Reentry is the fancy word for getting out of jail or prison and back into the real world. It’s a big problem. Would you hire a felon? Here’s a good story in the Times.
Month: March 2009
I Want My McNuggets!
Or I’ll call 911.
Strip Searches
No longer allowed in Nassau County, Long Island, NY. Judge Leonard D. Wexler found that the Fourth Amendment prohibits jail officials from performing such searches on every person sent to the jail, particularly those arrested on a misdemeanor or minor charge like a traffic violation, and those who cannot be reasonably suspected of carrying a concealed weapon or drugs. I…
Drug Bust Oscars
Peter Hermann has a nice article giving Academy Awards for drug busts. So, if we’re handing out Academy Awards for cocaine seizures, Bealefeld’s Oscar might read “Best director for a drug bust,” while Clark’s might read “Best supporting director for a drug bust.” … It is a sad reminder that the drugs keep pouring in despite year after year of…
Cameras and Crime
Here’s an article in the New York Timesabout the (weak) link between security cameras and crime prevention.
Mexico and the “Failed State”
Spin this all want, drug warriors, it’s not good. From Ciudad Juárez. The whole story in the New York Times is here. It was drug traffickers who decided that Chief Roberto Orduña Cruz, a retired army major who had been on the job since May, should go. To make clear their insistence, they vowed to kill a police officer every…
Strip Searches in Central Booking
These stories happen every now and then. “Respectable” person gets arrested and is shocked (shocked!) that they’re strip searched in jail. Did you not know that people get strip searched after being arrested? Well they do. Now you know. If the idea that other people get strip searched doesn’t bother you today, right now, while you’re reading this, please don’t…
SWAT team reform
The Sun talks about SWAT-like teams.
Reporting the Police and Naming Names
David Simon, of The Wire, Homicide, and The Corner fame, has written a very powerful article in the Washington Post. The Baltimore Police stopped releasing the names of officers involved in police-involved shootings. Personally, I like reading the names in the paper to see if it’s anybody I know. Sure I could call up a friend and find out. But…