Aug 7, 2024
Tim Walz was mopping the floor with Trump.
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Tim Walz was mopping the floor with Trump.
After nearly forty years of uninterrupted prison population growth, our collective awareness of the costs of mass incarceration has fundamen
"Expanding freedom and opportunity to millions
Over a decade ago, researchers, policymakers, journalists, and individuals and family members harmed by prisons and jails helped define American mass incarceration as one of the fundamental policy challenges of our time. In the years since, policymakers and voters in red, blue, and purple jurisdictions have advanced criminal justice reforms that safely reduced prison and jail populations, expanding freedom and opportunities to tens of millions of Americans.
After nearly forty years of uninterrupted prison population growth, our collective awareness of the costs of mass incarceration has fundamentally shifted–and our sustained efforts to turn the tide have yielded meaningful results.
Since its peak in 2009, the number of people in prison has declined by 24 percent (see figure 1). The total number of people incarcerated has dropped 21 percent since the 2008 peak of almost 2.4 million people, representing over 500,000 fewer people behind bars in 2022. Absent reforms, more than 40 million more people would have been admitted to prison and jail over this period. The number of people on probation and parole supervision has also dropped 27 percent since its peak in 2007, allowing many more people to live their lives free from onerous conditions that impede thriving and, too often, channel them back into incarceration for simple rule violations.1
"Absent reforms, more than 40 million more people would have been admitted to prison and jail over this period. [2008 to 2022]"
Make no mistake: mass incarceration and the racial and economic disparities it drives continue to shape America for the worse. The U.S. locks up more people per capita and imposes longer sentences than most other countries. Nearly 1-in-2 adults in the U.S. have an immediate family member that has been incarcerated, with lifelong, often multigenerational, consequences for family members’ health and financial stability. Yet the past decade of successful reforms demonstrate that we can and must continue to reduce incarceration. These expansions of freedom and justice–and the millions of people they have impacted–help define what is at stake as public safety has reemerged as a dominant theme in American public and political conversation.
...We have a robust body of research built over decades showing that jail stays and long prison sentences do not reduce crime rates. And fortunately, we have an extensive and expanding body of research on what does work to reduce crime and keep communities safe. The evidence is clear: our focus must be on continuing and accelerating reductions in incarceration.
Black imprisonment rate drops by nearly half
People directly impacted by incarceration and other leaders in the criminal justice reform movement have persistently called out how the unequal application of policies such as bail, sentencing, and parole (among others) drive massive racial disparities in incarceration. The concerted effort to reduce our prison population has had the most impact on the group that paid the greatest price during the rise of mass incarceration: Black people, and particularly Black men.
The Black imprisonment rate has declined by nearly 50 percent since the country’s peak imprisonment rate in 2008 (see figure 2). And between 1999 and 2019, the Black male incarceration rate dropped by 44 percent, and notable declines in Black male incarceration rates were seen in all 50 states. For Black men, the lifetime risk of incarceration declined by nearly half from 1999 to 2019—from 1 in 3 Black men imprisoned in their lifetime to 1 in 5.
While still unacceptably high, this reduction in incarceration rates means that Black men are now more likely to graduate college than go to prison, a flip from a decade ago. This change will help disrupt the cycle of incarceration and poverty for generations to come.
Expanding safety and justice together
The past decade-plus of incarceration declines were accompanied by an increase in public safety. From 2009-2022, 45 states saw reductions in crime rates, while imprisoning fewer people, with crime falling faster in states that reduced imprisonment than in states that increased it.
This is in keeping with the extensive body of research showing that incarceration is among the least effective and most expensive means to advance safety. Our extremely long sentences don’t deter or prevent crime. In fact, incarcerating people can increase the likelihood people will return to jail or prison in the future. Public safety and a more fair and just criminal system are not in conflict.
Strong and widespread support for reform
We have also seen dramatic progress on the public opinion front, with a clear understanding from voters that the criminal justice system needs more reform, not less. Recent polling shows that by a nearly 2 to 1 margin respondents prefer addressing social and economic problems over strengthening law enforcement to reduce crime. [In simpler terms: people are twice as likely to prefer non-law-enforcement solutions to crimes.]
