Tag: Criminal Justice System

How police misconduct is protected through ‘qualified immunity’ – WDET 101.9 FM

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For decades, the doctrine of qualified immunity has protected law enforcement and other government officials from being held accountable when they violate individuals’ constitutional rights.

The rule specifically protects officials from personal consequences as long as they were acting in good faith.

The U.S. Supreme Court introduced the doctrine in 1967’s Pierson v. Ray to protect police officers from financial liability after they arrested 15 clergy members for breaching the peace after they attempted to use a segregated waiting room at a bus station.

The court revised and expanded the doctrine in 1982 by eliminating the requirement that officers must have acted in good faith and requiring that officers must have violated “clearly established law” to forgo immunity. However qualified immunity protections have developed over time to value precedent over good faith.
— Read on wdet.org/2024/07/09/how-police-misconduct-is-protected-through-qualified-immunity/

All of the Above: Prosecutors alone won’t end mass incarceration. But their interventions can mean the world to people staring down the many harms of criminalization.

I’m grateful to the five contributors who graciously wrote such thoughtful responses to the short essay by James Forman, Jr., Maria Hawilo, and me, adapted from our forthcoming book Dismantling Mass Incarceration. I’m encouraged that people with such depth of experience agree that taking apart our system of mass incarceration requires grappling with the question of progressive prosecutors, though we may disagree about exactly what that will mean about their role in the long term.
— Read on inquest.org/all-of-the-above/