Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Around the Blogs 11-22-06

Light posting just before the holiday. Yet another thanks to Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy for his nice words about our blog and the focus we're putting on "technocorrections." He posts links to a couple of relevant articles and notes that the "techno" day is clearly upon us. We obviously can supply a concurring opinion if he wants it. The earliest moves are in the surveillance area, as these articles show, along with the business entrepreneurs who see big profits, especially before the evaluation work is done well. But pharmaceutical companies are also eyeing the possibilities, as we've noted. The "lift-off" point may be in the surveillance technology already, but I'm looking forward a steep upward rise when genetic scientists begin to get the mechanics of turning genes on and off going full-blast and get all the details of how cells bind down pat. Anyone out there up for writing "Brave New World II"? . . . Crim Prof Blog has a couple of related posts of its own. This one talks about how government drug testing of employees using their hair as sources is catching on big time, and this one points to problems prosecutors are having with trying suspects if drug lab backups get too long, a common problem in a lot of budget-pressed states right now. . . . Doug also links to a report on crystal meth and its replacing crack as the scare drug of choice. Real Cost of Prisons has a post up on how it's already there in Britain. . . . Finally, this may only interest me, but Crime and Consequences has a link to a book review on the new work on Lincoln and Taney. Just bought it and looking forward to it. Not that it's relevant to today's modern world or anything.

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