Nearly nine-in-ten Black adults say policing, the judicial process, and the prison system need major changes for Black people to be treated fairly. Seventy percent of all voters (see figure 3) and 80 percent of Black voters believe it’s important to reduce the number of people in jail and prison. Eighty percent of all voters, including nearly three-fourths of Republican voters, support criminal justice reforms.
This is not only a blue state phenomenon. Recent polling in Mississippi indicates strong support across the political spectrum for bold policies that reduce incarceration. For example, according to polling from last month, 72 percent of Mississippians, including majorities from both parties, believe it is important to reduce the number of people in prison (see figure 4). Perhaps most tellingly, across the country victims of crime also support further reforms to our criminal justice system over solutions that rely on jail stays and harsh prison sentences...
We are at an inflection point: we can continue to rely on the failed mass incarceration tactics of the past, or chart a new path that takes safety seriously by continuing to reform our broken criminal justice system and strengthening families and communities."
-via FWD.us, May 15, 2024
By: Rohan Smith
Published: May 14, 2026
The Melbourne girl accused of mowing down a cyclist and Googling “where do Jews live” had 109 charges dropped because of her age.
The Melbourne girl accused of mowing down a cyclist and Googling “where do Jews live” had 109 charges dropped because of her age.
The 14-year-old, who cannot be named, was 13 at the time she allegedly went on a two-and-a-half month crime spree targeting Jewish individuals and “weaponising” a stolen car to run down a 45-year-old man cycling in the bayside suburb of Brighton.
News.com.au last week revealed her lawyers planned to argue she was too young to know what she did was morally wrong.
The Herald Sun on Thursday reported that as a result of the legal argument for doli incapax — the legal principle that presumes a child between the ages of 10 and 14 cannot fully understand the gravity of their crimes — prosecutors dropped the charges completely.
She will not be prosecuted in a children’s court and will walk away with a clear record.
On March 30 this year, she allegedly attempted to strike the cyclist with the passenger door of a stolen SUV.
After a brief argument between the pair, the teen allegedly drove into the rear of the cyclist and knocked him from his bike. He suffered significant injuries to his neck and has described ongoing mental anguish.
Police said the teen Googled “how long is the sentence for running someone over” within three minutes of allegedly striking the cyclist.
The 14-year-old was also accused of carrying out a series of antisemitic attacks, including swerving towards members of the Jewish community in Ripponlea two days before the cyclist was knocked from his bike.
She had been charged with reckless conduct endangering serious injury, motor vehicle theft and burglary.
The teen was on bail at the time the alleged offences were carried out.
In court last Monday, she appeared via video link from a youth justice centre. She wore a grey jumper and sat with her arms crossed.
Asked by a magistrate if she could hear him, the teen responded: “Yes.”
The court heard the teen turned 14 over the weekend and that her alleged offending all occurred when she was 13. She has been in custody for 34 days.
The magistrate told prosecutors it was “obvious” the teen would argue for doli incapax.
“It’s obvious. You’re dealing with a 13-year-old,” he told the court.
“The first thing that goes into your head is doli. The kids, when they get arrested, scream to police officers, ‘doli, doli’. They’re aware of it.”
[ Members of the Jewish community were targeted by the out of control teen. ]
A date to hear arguments for doli incapax was set down for Monday, May 18, but prosecutors dropped the charges instead.
Charge sheets provided to news.com.au show that she allegedly stole a car valued at $30,000 from a home in Caufield North on March 25 this year.
On the same day she also allegedly stole licence plates from a vehicle in the Berwick area.
A day later, on March 26, she was accused of stealing another vehicle worth $30,000 from Camberwell.
On March 28, she was accused of driving a vehicle recklessly towards a person in Hampton that placed them in danger of death.
In Elstenwick, on the same day, she was accused of behaving in an offensive manner in a public place, using profane language in a public place and recklessly engaging in conduct driving in a manner which endangered life.
Police said that on the same day, she “threatened physical harm towards a group of persons namely Jewish people”.
The next day, on March 29, police said she stole $70.15 worth of petrol from a 7Eleven in Malvern East, stole a vehicle valued at $30,000 from Caulfield, trespassed in a Snap Fitness with the intent to steal in Bentleigh East and stole a second car valued at $15,000.
On March 30, she was accused of opening a door on a cyclist and intentionally running over a cyclist. Police said the teen Googled “how long is the sentence for running someone over” within three minutes of allegedly striking the cyclist.
