老澳门开奖结果

Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate is the highest it鈥檚 ever been in U.S. history. And yet, our criminal justice system has failed on every count: public safety, fairness and cost-effectiveness. Across the country, the criminal justice reform conversation is heating up. Each week, we feature our some of the most exciting and relevant news in overincarceration discourse that we鈥檝e spotted from the previous week. Check back weekly for our top picks.

Breaking News

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of 老澳门开奖结果 client Luis Lebron, upholding the district court鈥檚 ruling that Florida鈥檚 mandatory suspicionless drug testing violates his and all other TANF applicants鈥� Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. 鈥淭here is nothing inherent to the condition of being impoverished that supports the conclusion that there is a 鈥榗oncrete danger鈥� that impoverished individuals are prone to drug use,鈥� the court said in its opinion, which you can find . For more, read our press release.

Highlights from the Campaign to End Overincarceration

State Legislative Highlights: A number of states have either passed laws or are advancing bills that could mean fewer people incarcerated:

• Colorado is considering a bill () to establish a pretrial diversion program for adults, as well as a bill to reduce the punishment for theft ().
• Florida is considering and , which would allow judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences for certain defendants charged with drug offenses.
• Georgia recently advanced comprehensive juvenile justice reform, .
• Hawaii is considering , which would allow prisons to release elderly persons if they suffer from debilitating illness and pose a low risk to public safety, as well as , which would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
• Indiana is considering a number of proposals to reduce incarceration, including , which would create a felony threshold for theft, reduce sentences for lower-level drug offenses, reduce the school zone from 1000 to 500 feet, mollify the habitual offender statute, and expand judges鈥� discretion to suspend sentences; , which would increase earned time credits, and , which would increase the list of convictions eligible for expungement.
• Massachusetts is considering , which would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, along with , which would reduce the 鈥渟chool zone鈥� area within which drug offenses carry stiffer sentences.
• Maine is considering a bill that would increase the time prisoners can earn off their sentences ().
• Mississippi鈥檚 Senate just passed a major piece of sentencing reform, , which would increase the threshold for felony theft and give judges and Department of Corrections officials the discretion to place people on house arrest rather than in prison.
• Oklahoma鈥檚 would allow elderly prisoners who pose a low public safety risk to apply for conditional parole. As many as 2,000 prisoners could be eligible; each release .
• Oregon is poised to enact , including eliminating some mandatory minimums, in accordance with these .
• South Carolina鈥檚 would repeal mandatory minimums for drug offenses and expand treatment diversion eligibility.
• South Dakota enacted , which reduces first-time felony drug possession to a presumptive probation offense, introduces graduated sanctions for probation and parole violations, and makes other small-scale reforms. Unfortunately, though, SB 70 removes the right to a preliminary hearing for Class A misdemeanors鈥攁 critical procedural safeguard鈥攁nd leaves intact the felony penalty for 鈥渁ltered state,鈥� whereby a defendant can be charged with drug possession for failing a drug test. Defenders estimate that altered state constitutes roughly 25% of all drug possession charges in South Dakota, the only state that has such a law.
• Texas is considering several reform bills, including , which would expand community treatment for drug possession, and , which would reclassify certain minor offenses as misdemeanors.
• Vermont鈥檚 Senate passed , which would require judges to consider the financial cost of available sentences if the defendant is charged with a nonviolent offense.

Federal Judge Certifies Class Action in Stop-and-Frisk Case: Last month, we were pleased to report that New York District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Ligon v. City of New York, the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 case challenging the NYPD鈥檚 violations of constitutional rights through its citywide , which allows police officers to patrol in and around certain private apartment buildings. Earlier this month, Judge Scheindlin and consolidated consideration of remedies in Ligon with the remedies in the broader class action suit against stop-and-frisk, Floyd v. City of New York, the trial for which will take place on March 11.

Michigan Court Rules that Juveniles Sentenced to Life Have Right to Parole: A year after the 老澳门开奖结果 filed suit in Hill v. Snyder, a federal judge in eastern Michigan declared that all prisoners in Michigan who committed crimes as children and were sentenced to life now have a right to parole. Additionally, the court held that the Michigan statute that condemns youth to life without parole violates the 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. For more on the case, read our press release and the .

