Roundup: Corruption scandals at the DEA and Rhode Island State Police; astonishingly low recidivism among federal prisoners sent home during COVID; Adams' bail reform lies may cost Democrats the House
Roundup: Corruption scandals at the DEA and Rhode Island State Police; astonishingly low recidivism among federal prisoners sent home during COVID; Adams' bail reform lies may cost Democrats the House
Here’s your roundup of criminal justice and civil liberties stories: Arizona tries to hide its execution methods and protocols from the press. The state has an execution scheduled for tomorrow. More on the career public defender who was just elected DA in Hennepin County, Minnesota (Minneapolis).
Re: "Chinese students at U.S. colleges are being threatened and bullied by other Chinese students and groups aligned with the Chinese government. And some U.S. colleges are playing along." GW Law School prof here: The story does not really support the headline about US colleges playing along. The GW administration's response to the Olympics posters was definitely wrong, wrong, wrong. But the administration quickly realized its mistake and reversed itself. Since then, there has been no playing along. According to the story, the only subsequent playing along was on the part of the GW student senate (which refused to consider a resolution on Xinjiang), not the administration. It is no doubt true that some US colleges are flaccid in the face of Chinese government-organized bullying because they are concerned about tuition dollars or too readily believe bad-faith claims about racism, but GW, apart from that one lamentable lapse that it has learned from, is not one of them.
Re: Laika, I really enjoyed the graphic novel "Laika" by Nick Abadzis. It's historical fiction about the people involved in the project and Laika herself that I think aimed to be true to (most of) the actual details of her life.
Re: redecivism during COVID - I think this is really good news, but our judicial system was semi-offline, right? Seems like that could skew the numbers. Still think home confinement should be considered more broadly as a humane, effective alternative to incarceration though.
Re: "Chinese students at U.S. colleges are being threatened and bullied by other Chinese students and groups aligned with the Chinese government. And some U.S. colleges are playing along." GW Law School prof here: The story does not really support the headline about US colleges playing along. The GW administration's response to the Olympics posters was definitely wrong, wrong, wrong. But the administration quickly realized its mistake and reversed itself. Since then, there has been no playing along. According to the story, the only subsequent playing along was on the part of the GW student senate (which refused to consider a resolution on Xinjiang), not the administration. It is no doubt true that some US colleges are flaccid in the face of Chinese government-organized bullying because they are concerned about tuition dollars or too readily believe bad-faith claims about racism, but GW, apart from that one lamentable lapse that it has learned from, is not one of them.
--Donald Clarke, GW Law School
The A.P link for the investigative reporting about DEA Agents isn't working.
Re: Laika, I really enjoyed the graphic novel "Laika" by Nick Abadzis. It's historical fiction about the people involved in the project and Laika herself that I think aimed to be true to (most of) the actual details of her life.
Re: redecivism during COVID - I think this is really good news, but our judicial system was semi-offline, right? Seems like that could skew the numbers. Still think home confinement should be considered more broadly as a humane, effective alternative to incarceration though.