Vince Schiraldi, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, has an excellent op-ed in today's Washington Post about the decline of the lock 'em up and throw away the key mentality that politicians have foisted on us the past few decades.

We've written about this several times, here and here for example, providing the usual explanation--states are facing unprecedented budget crunches. But, Vince writes, there's another (more heartening) factor at play here as well:

So history suggests that dollars have never been the single motivating factor in prison policies. Rather, some policymakers are stepping back to evaluate corrections systems, finding that there is a better way to achieve public safety that is supported by opinion leaders and public opinion alike.

In state after state, research has called into question the effectiveness of imprisonment and supported the use of treatment and other alternatives to incarceration -- and policymakers have taken notice. After the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that certain treatment options reduced rearrests and yielded better public safety outcomes than prison, officials there enacted legislation diverting offenders from prison into treatment. The reforms saved the state $50 million over two years, $8 million of which was spent to expand treatment options. Joe Lehman, Washington state's corrections secretary, stated, "It's not just about money, it's about informing our sentencing policies with what we know from research works in mitigating the risk of offenders and enhancing community safety."

[link via How Appealing.]

Viet Dinh is a law professor and former top aide to Attorney General John Ashcroft. He is largely credited with being the author or chief architect of the Patriot Act. Dinh has left the government's employ and is now expressing serious concerns about the Bush Admninistration's detention policies and treatment of enemy combatants. Specifically, Dinh says the detention of Jose Padilla is "flawed" and he predicts that the Supreme Court will rule against the Administration.

Dinh's turnabout is especially surprising because for the past two years he consistently has refuted charges that the anti-terror war is responsible for civil rights abuses of immigrants or anyone else.

Dinh isn't the only former Justice Department official jumping ship on the enemy combatant issue. So is Ashcroft's former Criminal Division Chief, Michael Chertoff, now a 3rd Circuit appellate judge, appointed by Bush (and confirmed without serious objection by the Democrats):

...Chertoff.... has said he believed the government should reconsider how it designates enemy combatants. We need to debate a long-term and sustainable architecture for the process of determining when, why and for how long someone may be detained as an enemy combatant, and what judicial review should be available," he said. Chertoff... also mentioned at a judicial conference in Philadelphia this month the need to reexamine procedures for combatants. "Inevitably, decisions of war are made with imperfect information," he said. "Perhaps the time has come to take a more universal approach."

Here is Dinh's current position on the Jose Padilla case and Bush's enemy combatant policy:

Attacks in Iraq left 11 dead yesterday: 7 Spaniards, 2 Japanese and 2 U.S. Soldiers, further solidifying November as the bloodiest month in the war to date.

Excerpted from Things You Have to Believe to Be a Republican Today:

• Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

• Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

• The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.

• A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

• Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

• Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.

• Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

U.S. and Great Britain officials say the British subjects being held at Guantanamo Bay will be sent home--by Christmas. Some will be released with no charges being filed, some may be charged, plead guilty here and then serve their sentences in Britain.

The agreement will end one of the most damaging conflicts between the White House and Downing Street, which has been pressing for fair trials for the Britons who have been held under military command at the US base in Cuba for two years.

Australia has announced a similar deal with its detained subjects.

British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who is working with the suspects, said:

'The Americans just want these people to plead guilty so that it looks as if they have been telling the truth that these are all "bad dudes... 'We know that is nonsense. There is no evidence of any kind against them. In one man's case all he was doing was running a school.'

Legal eagle Sam Heldman, still on hiatus from Ignatz, writes in about a new Patriot Act boardgame:

"The Patriot Act Game", a Monopoly-like board game based on education about, and opposition to, the "Patriot Act" -- is available here. I just finished playing it at a friend's house, and it's kind of fun as well as informative. It seems to be pretty soundly researched, based on actual analysis of the Act and, more generally, some history of civil liberties issues.

Here's a sense of how it goes: the currency is "freedom fries," the "homeland security threat level" rises during the course of the game, the players whose game tokens are black or brown or yellow get screwed in comparison to those who have the red, white, or blue tokens -- stuff like that. Even if it doesn't make it into the board game hall of fame, it could be a good gift for the civil libertarians on your holiday gift list.

[comments now closed]

Atrios expands on Matt Yglesias' review of incompetence within the Bush Administration concerning the War with Iraq. Atrios focuses on the failure of the Administration to make a legitimate case for war.

Matt uses the Administration's lame plan for Post-war Iraq as a starting point. He finishes here with this thought:

Being dishonest, immoral, and detached from reality isn't part of the essence of being a conservative or generally hawkish, but it is part of the essence of Bushism, and it clearly taints everything the president associates himself with.

Three teens remain in captivity at Guantanamo. Their release was recommended this past August, but they are still there. Two arrived in January, 2002 and one later.

Human rights advocates say the U.S. military should long ago have released the boys, between the ages of 13 and 15, but detention mission commander Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said this week their freedom is being held up at higher levels.

