July 15, 2013
CBC News
Top court to hear case involving cell phones, privacy rights
Dating from a 2009 arrest of one Kevin Fearon, and an appeal in February 2011 over the right of police to search through an unprotected cell phone (no password), the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled the police within their rights to introduce the evidence seized. Now the issue of the right of police search around the information stored in a cell phone and the expectation of privacy is going to the Supreme Court of Canada. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/07/11/toronto-cellphone-privacy-rights-case-appeal-supreme-court-canada-scoc.html Related article: Canadian Privacy Law Blog Supreme Court of Canada to consider cell phone privacy and police searches incident to arrest http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2013/07/supreme-court-of-canada-to-consider.html
Daily Journal (US) – Ron Jackson
Most poor people don’t commit to life of crime
Most everybody with an opinion about the cause of crime will give credence to the notion that poverty causes crime. Here is a sobering second thought piece about crime causing poverty. http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=509368
MSNBC – Meredith Clark
Prisoners languish in solitary confinement
This report is an almost 11 minute video report on the practice of solitary in Pelican Bay, California. Not for just the most hardened, solitary is part of the lives of over 81,000 US prisoners, including women and juveniles. http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/13/why-the-us-holds-so-many-prisoners-in-solitary-confinement
CBS News
Dozens Trade In Guns for Computers as Violence Grips Baltimore City
Baltimore has had more than its share of gang violence and this latest gun control effort resulted in getting some 50 guns off the streets and destroyed. The controversy around all such trades is that often the guns taken off the streets are not the ones helping to terrorize the neighbourhood. http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/07/13/dozens-trade-in-guns-for-computers-as-violence-grips-baltimore-city
Expertclick.com – Dr. Patricia A. Farrell
Is a Recession Good for Child Abuse Statistics?
The use of statistics brings comfort and alarm. Farrell has an interesting reflection on the contemporary use of statistics around a single factor of a more complex problem and an endorsement for an old favourite of those following public opinion closely. http://www.expertclick.com/NRWire/Releasedetails.aspx?id=45947
Bangor Daily News – Guest opinion – Arthur Barry Adoff
Rather than punish, restorative justice offers chance to heal
The state of Maine has a vigorous RJ program in process and this article is a reflection from a recently trained volunteer (with links) who is also a crime novelist. A re-entry program using a RJ approach is also part of the comments. http://bangordailynews.com/2013/07/14/opinion/contributors/rather-than-punish-restorative-justice-offers-chance-to-heal/?ref=mostReadBoxOpinion
The Australian
Social equity target tantalisingly close
Justice, widely defined, can be understood in part at least, in terms of social equity. Australia is using the correction of disparity in university admissions as a measure of the growth in a just society for the poor and Aboriginal people. This is surely a lesson for us in Canada when we know the extent of educational problems among our own indigenous peoples. Likewise, we know that education is a key to rehabilitation of prison inmates, whose average educational level is about grade seven. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/social-equity-target-tantilisingly-close/story-e6frgcjx-1226679674607
Jerusalem Post – By Lahav Harkov
Meretz MK Horowitz proposes ‘Prisoner X Bill’
Israel has prisoners who are held both in solitary and in isolation or incommunicado, known as Prisoner X. Following the suicide death of one such prisoner, Ben Zygier, a second such prisoner under a gag order was revealed. In response, there is a proposal that the Public Defender’s Office be tasked with monitoring such cases. These developments prompted assurances from public security and justice ministers that there are no unknown prisoners in Israel. http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Meretz-MK-Horowitz-proposes-Prisoner-X-Bill-319869
Telegram (St. John’s, NF) – Editorial
Cheers & Jeers
The Telegram seems particularly elated with the news of Vic Toews’ resignation as Public Safety Minister in a review of his tenure over the ‘tough-on-crime’ era of the Conservative government. http://www.thetelegram.com/Opinion/Editorials/2013-07-15/article-3315399/Cheers-Jeers/1
The Sentencing Project (US) – Mark Mauer
Urban Institute WEBCAST “21st Century Drug Policy Reform: A Conversation with Gil Kerlikowske”
The Urban Institute with the Sentencing Project sponsors a one and a half hour webcast on the subject of reforming the drug sentences, long identified as a major part of the problem around crowded prisons through mandatory minimums.Home page for the Urban Institute: http://www.urban.org Home page for The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/index.cfm
Foster’s Daily Democrat – Editorial (US)
Mental illness: It’s not a crime
The article reviews the changes and the problems in New Hampshire’s mental health services that cause the forced option of prison for people with obvious and demonstrated mental illness. The problem was compounded because the defendant was not able to afford the $200 bail following court appearance. Aren’t we over debtor’s prison yet? http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130715/GJOPINION_01/130719681/-1/FOSNEWS