Terrorism and U.S Prisons Update

A tad old, but here's a good update on the overall picture of America's prison problem. And it isn't Guantanano or terrorists that are the problem. As somebody once said, "we have met the enemy, and it is us". I am a proud American, and I think we can do better. Senator Webb, good luck. I'm on your side. Can I have a job?

From Slate: Guantanamo is the Least of Our Problems by Dahlia Lithwick.

Also from Corey Yung, America's Emerging War on Sex Offenders is the latest by America's top sex offense criminal law analyst.

This is the abstract:

This article addresses four central questions. First, what is the difference between normal law enforcement policy and a “war” on crime? Second, assuming such a line can be discerned, has the enactment of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (“AWA”) in combination with other sex offender laws triggered a transition to a criminal war on sex criminals? Third, if such a criminal war is emerging, what will be the likely effects of such a transition? Fourth, if such a criminal war is emerging with substantial negative consequences, how can it be stopped?
By reviewing America’s history of criminal wars, primarily the War on Drugs, the article identifies three essential characteristics of a criminal war: marshalling of resources, myth creation, and exception making. It concludes that the federalization of sex offender policy brought about by the AWA elevated law enforcement to a nascent criminal war on sex crimes. This change could have repercussions as substantial as the drug war has had on American criminal justice an society.

Yung has completed another article, about judicial activism.

Here, at the Economist, is a piece called America's Unjust Sex Offender Laws. Includes an audio interview podcast with Sarah Geraghty, a lawyer and activist for reform in Georgia.

Confessions of A Prison Epiphany

Some of you may still be wondering who I am. A law school education was not enough for me so I went to prison. Now that was an education! Before I went to law school I had been ready to save the world. After law school for some reason I felt I had been liberated from the need to deal with fundamental questions of life or death, and liberty, in a supreme irony that proved itself to be quite wrong. I was one of those “innocents” in prison and I am certain that I too will be vindicated. Oprah are you there? And I assure those of you who may be wondering about this also that there is life after prison. As the great American satirist (Mark Twain) once stated, "the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

I then, after graduating from law school, declined to sell my soul to law enforcement (admittedly my "dream job" as super-cowboy growing up) and I set out to learn what I could about making money just being "a lawyer." I had a new baby at home, can you blame me? Now, apre- prison, I have re-assimilated that which I once thought I had learned by being allowed to read copiously, growing up in a professor's home (my father was also a Korean War vet who was there, up close and in person when the Chinese crossed the Yalu River--so I‘ve heard on the grapevine because he never talked about it--that experience changed him forever, of that I am certain). The link at the Yalu River I provided (TIMEasia dot com, 1999) takes you to a Chinese memoir of these events. Perhaps because of that, I too, became a vet. I was unfortunately unable to learn from the mistakes of others. This is my confession. There is still hope that you, the youthful, and you who will be shaping America‘s future, might.

There are fundamental questions, and they are fundamental because they invade every man and woman's life in one form and fashion or another. They cannot be passed over or ignored. Mankind does so at her peril. These questions bite and everybody has a dog in the hunt. Just sometimes there are no other dogs, and sometimes the hunt is over. When will the hunt be over for you?