Around the Blogs, Monday, April 2, 2007

• Pinching pennies and storing up inmate trouble in MI, CO, and OK, via Real Cost of Prisons. The worst part is how, if you do well in a public prison, it marks you as someone private prisons want so your reward is to get transferred out of state. So why should these guys be civil in prison?
• Interesting idea in TX via Grits for Breakfast—use forfeiture money not to fund the folks who get to do the forfeituring but for drug courts. His great coverage of the fast and furious bills and policies down there will be sure to keep us up-to-date, I’m sure. And while you're visiting Grits, be sure to catch the op-ed by a former TX warden who says the state's prison crisis is "self-made" and at a "crossroads" at which it can start spending wisely and effectively or stay on the same path it's been on for decades. I know where my money is.
• At Psychology and Crime News, discussion of research on the links between religiosity and sexual offending in Australia. "[The analysis] indicated that […] those who maintained religious involvement from childhood to adulthood had more sexual offense convictions, more victims, and younger victims, than other groups. Results challenge assumptions that religious involvement should, as with other crimes, serve to deter sexual offending behavior." Interesting follow-up comments as well.
• And Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy links to an op-ed on "peacemaking circles" as part of the restorative justice approach and asks for feedback from folks with experience with these and other types of justice circles. It would be kind of you to go over and respond.