CJ Exam 3

Jason Williams

Orleans Parish District Attorney, corrected past wrongs in NOLA New Civil Rights Division

focus of reform

• too many nonviolent offenders in prison,

• reforms expanded probation, parole, and other prison alternatives

• money was saved

Louisiana prison reform

package of bills in 2017

• initial success from 2017-2022

• new governor repealed the reforms in 2024 and initiated some of the harshest laws in the nation

incarceration in the U.S.

• the U.S. has the most number of people behind bars and one of the highest incarceration rates in the world

• 90% are male, disproportionately POC

state incarceration rates

highest: LA, MS, AR

lowest: MA, VT, RI

probation

when a convicted person is being monitored in the community instead of being incarcerated

parole

the practice of releasing incarcerated people early under certain conditions

The Visiting Room Project

chance for the public to sit and hear from an incarcerated person about their experience being in prison without parole

restorative justice

a philosophy and practice that involves victim-offender reconciliation and individual and social healing

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

an example based in South Africa of restorative justice on the big scale

Furman v. Georgia

SCOTUS temporarily halted executions. Thus, states rewrote their laws to comply with the demands of the Court

Gregg v. Georgia

SCOTUS ruled that executions could resume

• 1/3 of the executions since have been in TX.

Atkins v. Virginia

SCOTUS ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute someone with an intellectual disability

Roper v. Simmons

SCOTUS ruled that people who were juveniles/minors at the time of the crime could not be executed

reasons for opposition of the death penalty

• violation of the 8th amendment

• too expensive

• it’s a sentence that’s given in a racially-biased manner, and is almost exclusively suffered by the poor

• there’s a risk of innocent people being executed

• available evidence doesn’t suggest that it has any general deterrence effect

• the chance of being executed has less to do with the severity of the crime than it has to do with other factors

• the government shouldn’t have the power to take the lives of its citizens (unethical)

which states allow people to vote in prison?

ME & VT

rehabilitation

to help the person who committed the crime

deterrence

having the individual and general public avoid committing crime again (specific and general)

what is the most common form of punishment?

incarceration

prison-industrial complex

government and private agencies collaborating on constructing and running prison facilities to profit from incarceration

• based by military-industrial complex

Portugal

People don’t get arrested for drug use. Drug usage decreased (increase since COVID)

Norway

Officers aren’t armed and prisons are more like rehabilitation centers. They have the lowest murder rate and the longest prison sentence is 21 years.

Why do we punish?

• out of righteous anger

• to help the offender find a better life

• a combination of the 2

the rationale for why we punish someone shapes how we punish them

history of punishment

punishment has become less violent over time, but it’s not a history of things improving

where and when did the first prison begin?

Philadelphia, late 1700s

separate and silent system

encouraging people to quietly seek God and become rehabilitated

• first used in Eastern State

Auburn Prison (upstate NY) system

prisoners were isolated at night, but could congregate during the day

• officers had a strict, military-style discipline

how many people are in state prisons, local jails, and federal prisons/jails?

2 million

• most are there for nonviolent crimes

which country has the highest incarceration rate?

El Salvador

probation population

2.9 million

parole population

under 700,000

Charles Amos

He went to prison for murdering his friend when he was young. The victim’s father saw him in the Visiting Room Project and saw that he’s changed a lot since. He advocated for his early release. Charles now takes care of him.

Janet Connors

Her son was stabbed to death, but she forgave the killers and advocates for restorative justice.

• “Hurt people hurt people. Healed people heal people.”