By Christopher Zoukis In August 2010, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced, but did not eliminate, the disparity between the amount of crack cocaine and powder cocaine needed to trigger mandatory minimums in federal sentencing law. Before the new law took effect, the threshold for a mandatory minimum […]
By Christopher Zoukis While prison systems and corrections officer unions are often reluctant to discuss the ills of solitary confinement, following pressure from various advocacy groups and even President Obama’s stated policy goals of reducing such restrictive confinement, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has recently released information detailing just how common the practice of solitary […]
By Christopher Zoukis When the U.S. Senate met last month to take up a bill reauthorizing the main federal law on juvenile justice standards, prospects for the measure seemed good. A bipartisan group of more than a dozen senators co-sponsored the reauthorization bill (S. 1169), but despite supporters’ expectations for at last being able to […]
Backhanded policies are setting Illinois on a path towards increased recidivism. An arcane law is being given new life in Illinois, and the results are coming at a serious social cost. A recent investigation has revealed that the state of Illinois has been ramping up efforts to sue inmates for “fees” related to their tenure […]
This week New York Governor Cuomo revealed the intention to transform a notorious former women’s prison into a site providing resources and assistance to women in need. The announcement served not only as reminder of the symbolic representation such buildings hold, but of the power inherent of the physical structures themselves. Changes in the physical structures of prisons over time tend […]
As prison activists have watched the discourse over reform unfold over the last weeks and months we’ve all echoed a similar refrain: When you have even the likes of Rand Paul coming out in favor of reform, you know that the system’s broken. But while the temptation is great to point to this union across […]
As we highlighted on the prison law blog last week, President Barack Obama’s recent comments on the need for a dramatic overhaul of the American prison system has ignited dialogue on reform. There has been almost universal acknowledgement from analysts and activists alike that we are on the precipice of something big. His speech seems […]
By Christopher Zoukis Not pleased with their perpetual need to keep expanding their prison’s capacity, local leaders and officials in Northampton County, Pennsylvania have been searching for a comprehensive strategy to reduce the county’s high levels of recidivism. In 2012, the recidivism rate for inmates being released from Northampton County Prison was 58 percent, a […]
The study, conducted by legal commentator Christopher Zoukis, concludes that offering post-secondary and academic education to prisoners can cut $60 billion from the national budget every year – without scrapping existing programs. Zoukis has compiled his research and findings into College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons, a game-changing new book […]
Title: College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons Author: Christopher Zoukis Publisher: McFarland and Company Pages: 300 Genre: Social Sciences/Education Purchase at AMAZON Provide education to prisoners and they won’t return to crime. America accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population, yet incarcerates about 25 percent of the world’s prisoners […]