Voting for prison reform promises
It was three and half years ago, at the Roger Williams University Symposium “Sounding the Alarm on Mass Incarceration” (which I wrote about in RIFuture back in 2013), when Rhode Island started a difficult, ambitious statewide conversation about undertaking major criminal justice reform efforts. Now, at the end of another election cycle, voters that care […]
A post-mortem for probation reform
The Justice Reinvestment reform package died at some point late last Friday night, passing the Senate but never making it out of the Judiciary Committee in the House. This was a surprising conclusion to nearly a year of momentum building around the issue of mass probation and mass incarceration, and is indicative of the uphill […]
Symposium on mass incarceration confronts challenges, unites system
Not in more than a decade has Rhode Island confronted the reality of mass incarceration as unflinchingly, as ambitiously and as uncomfortably as it did last Friday. “Sounding the Alarm on Mass Incarceration,” a day-long symposium at Roger Williams Law School, drew hundreds of the most prominent and integral members of the Rhode Island criminal justice […]
Sen. Whitehouse and how to deal with prison reform in America
On Monday a group of people will sit down at Open Doors and talk about Senator Whitehouse’s bill to create a federal parole system. The bill is hailed as a “prison reform bill,” and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee; a clear indication of the shifting tide on political ideology over the past few years. This ebbing […]
Decriminalizing Marijuana Rally Today at State House
I’m writing to follow up on Becky’s post. When you watch the video you’ll learn that Rhode Island currently spends 40.5 million dollars annually policing, and adjudicating and incarcerating the users of marijuana. We could save 11 million of that through decriminalizing possession of marijuana under 1 oz, and instead treat addiction while preserving families […]