Criminal Injustice returns with new episodes on January 8, 2019. Until then, we're reposting some of our favorite interviews. This episode originally appeared July 10, 2018.
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In the US, we incarcerate our fellow citizens at the highest rate in the world. And once they are in prison, we give the incarcerated not another thought. But one program works to help improve our imprisoned population, by teaching them college courses inside – along with college students, from the outside. It’s called the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program – and it’s grown from a single program at a Philadelphia sponsored at Temple University, to a force in 130 prisons around the world involving 130 universities and colleges.
Criminal Injustice returns with new episodes on January 8, 2019. Until then, we're reposting some of our favorite interviews. This episode originally appeared Sep 18, 2018.
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the job. They communicate better, and have a special talent
for de-escalation. In an era when we want less force and
more de-escalation, should the future of policing be female?
Guest Dr. Cara Rabe-Hemp is professor in the Department of
Criminal Studies at Illinois State University. She the author
of Thriving in an All-Boys Club: Female Police and their
Fight for Equality (2018).
The First Step Act was supposed to be a bold, bipartisan move toward federal criminal justice reform. But while the bill may actually become law, it's a baby step at best.
President Trump often flings accusations of partisan bias when judicial decisions don't go his way. Why can't Team Trump catch a break in court?
From marijuana legalization to voter re-enfranchisement, criminal justice-related referenda were all over this year's ballots. Dave breaks down 2018 midterm election results.
When the police kill an unarmed black man, we know the family and community suffer. But what about other people – particularly Black Americans beyond those closest to the victim – what’s the impact on them? The spillover effect of police killings and other violence on Black Americans?
Our guest is Brentin Mock, a journalist who writes for CityLab.com, of the Atlantic. Mr. Mock’s article, “Police Killings and Violence Are Driving Black People Crazy,” explains the new studies that demonstrate the wide impact police killings and other violence have on Black people who are not themselves directly affected.
From Chad in Hawaii, a followup to our Nov. 6 episode on full legalization of marijuana in Canada: if the Canadian government has better data on drug-related crimes than the U.S., do they track other things that we don't? We put the question back to our friends up north.
The shooter in the Tree of Life synagogue murders pleads not guilty. David shares analysis on 90.5 WESA's The Confluence.
We often hear about new methods police try to achieve better results against crime. But do the police have any reason to believe that their new approaches will work? Are their new initiatives based on hope, or on actual evidence that they will really help?
Our guest, Dr. Cynthia Lum, is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Center for Evidence Based Crime Policy, George Mason University. She’ll talk to us about Evidence Based Policing – and how she and her colleagues pioneered an approach that can make sure that what police want to do will really improve things.
Apropos of nothing in particular, Bruce from Norwich, CT wants to know about the legal risks of knowingly giving false information to federal investigators.
Canada becomes the second country in the world to fully legalize marijuana. What happens next?
Routine traffic stops are the most common interaction between police and citizens. A new book presents the most unambiguous evidence yet that race is a critical factor in who gets pulled over and why.
Baumgartner, Epp & Shoub, Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race (Cambridge UP 2018)
With every police shooting of an unarmed civilian, we hear calls for civilian oversight of police. But just creating an oversight agency is no magic bullet. What does a civilian review board need to succeed? What’s the evidence on the success of civilian oversight? Our guest, Brian Corr, is the President of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. He’ll talk to us about what makes for success – and what causes these attempts at reform to fail.
Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement: Assessing the Evidence (2016)
Criminal Injustice is made in Pittsburgh, and Saturday's massacre hit us close to home in more ways than one. It's time to be very clear about what we mean by "free speech," and about what kinds of speech can never be accepted in a free society.
"After Synagogue Attack, Web-Hosting Sites Suspend Gab," NPR 10/29/18
In a rare moment of sanity, Pennsylvania lawmakers from both parties agree: revoking the driver's licenses of people convicted on non-driving-related charges doesn't help anybody.
Anybody who's ever seen a cop show knows police are supposed to inform arrested suspects of their right to an attorney. But how far does the requirement extend?
The authors of a new report from the Abolitionist Law Center argue the practice of life-without-parole (LWOP) sentencing is racially discriminatory, needlessly costly, and arbitrarily cruel.
Bree from Los Angeles asks about the difference between a "guilty" plea and a "no contest" plea: why would a defendant choose one over the other, and how might it affect the outcome of their case?
The Supreme Court banned racial discrimination in jury selection decades ago. But some prosecutors refused to abide by the rules. They developed work arounds, including sorting jurors by their reactions to the OJ Simpson verdict. Now the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) argues that using the OJ verdict as racial discrimination tool violates the Constitution. Our guest, attorney Alexis Hoag of the LDF, helped write the amicus brief now before the California Supreme Court.
An update on the case of East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld, who shot and killed 17-year-old Antwon Rose last summer, on a recent episode of WESA's The Confluence.
Law enforcement officers making an arrest have to identify themselves as cops... right?
A Judicial Edition double feature:
1) Contempt is the primary mechanism judges use to maintain their authority over court proceedings. But some abuse that power.
2) A judge's racist remark is caught on tape, and wow. Just wow.
Bill from Illinois has a question about just how much latitude juries have to disregard the law or the facts in a case when making their decisions.
Surveillance cameras are everywhere in American cities and
towns. They’re touted as crime fighting tools, but do they
really work? Are they worth the cost – in money, and in
privacy? Dr. Nancy LaVigne, vice president for justice
policy, of the non-partisan Urban Institute is the lead author
of the largest study of the effectiveness of surveillance
cameras.
A Las Vegas attorney representing himself in a defamation case pulls a gun on the plaintiff... in the middle of a deposition.