The Progressive Prosecutor: An Imperative for Criminal Justice Reform

In a law review article written seventeen years ago, Professor Abbe Smith asked the question, “Can You Be a Good Person and a Good Prosecutor?” Professor Smith ultimately answered the question in the negative. Whether or not one agreed with her conclusion at the time, today we know that the answer to the question is “Yes.” Anyone who believes that good people cannot be good prosecutors assumes and accepts a model of prosecution based on harsh, punitive policies and practices that incarcerate as many people as possible for as long as possible. Unfortunately, that unjust model of prosecution is the norm in far too many prosecutors’ offices. It is a model, however, that we cannot afford to accept. Fortunately, it is not the only model. There are good people currently serving as prosecutors who are implementing a new model of prosecution—one that seeks to reduce the use of incarceration, eliminate racial disparities, and provide second chances. If we ever hope to fix our broken criminal justice system, we must work to replicate that model throughout the country

IYV Global Evaluation

This is a report on the global evaluation of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV)

Stakeholders' Views on the Movement to Reduce Youth Incarceration

Youth incarceration rates have changed dramatically over the past 10 years . Following two decades of "tough-on-crime" policies and steep surges in juvenile incarceration during the 1980s and 1990s, the field is now seeing sharp reductions in youth confinement . The latest data from the US Justice Department showed that the rate of youth in confinement dropped 41% between 2001 and 2011 . Since 2001, 48 states have experienced such a decline . Several states cut their confinement rates by half or more . Juvenile facilities have closed in a dozen states, with more than 50 facilities closing in the past five years alone .The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) decided to seek the opinions of system stakeholders regarding these changes . These stakeholders included advocates who successfully pressured their local systems to adopt reforms; the majority of study participants work inside the system as judges, probation chiefs, probation officers, directors of child welfare agencies, elected officials, and district attorneys.Through interviews and listening sessions, these system stakeholders expressed their beliefs that declining youth crime and rising costs were key drivers of the current trend . Additionally, respondents said that many of these successes were driven by successful legislation, innovative incentives built into state budgets, decisions to place youth close to home, and supervision strategies that rely on positive relationships between youth and their families

Emergency department use among Asian adults living in the United States: Results from the National Health Interview Survey (2006 – 2013)

This paper presents secondary analyses of the National Health Interview Survey data focused on emergency department (ED) utilization among Asian adults residing in the United States. National Health Interview Survey data provided from survey years 2006-2013 was pooled and disaggregated by single-race Asian ethnic subgroups (Filipino, Chinese, Asian Indian, other Asian). We explored trends in reports of an ED visit over the survey years for the purpose of determining whether reports of an ED visit increased or decreased over survey years. We also explored background/biologic, environment, access to care, and behavior factors and their associations with having an ED visit. The majority of respondents were foreign-born (75.9%) and had lived in the United States for ten or more years (54.3%). Estimates for reports of any ED visits ranged from 8.3% for the Chinese to 15.3% for the Filipino subgroups. Filipinos were more likely to have an ED visit compared to the Chinese and other Asians (except Asian Indians). For the eight years of survey data, estimates indicate a trend of fewer reports of any ED visit among the Asian Indian and Filipino subgroups. Among Filipinos, having diabetes and a smoking history were associated with an ED visit. The odds of an ED visit were higher among Asians in the youngest age category, among other Asians born in the United States, and among those who saw/talked to a mental health professional within the previous year. As there is a paucity of information available about ED use among Asians or Asian subgroups, this report adds to the literature on patterns of health care utilization among Asian subgroups living in the United States with a specific focus on ED utilization

Belonging and ‘unbelonging’ : Jewish refugee and survivor women in 1950s Britain

This article analyses the life stories of female Jewish refugees and survivors in 1950s Britain in order to explore their relationship with the existing Jewish community and wider society. The paper is based on an analysis of twenty-one oral history testimonies from the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust collection held at the British library. Around 50,000 Jewish refugees from Central Europe came to Britain in the 1930s after fleeing from Hitler. In addition, a relatively small number of camp survivors and former hidden children settled in the country after the war; the Board of Deputies of British Jews Demographic Unit estimates the figure at 2000. This article considers how these refugee and survivor women tried to find a place for themselves within 1950s Britain. Looking at their experiences of arrival, work and home, it reflects upon the discrimination and hostility they faced, and they ways they tried to deal with this. Finally it discusses what this meant for their sense of belonging or ‘unbelonging’

Wartime women giving birth: Narratives of pregnancy and childbirth, Britain c. 1939–1960

AbstractWomen in Second World War Britain benefitted from measures to improve maternal and child health. Infant and maternal mortality rates continued to fall, new drugs became available, and efforts were made to improve the health of mothers and babies through the provision of subsidised milk and other foodstuffs. However, in return, women were also expected to contribute to the war effort through motherhood, and this reflected wider cultural ideas in the North Atlantic world in the first half of the twentieth century which equated maternity with military service. The aim of this article is to examine the interplay between narratives of birth and narratives of war in the accounts of maternity from women of the wartime generation. It will explore how the military-maternity analogy sheds light on women’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth in Britain during the Second World War, whilst also considering maternity within women’s wider role as ‘domestic soldiers’, contributing to the war effort through their traditional work as housewives and mothers. In doing so, the article reveals the complexity of women’s narratives. It demonstrates that they do not simply conform to the ‘medical vs. social’ binary, but reflect the wider cultural context in which women gave birth. Women incorporated the dominant discourses of the period, namely those around war, into their accounts

I want them to learn about Israel and the holidays : Jewish Israeli mothers in early-twenty-first-century Britain

Research has shown that the presence of children in the Jewish Israeli emigrant family intensifies their ambivalence about living abroad, but encourages greater involvement with fellow Israelis as they seek to transmit a Jewish Israeli identity and maintain their children’s attachment to the Jewish state. This article explores this assumption by focusing on the experiences of mothering of a group of Israeli emigrants in Britain. Based on twelve oral history interviews, it considers the issues of child socialisation and the mothers’ own social life. It traces how the women created a social network within which to mother and how they tried to ensure their children preserved a Jewish Israeli identity. The article also seeks to question how parenting abroad led the interviewees to embrace cultural and religious traditions in new ways

Generation and memories of sex and reproduction in mid-century Britain

In this article I explore the influence of one’s generation on the interview encounter in a group of oral history interviews I conducted with women from Oxfordshire and Berkshire about their lives in mid-twentieth-century Britain. I examine how the women interviewed told their stories of gaining sexual knowledge, at home and at school, and my influence as the interviewer in determining what was said. I pay special attention to the theme of generational difference, both in the interviewees’ way of structuring their accounts and in the influence of my and my interviewees’ respective ages in shaping the interview encounter. I conclude that our different ages influenced what was discussed in the course of the interview and the ways in which it was articulated