She was accused of stealing another car valued at $30,000 on the same day.
[ The teen will have no criminal record. ]
The following day, she allegedly drove at speeds exceeding 200km/h “without proper control due to tyres being deflated” and “failing to take proper care through intersections that placed person/s in danger of death”.
On the same day, she allegedly stole a car valued at $10,000.
The teen is not the first to benefit from doli incapax.
A Melbourne boy in 2024 had 388 criminal charges struck out due to the doli incapax rule.
In the same year, two teenage girls, aged 12 and 13 at the time of their alleged offending, had their charges dropped after allegedly bashing two other girls.
The children’s court ruled the pair, from Mildura in the state’s northwest, did not understand the severity of their actions, which allegedly included punching one of the victims 15 times in the face in what a magistrate described as a “clearly ... violent episode”.
In November last year, a 13-year-old boy had seven serious charges dropped after allegedly trying to carjack a vehicle in a Melbourne driveway while a mother and baby were inside. Two teens, captured on CCTV cameras, tried to open the driver and passenger doors of the vehicle in Ashburton on August 31.
The most prominent recent example of doli incapax being applied in Victoria followed the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Declan Cutler in March of 2022.
Cutler was killed in Coburg North by a gang of teens. Police told a court among his attackers was a 13-year-old boy who they allege was captured on CCTV stomping on Cutler’s head repeatedly while others stabbed him and returning to stomp on the victim’s unconscious body a second time after the first frenzied attack ended.
Supreme Court Justice Rita Incerti found in 2023 there was a “reasonable probability (the boy) did not know (his) conduct was seriously wrong in a moral sense”.
The teen “cannot be found guilty of murder or the alternative charge of manslaughter”, she ruled.
Speaking exclusively to news.com.au, Declan’s mother Sam Cutler said youth crime in Victoria is out of control because teens know under the law they are untouchable.
“I strongly (believe) youth crime is out of control and there is not sufficient punishment for these kids who keep offending,” she said.
“There is no rehab for these kids, they are too far into the gang scene. They know nothing else but violence.”
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The fact she searched for the consequences of what she had done completely blows away the idea that she couldn't know it was wrong. This is utter madness. This was the brief opportunity for there to be some serious consequences for her before she went completely off the rails into a life of crime.
The same country currently undertaking a Royal Commission into antisemitism after the Bondi Beach terrorist attack is letting these lunatics walk.
The president is eliminating top government statisticians and data collection efforts he doesn’t like, raising alarms about the harm he coul
Reality is what Trump says it is
Paul Krugman:
Just under two weeks ago the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a sharp slowdown in job growth — consistent with independent surveys that also show a slowing economy. Donald Trump responded by firing the Bureau’s head and wants to replace her with an unqualified right-wing hack — let’s be honest, OK? — whose big idea for dealing with troubling job numbers is to stop releasing them. This week Trump seized control of the Washington DC police force and sent in the National Guard to deal with what he claims is a runaway crime wave, even though crime in the District has been falling rapidly. What these two stories have in common is this: MAGA’s feelings don’t care about your facts. And the rejection of data Trump doesn’t like will surely extend to many areas beyond jobs and crime. About jobs: E.J. Antoni, Trump’s pick for BLS Commissioner, has actually said that we should define a recession not on the basis of things like employment data or GDP but by how people “feel.” Now, that criterion wouldn’t serve him or his master very well if we look at surveys of public opinion. The American people appear to feel really bad about the economy. But we already know that Trump dismisses polls he doesn’t like as fake news. So in practice, I think that Antoni is saying that we should define a recession by how Trump feels. And since he insists we’re in a boom, it’s all good.
About crime: If Trumpists wanted to make a semi-serious argument for occupying Washington, it would be that while DC crime is falling, it’s still high compared with relatively low-crime cities like New York or Los Angeles.
Paul Krugman has a solid Substack piece on how the MAGA cult is anti-reality, as they believe whatever Donald Trump (or other pro-Trump pundits) says to be true even in the face of facts that contradict his regime’s propaganda and lies.
When government works FOR the people, instead of against it.
The biggest lawbreaker in the District of Columbia currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But outside the White House, the crime rate has tumbled in the District.
Fact checking Trump seldom changes anything in practical terms, but it's useful to keep pointing out how detached from reality he is.