老澳门开奖结果 Cases Before the U.S. Supreme Court:

• : A unanimous Court held that an alert by a well-trained narcotics detection dog certified to detect illegal contraband is sufficient to establish probable cause for the search of a vehicle. For more, read our .
• : A 6-3 Court held that the rule in Michigan v. Summers (that police may detain a suspect incident to execution of a search warrant) is limited to the immediate vicinity of the premises to be searched, and does not apply when a suspect is detained at a point beyond any reasonable understanding of the immediate vicinity of the premises in question. For more, read our .
• : The Court heard oral argument today on whether or not the Fourth Amendment allows states to collect and analyze DNA from people arrested for, but not convicted of, criminal offenses, solely for use in investigating other offenses for which there is no individualized suspicion. The 老澳门开奖结果 represented Mr. King in , and filed an with the Supreme Court.
• : Last month, the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Steve Shapiro argued before the Supreme Court that the Fourth Amendment requires the government to obtain a warrant before forcibly drawing blood from a DWI suspect. For more, read our blog.

Other Noteworthy Items related to Overincarceration:

• In a , Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, advocated for the repeal of all mandatory minimums. For more, read our blog.
• Sequestration may force the Department of Justice to cut staff, exacerbating already serious security concerns caused by overcrowding. Jesselyn McCurdy blogs about the better way to trim the DOJ budget: send fewer people to federal prison.
• Two U.S Congressmen introduced bills that would by federally regulating it in ways similar to federal alcohol and tobacco regulation. For more, read our blog.
• A recent report by James Austin and Michael Jacobson demonstrates that decisions made at the local level can have a dramatic effect on state prison populations. Read about it in in The Crime Report, co-authored by Kara Dansky and The Fortune Society鈥檚 Glenn Martin.
• Odd news from the two largest private prison companies this month: GEO Group put its name on a college football stadium and the Corrections Corporation of America purported to celebrate black history month.
  • Take Action! to join us in asking Florida Atlantic鈥檚 president to reverse her decision to name their football stadium after GEO Group.

Highlights from the Campaign to Stop Solitary Confinement

老澳门开奖结果 Challenges New York鈥檚 Use of Solitary Confinement: In December, the New York Civil Liberties Union challenging New York鈥檚 arbitrary and unjustified use of extreme isolation on thousands of state prisoners. The plaintiff, Leroy Peoples, spent 780 days locked in a tiny, barren cell the size of an elevator with another prisoner for 24 hours a day as punishment for misbehavior that involved no violence and no threat to the safety or security of others. For more, read , their , and our blog.

BOP Agrees to Comprehensive Assessment of Solitary Confinement: Earlier this month, Sen. Dick Durbin announced that the Federal Bureau of Prisons of its use of solitary confinement. The National Institute of Corrections review will report on the effects of solitary confinement on prisoners as well as public safety and fiscal concerns with the practice. For more, read David Fathi鈥檚 blog and our press release.

State Legislative Highlights: States are advancing bills that could mean fewer prisoners in solitary confinement, and we expect more states will join them as the state legislative sessions progress:

• Florida State Senator Audrey Gibson filed the 鈥淵outh in Solitary Confinement Reduction Act鈥� (), which seeks to reduce the dangerous impact that solitary confinement has on young persons. For more, read 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 and press release.
• Montana introduced a bill, , to stop solitary confinement of youth under 18, prisoners with serious mental illness, and others. In addition, it would place limits on the long-term use (over 30 days) of solitary confinement for everyone.
• Nevada introduced , which defines solitary confinement as isolation from any other person, other than staff and an attorney, for 16 or more hours per day.
• Texas is considering and , which would require the state to closely examine its use of solitary confinement.
• Earlier this year, we highlighted a number of successful measures that states recently passed.

Learn more about overincarceration and other civil liberty issues: Sign up for breaking news alerts, , and .