9 shot in 24 hours. 2 die.
Month: September 2009
Cost of Incarceration: NYC
In 2008, New York’s Department of Correction’s budget was $978 million ($939 million of which is paid for city tax dollars). “In Fiscal 2007, the Department handled over 100,000 admissions, managed an average daily population of 13,987 and transported 326,735 individuals to court.” The average length of stay is 47 days. That’s $70,000 per inmate per year. Or $190 per…
Murder down in NYC
Colleen Long has the story in the Washington Post. Homicides are down. They’re on pace for 457 this year, which would be lower than the many-decade low of 497 in 2007. Very impressive. Thank you, NYPD! This is all the more impressive since, as Patrick McGeehan reports in the New York Times, unemployment hit 10.3% in New York City, a…
1.7 Million Drug Arrests in 2008
LEAP says: A group of police and judges who want to legalize drugs pointed to new FBI numbers released today as evidence that the “war on drugs” is a failure that can never be won. The data, from the FBI’s “Crime in the United States” report, shows that in 2008 there were 1,702,537 arrests for drug law violations, or one…
Good Cops, Bad Cops… and Bad Emmys
Randy Cohen writes in his New York Times blog: The Emmys will be awarded this Sunday, Sept. 20. As ever, among the nominees are various police programs (“C.S.I.,” “Life on Mars,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” “The Closer,” “Saving Grace”) built around the Hero Cop. It might be a Hero Cop with a flaw — a drinking problem, a…
Vote, please!
Who reads this thing? And how many? I’d love to know (I’d also like to know how this correlates with the more general stat counter). If you’re reading this, please do me a favor and pick one of the categories below, then click vote. Please vote once (but just once… this isn’t Chicago). Actually, it’s supposed to only let you…
John Hopkins student kills intruder with sword
“A Johns Hopkins University student armed with a samurai sword killed an intruder in his garage, Baltimore police said Tuesday.” The AP story by Ben Nuckols. [Thanks to DJK!] Sept 20 Update: There’s a story by Justin Fenton with new info here.
What Will Mexico’s New Drug Law Do?
Read a few perspectives in the New York Time
War on Massage
I talk a lot about the war on drugs and why it’s messed up. But can I also mention that the fight again prostitution is pretty absurd, too. Shouldn’t we regulate prostitution and worry about health issues, human trafficking, and quality of life concerns instead of wasting police resources arresting people for committing consensual acts?
Why do white people commit so much suicide?
One of the first things I ask in my criminal justice students is, “why do people commit crime?” Students are pretty well trained to talk about social and environmental factors. After agreeing with all that, I like to add, “I thought people committed crime because they’re criminals!” Everybody laughs, but there’s a basic truth there, too. People do make choices.…