Yesterday, at the H.F. Guggenheim conference on “Smart Justice” at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Tim Murray, Executive Director of the Pretrial Justice Institute, raised the issue of bail reform. “This reform has a natural enemy,” explained Murray, “That’s the very people who profit financially from the current system. The bail-for-profit system is [...]
How has NYC reduced crime and the prison population?
Last night, a crowd of lawyers, activists and officials filled NYU’s Greenberg Lounge for a heated debate on the causes of the city’s unprecedented drop in crime and prison population. The debate centered around a data-driven report, published earlier this month by Vera Institute of Justice and the Brennan Center for Justice. The report was [...]
“Philadelphia Collects Court Debt Decades Later” airs on Marketplace
Before the holidays, Marketplace, the public radio business show, aired a shortened version of the story on Philadelphia’s criminal justice debt collection. And the comments were… unexpected.
When is a billion not a billion?
What you’re looking at above is the amount being sought by the courts of Philadelphia in red, and then the smaller amount in purple is the more accurate number, if the courts were to take the trouble to correlate their data.
BBC World Service airs “The Cost of Doing Time”
Listen here: BBC World Service: The Cost of Doing Time OR download the podcast from iTunes here. OR download the audio from SoundCloud here.
Pay Up!
I’ve spent this past year researching the topic of criminal justice debt as part of an investigation into the impact of prison time on a person’s finances. When I announced what I was working on at a conference, I was approached by Amy Hirsch from Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. She said: you have to [...]
BBC to air “The Cost of Doing Time”
This Tuesday, December 11th, 2012, the BBC World Service will be airing a half-hour radio documentary about the criminal justice debt collection currently taking place in Philadelphia, PA.