Soldiers guard them day and night, never shutting their bedroom doors and monitoring them on wide-angle mirrors on the walls. The bathroom remains open, a small curtain covering part of the doorway for privacy.

....The teenagers are generally respectful, and are considering becoming a religious cleric and a doctor, Sgt. P said. The guard, a middle school teacher in civilian life, said he has never seen the boys cry.

....The teenagers have a refrigerator stocked with apples, oranges, pears and dates. Those who cooperate get snacks and extra movie time. Those who don't are sent to their rooms for "time out."

None have lawyers. No charges have been filed against them. But "they are still interrogated from time to time, officials said."

"We're concerned that a prolonged separation from their families may cause a deterioration in their mental health," said Jo Becker, of the New York-based group Human Rights Watch...."We were told six months ago that the U.S. government was aware that the detention of children was problematic," said Alistair Hodgett of Amnesty International. "Nothing has happened in their case."

"They are no longer a threat to U.S. interests," said Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman.

Yet, they aren't the only teens at Guantanamo. Others are being housed with adult inmates. This is abominable. There should be total physical, sight and sound separation of juveniles from adult inmates. Studies show children confined or mixed with adults are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, and twice as likely to be attacked with a weapon than when they are confined in a more appropriate, juvenile facility. In 1994 alone, 45 children reportedly died while in confinement in state adult prisons or detention facilities -- including 12 murders and 16 suicides.

Moreover, children who survive being mixed with an adult population are more likely to re-emerge much more hardened and dangerous. And most of these children will, at some point, be coming out of incarceration to be placed back into society. Without serious rehabilitation efforts, which are bound not to occur in a mixed facility, they will pose an even greater threat to society. Recidivism rates are much higher for children transferred to an adult system than they are for those retained in the juvenile justice system.

The Washington Post has the story of Benamar Benatta:

Jailed the night of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Algerian air force lieutenant with an expired visa has spent the past 26 months in federal prisons, much of that time in solitary confinement -- even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism.

Benatta has yet to have his deportation hearing, and he has been unable to post a $25,000.00 bond.

Benatta was among the 1,200 or so men detained by U.S. law enforcement agents in the frenzied weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He had a most unfortunate résumé: He was an Algerian and a Muslim and an avionics technician, and -- like most of the others -- he lacked proper immigration papers.

It was as though Benatta became invisible. His name never appeared on lists of detainees. His family in Algeria believed he had vanished. No defense attorney knew of his existence until a federal defender in Buffalo was assigned his case in late April 2002.

The federal government has few explanations for what happened.....

According to the Defense Department, more U.S. troops died in Iraq in November than any month to date since the war began:

With November nearly over, the official death count yesterday stood at 79, surpassing March (65) and April (73), when the invasion was underway and fighting was most intense and widespread.

Here are the totals:

In all, 437 troops have died in Iraq since the war began, 2,094 have been listed as wounded in action and 2,464 have suffered noncombat-related injuries, ranging from accidental gunshots to broken bones and injuries in vehicle accidents. Since May 1, when President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, 298 troops have died.

What was this woman thinking when she turned down a minimum four year plea deal on charges that she participated in the kidnapping and attempted castration of her ex-boyfriend? She was convicted Wednesday and now must get a minimum sentence of 18 years. The facts are horrendous:

Melissa French, 27, was convicted Wednesday and faces at least 18 years in prison -- more than any of the attackers, all of whom accepted plea deals with prosecutors.

The men attacked Donald Hamilton at his Santa Fe home in June 2002. A Russian assault rifle was placed in Hamilton's mouth and later fired between his legs, and the word "narc" was carved into his forehead with a pocketknife. He suffered separated shoulders, stab wounds and broken bones.

French was acquitted of kidnapping Hamilton, but convicted of kidnapping his roommate, who was held down during the attack.

Her lawyer said he is shocked by the jury's verdict:

He said French's 3-year-old daughter, who suffers from cancer, will be dead and her 10-year-old son will be grown by the time French is released.

Then why didn't she take the deal? Especially with the others, including her ex-husband, testifying against her that they were doing her bidding?

Transgenderites are organizing themselves into activists determined to protect their civil rights. They gathered yesterday in Washington for their annual "remembering our dead" ceremony, to commemorate transgender violence victims.

This emerging movement is a marked departure for a little-understood group that has long hovered in the shadows, largely ignored until a few years ago by even the gay rights campaigns.

For the first time, transgender people have a clear agenda: They are no longer going to deny who they are, they said. And they will not be denied their basic civil rights.

There is now a national organization, the National Center for Transgender Equality, headquartered in Washington to assist them.

"Transgender" is an umbrella term to describe people who do not conform to traditional notions of gender identity, appearance and expression. Within the group are heterosexual cross-dressers, men who identify as women, women who believe they really should have been born men. Some simply appear as the other gender; others may take hormones to obtain some of the desired characteristics; still others have surgery.

The organization will be lobbying for "health and social programs and legal protections against discrimination in employment and housing." If you'd like to learn more about transgender issues, visit here. For a list of transgender advocacy groups, go here.