吃瓜大本营

Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate is the highest it鈥檚 ever been in U.S. history. And yet, our criminal justice system has failed on every count: public safety, fairness and cost-effectiveness. Across the country, the criminal justice reform conversation is heating up. Each week, we feature our some of the most exciting and relevant news in overincarceration discourse that we鈥檝e spotted from the previous week. Check back weekly for our top picks.

Federal Judge Corbett O鈥橫eara heard arguments last week in opposition to the state鈥檚 practice of sentencing kids as young as 14 to life in prison without parole. Ann Arbor attorney Deborah La Belle argued on behalf of the ACLU and nine prisoners currently serving life sentences on murder convictions they received as juveniles. Learn more about Juvenile Life Without Parole >>

Perhaps lending new and even more absurd meaning to the concept of 鈥渙ver-criminalization,鈥� police in Queens handcuffed a 7-year-old at his school after an emotional outburst.

Excessively strict sentencing guidelines contributed to the explosive growth of our nation鈥檚 prison population, and an elderly inmate population is a natural by-product of those sentences. As New York鈥檚 prison population ages rapidly, the system is feeling the strain of rising health care costs.

In response to a recent article praising Virginia鈥檚 low rate of recidivism, this editorial suggests that before we commend the state鈥檚 鈥渟uccess,鈥� we ought to carefully examine what are measuring and what they mean in terms of public safety.

The Fair Sentencing Act debate rages on in this column, which is focused on the clash between old and new law in its inconsistent application.

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