All the real stories fit to print about the real challenges of criminal justice reform

<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/us/first-step-act-criminal-justice.html"><em>New York Times</em></a> has been giving sustained attention to criminal justice reform stories of late, and these two recent piece especially caught my attention:</p> <ul> <li> <p>"<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/us/first-step-act-criminal-justice.html">For Inmates Released Under New Criminal Justice Reforms, ‘Every Day Counts’</a>: Thousands of people were released from federal custody as part of the First Step Act. A few told us their stories." Start of piece:</p> <blockquote> <p>Robert Shipp was sitting in a West Virginia prison when his father got sick and slipped away in a Chicago hospital. His father’s death in 2012 served as another reminder to Mr. Shipp, 46, of how thick the prison walls were and how much he had missed since he was 21, when he was sentenced to life in prison for selling crack cocaine.</p> <p>This week, Mr. Shipp returned his ankle monitor to a halfway house and became a free man.&nbsp; He was one of 3,100 people released early from federal custody on Friday as part of the First Step Act, a bipartisan bill signed by President Trump in December that, among other things, increased sentence reductions for good behavior.&nbsp; Even before that bill passed, Mr. Shipp had been scheduled to be released in November because of sentencing reform during the Obama administration.</p> <p>“Some people might say, ‘that’s just a few months,’ but every day counts — every hour, every minute — because anything can happen at any time,” Mr. Shipp’s sister, Veda Ajamu, said. “That’s not a small piece for me.”</p> <p>Mr. Shipp’s dramatic turn illustrates an increasing agreement among politicians and citizens that drug sentences in the United States, which have disproportionately put black men like him behind bars, have been too harsh.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>"<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/us/violent-crime-ohio-prison.html">Would You Let the Man Who Killed Your Sister Out of Prison?</a>: Angelo Robinson, who was convicted of murder and felony drug possession when he was 21, has spent more than half of his life in prison."&nbsp; Part of article:</p> <blockquote> <P>Last year, [David] Singleton ... conceived of a project called Beyond Guilt, to emphasize that guilt is not an endpoint but the possible beginning of a “story of redemption.” The goal is to push for legislation to provide new avenues for early release, and to create a network of lawyers to take up individual cases. <P>In other states, advocates have begun to argue for shorter prison terms or “second-look sentencing” that would allow judges to review a prisoner’s record and sentence. Such measures are a tough sell. Last year, bills were proposed in 18 state legislatures that would have allowed some version of earlier release for those serving life or other long sentences, according to Marc Mauer, director of the Sentencing Project. None made it out of the committee process. <P>Yet the math is clear: There is no way to bring the American incarceration rate in line with that of other countries without releasing some whose crimes were more serious than the low-level drug offenses that politicians like to talk about. <P>Mr. Singleton knew that his project would require hard conversations with victims and their families, prosecutors and the public. </blockquote> </li> </ul></div> Via Law http://www.rssmix.com/