Before my son graduated from college, we talked about his job search. I, font of wisdom that I am, told him about what it was like when I was young. He, more attuned to the current world, told me that
Credential Creep
Effective look at the many ugly realities of probation
The March 2023 issue of Reason magazine has this terrific article about probation systems authored by C.J. Ciaramella and Lauren Krisai. This lengthy piece is worth a full read, and its full title notes its basic themes: “U.S. Probation System
The Hundreds Who Will Follow Tyre Nichols
As there always are, there will be apologists who will try to explain away a murder. They didn’t mean to kill him, but only beat him to a pulp to show him who’s boss? He should complied harder and then
Circular reasoning upheld as mother testifies about father’s suspected heroin use during TPR trial
N.D. v. E.S., 2022AP1084, District 2, 01/25/23 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity Nancy (N.D.) petitioned to terminate Ed’s (E.D.’s) parental rights on the grounds that he abandoned their daughter, Kim. See Wis. Stat. § 48.415(1). At trial, Ed
The Fool’s Guide To Person-First
Years ago, I came to the realization that calling my client “the defendant” rather than by his name fed into his dehumanization. He wasn’t a person, but a defendant. Similarly, I never called the prosecution “the People,” as was stylized
Seaton: The Slapfight
A crowd gathered at Garage 16 on a cold January night in Mud Lick.
The air was thick with the smell of booze and cigarettes, a change from the normal odors of oil and machinery. The crowd surrounded the shop
January 2023 publication list
On January 25, 2023, the court of appeals ordered the publication of the following criminal-law related decision: State v. Steven W. Bowers, 2023 WI App 4 (affirming suppression of evidence seized during warrantless search of defendant’s Dropbox account)
VERA Institute provides first-person accounts of "The Human Toll of Jail"
Via email today I learned that the Vera Institute of Justice has launched another round of first-person essays about jail experienced under the titled “The Human Toll of Jail.” Here is how the project is introduced on the
New year and new Congress brings a new effort to advance new EQUAL Act
Regular readers likely recall some of my posts over the last two years about the EQUAL Act, a bill to reform federal crack cocaine sentencing by finally treating crack and powder cocaine the same at sentencing. In short form, passage
Latest CCJ accounting of crime trends shows mostly encouraging news from 2022 about violent crimes (but not property crimes)
In this post last week, I flagged some of the encouraging 2022 homicide data drawn from this AH Datalytics webpage‘s “YTD Murder Comparison” Dashboard. And I am now very pleased to see that the Council on Criminal Justice