Category: Uncategorized

National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction

Here is a new and useful resource that illustrates the types of collateral consequences that follow a person after being convicted of a crime.

What are collateral consequences?

Collateral consequences are legal and regulatory restrictions that limit or prohibit people convicted of crimes from accessing employment, business and occupational licensing, housing, voting, education, and other rights, benefits, and opportunities.

Some collateral consequences serve a legitimate public safety or regulatory function, such as keeping firearms out of the hands of people convicted of violent offenses, prohibiting people convicted of assault or physical abuse from working with children or the elderly, or barring people convicted of fraud from positions of public trust. Others are directly related to a particular crime, such as registration requirements for sex offenders or driver’s license restrictions for people convicted of serious traffic offenses. But some collateral consequences apply without regard to the relationship between the crime and opportunity being restricted, such as the revocation of a business license after conviction of any felony. 

National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction
— Read on niccc.csgjusticecenter.org/

Racial disparities in citations for marijuana offenses in Miami

City officials in 2015 created a new “citation” system for use in misdemeanor pot cases to keep more people out of prisons and jails. New data confirms that those citations are largely going to white residents while black residents are more often charged with criminal offenses that can result in prison sentences. It’s “a lot more complicated” than that, says a police spokesman.

News Article

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/pot-citations-are-given-to-whites-while-blacks-are-jailed-new-police-data-shows-10701707

ACLU webpage

https://www.aclufl.org/sites/default/files/6440miamidadedisparities20180715spreads.pdf

Report

https://www.aclufl.org/sites/default/files/6440miamidadedisparities20180715spreads.pdf

Report on use of force incident by city of Asheville police officer

When video of this incident was first released i thought it was a perfect example of a “gray area” incident. A gray area incident is the type of incident that goes downhill or takes a wrong turn and becomes more serious that it should have been. It is initiated by an uncooperative suspect or an overzealous officer. Sometimes it is a little of each. In addition to the officer and suspect the issue usually becomes more convoluted by politics, by a district attorney tests the direction of the wind before rendering a decision, and by judges making decisions to satisfy the loudest complaints and not for justice.

Review the material below and tell me what you think.

A report commissioned by the city of Asheville criticizes two Asheville police officers for not intervening when a then city police officer was beating and choking an unarmed black pedestrian last August

Links to the report “Policy and Procedure Review Related to the Rush Incident” and links to earlier news reports.

http://www.bpr.org/post/report-apd-officers-should-have-intervened-rush-beating-didnt

News report and links to the video from body worn cameras

http://www.bpr.org/post/additional-body-cam-footage-rush-beating-released

Charges against Officer Chris Hickman

http://www.bpr.org/post/update-former-asheville-police-officer-charged-august-beating

California’s Prop 47 reduced felony drug arrest rates, racial disparities

After the passage of California’s Proposition 47, felony drug arrest rates declined and racial disparities among these arrests decreased.
— Read on journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/prop-47-racial-disparities-drug

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