Friday, July 20, 2007

In The States Today

The Christian Science Monitor covers the Genarlow Wilson case, does it pretty well. I'm getting really tired of how every asinine decision being questioned in corr sent gets hit with "yeah, but if you help this guy, we'll have to open the jail cell doors." You mean like after Miranda? Apprendi? Cunningham? Please get real. And seriously, GA? Besides making this right, please get a different list of state officials to be quoted. Every one you roll out sounds like they’re off their meds and makes the rest of us think the whole state is mentally challenged. . . . Speaking of sex offenses, although we really weren't, here's a good (actually, bad) story on the difficulty facing parole and probation agents trying to keep tabs on them. What's particularly bad about this story, a definite cautionary tale, is that the offender focused on in the piece, the one committed murder after release, was assessed a low-level offender. Not common (some shoplifters do a murder as their next offense), but enough to raise concerns. I'm telling you, the company that invents the TECNHO "solution" to this will be the best investment for your stock portfolio this side of private prisons. . . . A couple of very white states upset that their ranking in the recent Sentencing Project disparity report makes them look bad--VT and WI. Both states saying they'll do better. WI even has a special commission going to look into the problem. Its other problem, though? It already has a commission that just finished a report but they're sunsetting after that report was the only thing it ever did, said inaction costing the commission its right and expectation to accomplish anything. Good people in WI seriously trying to do something, but this just shows you how hard it is. . . .

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