JPI Daily News Digest 7/5/12
Published: July 5, 2012
MD: Department of Labor Awards CSM with $1.5M Grant (Southern Maryland Online)
The College of Southern Maryland was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to provide trade skills training for juvenile ex-offenders. The Juvenile Offenders Building Skills (JOBS) project, a collaboration between CSM and more than 30 strategic partners from Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties, will provide a variety of skills training in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and plumbing to 96 young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 years old who have been involved in the juvenile justice system.
NATIONAL: A Moral Right to Counsel (NY Times)
About 2,000 juvenile offenders serving life sentences without parole can now seek new sentencing hearings to challenge their punishment. The Supreme Court ruled last week that it is unconstitutional to impose such a sentence on a juvenile convicted of murder without an individualized finding that considers the defendant’s characteristics and the details of the crime.
PA: Despite SCOTUS Decision, Racial Disparity in Juvenile Justice Remains (Politics365)
Even before the United States Supreme Court’s decision on June 25 to declare juvenile life without parole to be unconstitutional, it was a well documented fact that America leads the world in sentencing youthful offenders to a lifetime behind bars.
NATIONAL: Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War (NY Times)
When policy makers in Washington worry about Mexico these days, they think in terms of a handful of numbers: Mexico’s 19,500 hectares devoted to poppy cultivation for heroin; its 17,500 hectares growing cannabis; the 95 percent of American cocaine imports brought by Mexican cartels through Mexico and Central America.
MI: Harsh sentencing rules cost millions without cutting crime (Corrections.com)
Michigan legislators and taxpayers looking to save hundreds of millions of dollars in corrections costs should check out the Pew Center report ("Time Served: The High Cost, Low Return of Longer Prison Terms") that shows Michigan prisoners released in 2009 led the nation in average time served. Policies that would shave limited time off sentences would have a huge cumulative impact on Michigan's 44,000-inmate system.
Posted in Criminal Justice News