutor Janice Bledsoe and she couldn’t be more correct. At least 25 of my almost 100 rides as an inmate at York Correctional Institution convinced me that I was about to die. It is too bad it took the death of Freddie Gray for the prosecutors to finally acknowledge the risk prisoners in transport vehicles face.

“The Unlikely Rise of Restorative Justice in a Conservative Upstate New York County”:

When officials in rural Genesee County, New York, decided 35 years ago it was time to replace their old jail, they wanted to build something not just better but bigger. Doug Call, an assistant county attorney, thought that was a mistake. Though he lacked a law enforcement background, Call had seen enough of traditional punitive criminal justice—as an Air Force JAG officer and during the nearby Attica prison uprising nine years earlier—to put his faith in sentencing alternatives.

His arguments went nowhere with county leaders, so Call took matters into his own hands. He announced a campaign for sheriff on a no-new-jail platform against the law-and-order incumbent. The lifelong Republican was no revolutionary. But he was pushing ideas that wouldn’t go down easily in a deeply conservative working-class region dotted with dairy farms, small towns, and a disproportionate share of New York’s state prisons. Even so, Call won the election. …

The story of Genesee Justice explains why restorative justice has had such a hard time catching on—and sheds light on whether it ever will.

more–a solid story, equal parts inspiring and sad. (Touches on some of the issues I yapped about here.) But in the emphasis on strict supervision, monitoring, and mandatory treatment you should hear the scrape of tools that will be used against the intentions of their designers. I guess that’s as good a note to end the year on as any.

Art

no more cotton-pickin' prisons

prayers to St Joseph Cafasso

restorative justice

so far from God so close to the United States

Previous Post

December 31, 2015

"The Far-Out Sci-Fi Costume Parties of the Bauhaus School in the 1920s": Ring in the New Year Right

Next Post

January 4, 2016 "'Hamilton' and the Romance of Government": My take

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Best-Of Gay Catholic Whatnot Mackerel-Snapping self-obsessed Too much is never enough Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who received the Ten Commandments from God?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Moses Abraham Aaron Joshua