Tag / jail
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Kids in Jail
BY BENJAMIN SZANTON There are many milestones in the lives of kids growing up in Missouri. They learn to ride a bike, head off to kindergarten and graduate elementary school. Then, with their twelfth birthday, they reach a big one: the ability to be charged as adults by their state’s criminal justice system. States have…
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The Victims Behind Bars
BY WALLIS LINKER Law and Order, Orange is the New Black, and The Wire are rife with depictions of the incarcerated criminals and the government agencies that deal with this sector. But, as is often the case with TV, these shows misrepresent life behind bars in state and federal prisons. The quality of life in…
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When Our Adversarial Justice System Fails
BY CHLOE NAGUIB In January 2014, Criminal Court Judge Paul S. Biebel of Illinois granted Nicole Harris, convicted for the murder of her son Jaquari, a Certificate of Innocence. In 2005, Jaquari accidentally strangled himself to death with an elastic band while playing in his bedroom. His six-year-old brother witnessed the accident, but was deemed…
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Sentencing War: Disparities and Injustices in Cracking Down on Cocaine
BY HAYLEY LEVY The United States, with only 5 percent of the world’s population, has 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Presently, individuals in the United States are incarcerated at a rate of 748 inmates per 100,000 people. The country with the closest rate is Russia, with a rate of 600 incarcerated per 100,000…
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U.S. Prisons: Perverse and Unsustainable Incentives
Penal Labor 93% of domestically produced paints are made in prisons. Why? The story boils down to two simple facts: laborers producing paint face a significant risk of cancer, and inmates do not have to be paid the minimum wage. Inmates across the United States are being coerced into doing some of our most…
