The system has three big flaws, say criminologists. First, it puts too many people away for too long. Second, it criminalises acts that need not be criminalised. Third, it is unpredictable. Many laws, especially federal ones, are so vaguely written that people cannot easily tell whether they have broken them. In 1970 the proportion of Americans behind bars was below one in 400, compared with today’s one in 100. Since then, the voters, alarmed at a surge in violent crime, have demanded fiercer sentences. Politicians have obliged. New laws have removed from judges much of their discretion to set a sentence that takes full account of the circumstances of the offence. Since no politician wants to be tarred as soft on crime, such laws, mandating minimum sentences, are seldom softened. On the contrary, they tend to get harder.

From Crime and Justice News

The editorial states: “Democrats will take over the Senate in January. This is an obvious and comparatively easy problem for them to address. No state can ever guarantee that the innocent will never be wrongfully convicted, taken from their families and locked behind bars. People aren’t perfect, so their systems can’t be either. But New York can do a whole lot better than it has. It should do that.”

He goes on to make the case that placing these citizens into the consumer stream might help the economy. He writes, “The economic effect of more than ten million American adults who can’t buy cars, houses, furniture, appliances, or other durable goods is like 9- 11, Katrina, and every other hurricane combined. Even with a job, many are without a credit card and are shut out of the marketplace. From Ticketmaster to Amazon.com to the local shore store, American businesses are losing sales. Economically, our criminal justice policies are cutting our throat. Aside from the economic cost, is imprisonment of all of these 2.3 million Americans good anti-crime policy? Not according to the research. Effective crime fighting uses smart police strategies, adequate mental health care, good schools, recreation for youth, jobs and focused rehabilitation.”

A case, 36 years old, is in the public eye for a review from Angola Prison in Louisiana. The case also involves law enforcement and two prisoners convicted in the case of the death of correctional officer. The case of two prisoners, who have been in solitary confinement for 36 years, is now being questioned in coverage from National Public Radio.

Check out the above link for excellent photos, interesting print and audio reporting.

Lawyers at Northwestern University have filed petitions on behalf of four exonerated former Illinois inmates, the first under a new law that would allow them to seek compensation from the state. Under the law, exonerees can apply to the county court of their conviction for compensation instead of waiting for a pardon from Gov. Rod Blagojevich. That county court may grant a “certificate of innocence.” “People would still like to receive the innocence pardons from the governor,” said Karen Daniel, an assistant law professor at Northwestern University School of Law. “This wouldn’t replace that process. It’s an alternative means of getting the compensation.”

Among the four filings was one for Marlon Pendleton, 51, who is eligible for seven years of compensation after he was exonerated on DNA evidence from convictions of aggravated criminal sexual assault and armed robbery. A certificate would make Pendleton eligible for job training and provide him with more than $100,000 in compensation. The Illinois General Assembly overrode Blagojevich’s veto of the legislation, making it law Sept. 22. Blagojevich has faced criticism for a backlog of hundreds of clemency petitions.

Associated Press/Chicago Tribune

The virtual end to pardons and grants of executive clemency on the state and national levels is of concern to scholar Kathleen Dean Moore in her book on pardons. She says the political climate has made “…the exercise of mercy a politically risky act” which defeats the intentions of this nation’s Founders who believed that without a clemency power “justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.”