Category Archives: Sentencing Reform
Convener’s Corner | June 2018
June 1, 2018 Clemency Letter for Alice Marie Johnson to Donald Trump May 30, 2018 President Donald TrumpThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Re: Clemency for Alice Marie Johnson #14873-076 Dear Mr. President:We are writing to urge you to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson. We join a strong list of supporters […]
Convener’s Corner | May 2018
May 15, 2018Entire video here – VOTE FOR JUSTICE “Vote for Justice: An Evening of Empowerment with Artists and Activists,” powered by the Justice Roundtable coalition on May 9 was spectacular. The event began with a reception featuring a poignant Art for Justice display; a justice-themed book pavilion made up largely of titles authored by Soros […]
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The prison rate is dropping but the use of electronic monitoring is growing. Electronic Monitoring threatens to become a form of technological mass incarceration, shifting the site and costs of imprisonment from state facilities to vulnerable communities and households. The Use of Electronic Monitoring is Growing. Electronic monitors have been in use in the criminal […]
Livestream: Vote for Justice | An Evening of Empowerment with Artists and Activists
What are the overarching political, economic and human costs of this country’s criminal punishment system? How can we add to the visibility and focus of the resistance movement against policies and practices that have brought about mass incarceration? How can we paint a transformational vision for the future? When will criminal justice reform be a […]
Convener’s Corner | November 2017
November 3, 2017 Despite Gross Disparities Between Opioid and Crack Treatment, No Funding for Restorative Justice“There’s racial disparities here. When there was a drug issue in the African American community we were prosecuted, we were put in jail, children were put in foster care, families were ripped apart. It was treated like a criminal justice […]
Convener’s Corner | August 2017
August 25, 2017 Trump Pardoned Arpaio – What we gonna do???Excuse my language, but I am pissed. Not because Trump pardoned Arpaio — the Executive has an unfettered constitutional right to grant clemency to whoever s/he wishes. I am outraged because we as a progressive community are too often stymied by what the conservative and […]
Convener’s Corner | July 2017
July 14, 2017 Who is the Justice Roundtable? What do you do? What happens at your Assemblies and Meetings? As convener of the Roundtable, I get these questions all the time. Now, you can see for yourself The Justice Roundtable Assembly in action. We are on a roll! The livestream video from our last quarterly […]
Sessions: Rescind Your Draconian Memo
Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called on his prosecutors to pursue harsh sentences for people charged with nonviolent drug offenses. Sessions’ memo rescinds policy instituted by former Attorney General Eric Holder, which avoided draconian mandatory minimums for many drug offenses. This is a disastrous move that will increase the prison population, worsen racial disparities in […]
Convener’s Corner | March 31, 2017
March 31, 2017 Congratulations Vanita! As founder and convener of the Justice Roundtable, I am thrilled with the announcement of Vanita Gupta as President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund. I smile when I think of Vanita as a new young lawyer at the […]
Convener’s Corner | March 14, 2017
March 14, 2017 My reflection: From his 1980s–style “tough on crime” and “law and order” bombast, his selection of the controversial Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, and his criminal punishment-focused Executive Orders, the handwriting is on the wall that we will likely see a return to the flawed policies of the past which resulted in […]
Convener’s Corner | February 15, 2017
Feb. 15, 2017 reprinting – FEATURE HILL ARTICLE ON ACLU’S JESSELYN MCCURDY, a stalwart leader with the Justice Roundtable coalition! “In Civil Liberties Fight, Never Say Never” The Hill, by Megan Wilson, 2/14/17 Jesselyn McCurdy still remembers the call. “Clarence is going to come home,” a voice said. It was the attorney for Clarence Aaron, […]
Convener’s Corner | February 6, 2017
Feb. 6, 2017 Criminal Justice Reform Must Include Life Without Parole Sentences The recently released report from The Sentencing Project, “Delaying a Second Chance: The Declining Prospects for Parole on Life Sentences,” stresses that “thus far, criminal justice reform has largely excluded people in prison with life sentences. This growing “lifer” population both illustrates and […]
Convener’s Corner | January 2017
Jan. 17, 2017 As one Administration comes to a close and another prepares to assume the helm, Justice Roundtable takes a moment to thank the outgoing chair of the United States Sentencing Commission for her leadership in moving issues of federal sentencing reform. Re: Chief Judge Patti B. Saris’ Outstanding Service to the United States […]
Convener’s Corner | December 2016
Dec. 7, 2016 “Commutations – the fierce urgency of now” There is unprecedented momentum appealing to President Obama to go bold in granting commutations, and for good reason — there is the fierce urgency of now. The clock is running out on commutations as President-elect Trump prepares to assume power on January 20th. Despite the […]
Convener’s Corner | November 22, 2016
Nov. 22, 2016Eerie Blast from the Past An eerie somber blast from the past – Taifa’s January 7, 1995, analysis of the “Take Back Our Streets” Act of Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America, several months after the passage of the now-infamous 1994 Crime Bill – the Violent Crime Control and Safe Streets Act. Click here to […]
Convener’s Corner | November 3, 2016
Nov. 3, 2016 Taifa’s Reflection on Hatch and Clemency I can’t believe something I just did. After reading Senator Orrin Hatch’s November 2, 2016 National Review article, “The President Needs to Show More Caution in Commuting Felons’ Sentences,” I immediately scribbled off an email to five of my criminal justice reform colleagues (Doug Berman, Mark […]
Convener’s Corner | October 2016
October 8, 2016 Ava DuVernay takes the 13th amendment by storm! “The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 13TH refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United […]
Convener’s Corner | September 2016
September 12, 2016 ATTICA UPRISING – CRITICAL NEW BOOK SHEDS NEW LIGHT “With the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the four-day prison uprising was the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War.” New York State Special Commission on Attica, 1971. I am looking […]
Convener’s Corner | August 2016
August 18, 2016 The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it plans to end its use of private prison facilities after concluding the facilities are less safe than government-run prisons. The DOJ says it will decline to renew existing for-profit prison contracts. In this Justice Roundtable Convener’s Corner I highlight an interview with the […]
Convener’s Corner | July 2016
July 18, 2016 The following article, “Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, Dallas” by Linda Burnham spoke volumes to me. I reprint it as my Convener’s Corner message this week: “Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, Dallas,” by Linda Burnham, July 11, 2016 A thick strand in the history of U.S. policing is rooted back in the slave patrols […]