It is more likely fort a black man killing a white man to be found guilty than for a white one killing a black one. That is not new. Yet because so many are not yet convinced and because the judicial system does not yet reflect that reality, any study that reinforces that fact, needs to be mentioned and noticed. The Marshall Project which specializes in the criminal justice system did an examination where they looked at 400,000 homicides committed by civilians between 1980 and 2014. They found that when one person killed another, one out of every 100 homicides were found justified. But when a white person killed a black man, 17 out of 100 homicides were found justified. The thing is that to Continue reading “Homicide and Racial Discrimination”
Tag: Marshall Project
The Side of The Prison Guards
Last week the post spoke of a prisoner’s reality. This week, also via The Marshall Project, which specializes on reporting about the criminal justice system, the perspective of prison guards. While a closed group, they attempt to bridge their isolation through social media like Facebook, and a reporter took a look at their unfiltered posts all the while cautioning readers this was representative of only a “subset” of guards, those who used Facebook. She categorized what was culled from those posts into four sections, each representing Continue reading “The Side of The Prison Guards”
From Cell to Cell
From our perspective on the outside, an inmate’s change of cell may not be a big deal, but the Marshall Project carried a first person article of a prisoner’s experience. And it’s anything but. Without warning or explanation, Arthur Longworth was told he was being moved to another cell at 6:30 am one morning. He’d been in this cell for 5 years and in his long incarceration this wasn’t the first time he was moved. He describes it as a piece of him being torn away. His cell was his world, his home, and without notice he and his few possessions, were told to move, in this case to a part of the prison that Continue reading “From Cell to Cell”
Rehab vs Punishment
Since both Republicans and Democrats are now making efforts to reform the criminal justice system, it isn’t surprising that several American correctional officers spent five days visiting prisons in Germany and were more than amazed with the differences. One of them, Maurice Chammah wrote daily articles for the Marshall project (www.themarshallproject.org) a non-partisan Continue reading “Rehab vs Punishment”