Thursday, January 11, 2007

News of the Day, Thursday, January 11, 2007

Nice op-ed here on use of GPS tech and other efforts in enforcing restraining orders in dom violence cases in MA. . . . OTOH, this is a nice reminder not to get our hopes up too much that offenders won't do their best to outdo the tech (h/t Sex Crimes Blog). . . . Speaking of domestic violence, how could I forget to add its prevalence among athletes to my rant about sports and our culture of accepting cheating and delegitimizing rules and laws yesterday? Sorry. I got carried away. (Very depressing but thorough article. Just warning you.) . . . Some good news. FL is pumping $17 m. into moving mentally ill inmates into psych hospital beds. Not enough but a good start. And this article on a treatment program in MT will get you up to speed on why we need to do more. (I also liked how officials brought in legislators to see how these guys live. "Sometimes we don't know how lucky we are," one Republican lawmaker said.). . . Among the players in corrections sentencing policymaking, one absent group that could be doing a lot more is state chief justices (with the exception of NC's Judge Tom Ross back in his heyday, of course). But here's the SD chief judge surprising folks there by coming out publicly for more funding of a program to whack at meth. . . . In UT, it's the governor who's mobilizing troops in a new initiative against the drug. . . . Good piece here on the effort in TX to move the state toward more treatment and fewer cells. I won't even try, though, to match what Grits for Breakfast has been doing in keeping readers on point regarding the effort so go there for more detail. . . . A couple of stories about new states about to run out of prison space--ME and KS. Keep in mind that KS has a sentencing commission, guidelines, and hard-won efforts to move offenders into treatment and out of prison beds. But the politics of the place have undercut the point of the commission. Just another good example of what happens more often than not to the hopes of those who think commissions will help them get their corrections sentencing policy under control.

No comments: