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In his speech before a joint session of Congress today, Pope Francis not only urged compassion for immigrants and refugees and sounded the alarm on climate change, but he also called for the abolition of the death penalty while Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor listened in attendance.
“Heroin addiction sent me to prison. White privilege got me out and to the Ivy League.” This is the provocative headline of a piece in the Washington Post about a senior at Cornell University who was arrested for heroin possession. As an addict (a condition that began during a deep depression), he was muddling his […]
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is fighting border searches of electronic devices under the theory that they could disclose confidential legal information. This issue has hit very close to home for former NACDL president Lisa Wayne, whose laptop was confiscated when she was returning from Mexico in 2008, after she was asked […]
The White House is preparing to push for legislation that would reduce federal sentences for nonviolent crimes. According to press secretary Josh Earnest, President Obama is expected to champion sweeping reform of the criminal justice system and present ideas to make the system “safer, fairer and more effective” during a speech to the NAACP annual […]
In a new step to further the Justice Department’s efforts towards enhancing reentry among formerly incarcerated individuals, Attorney General Eric Holder announced this week that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will impose new requirements on federal halfway houses that help inmates transition back into society. Under the proposed new requirements, these halfway houses will have […]