The Cost of Incarceration in Missouri and the Benefits of Sentencing Alternatives

Many and probably most persons sentenced to prison are not good candidates for alternative sentences, either because they pose a danger to public safety or because they committed a crime for which a prison sentence is mandatory under current statutes. However, some are much better candidates than others, and it is possible to reduce the number of Missouri prison inmates by a sizable fraction without unduly increasing risks to the general public. By adopting capacity-sensitive admission policies and age sensitive release policies, the state can reduce the size of the prison population and control costs, while retaining supervision over lower-risk offenders in the community. By instituting alternatives to prison for non-violent drug offenders and introducing a sunset provision in current truth-in-sentencing statutes, long-term control over the magnitude and costs of imprisonment can be achieved. These cost- cutting reforms can be realized without sacrificing public safety through increased intensive supervision of non-violent and older offenders in the community.Includes bibliographical reference

Labor Law - Authority of National Labor Relations Board to Require Reaffirmation of Non-Communist Affidavit

Section 9(h) of title I of the Labor-Management Relations Act requires that officers of unions which desire access to NLRB facilities file non-Communist affidavits with the Board. During the effective period of appellee unions\u27 compliance with this requirement, the Board referred certain affidavits to the Department of Justice for investigation. After the suspected officers had refused to testify concerning the truth or falsity of their affidavits in subsequent grand jury proceedings the Board issued a Notice and Order requiring the officers to reaffirm the truth of the prior affidavits and to attest to non-membership in the Communist Party since filing them. The unions applied for and obtained an injunction against enforcement of this order. On appeal, held, affirmed. \u27\u27The Board has no authority . . . to deprive the Unions of their compliance status under section 9(h). The scheme of section 9(h) is clear. It imposes a criminal penalty for filing a false affidavit. . . . There is nothing in the Act or in its legislative history or in good sense to indicate that Congress meant to go further and impose the drastic penalty of excluding the union from the Act\u27s benefits because its officer had deceived the union as well as the Board by filing a false affidavit. Farmer v. United. Electrical, Radio and. Machine Workers of America, (D.C. Cir. 1953) 211 F. (2d) 36, cert. den. 347 U.S. 943, 74 S.Ct. 638 (1954)

Torts - Liability of Physician Erroneously Certifying Insanity

A physician certified plaintiff to be insane, when in fact she was sane; she was thereafter committed to a state sanitarium. Upon her release, she sued the physician for negligence in examination. Defendant\u27s demurrer for failure to state a cause of action was sustained. On appeal, held, affirmed. Quoting almost the entirety of an analogous 1900 decision from the same jurisdiction, the court held that defendant had owed no duty to plaintiff. Because the administration of the law should not be obstructed by the fears of physicians that they may render themselves liable to suit, certifying physicians should be exempt from liability. Furthermore, because commitment had been upon order of a judge, defendant\u27s negligence, if any, was not the proximate cause of plaintiffs confinement. Mezullo v. Maletz, (Mass. 1954) 118 N.E. (2d) 356

Are College-Educated Police Officers Different? A Study of Stops, Searches, and Arrests

A study of more than 60,000 police traffic stops found that college-educated officers were more likely than other officers to stop drivers for less serious violations, perform consent searches, and make arrests on discretionary grounds. These results are consistent with those of prior research indicating that college-educated officers are more achievement oriented and eager for advancement based on the traditional performance criteria of stops, searches, and arrests. The results raise questions regarding the recommendation of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015) to improve police-community relations by hiring more college-educated police officers, especially in urban communities where concerns about over policing are widespread. If community engagement were to become a primary basis for professional advancement, however, the current results suggest that college-educated officers may adapt to the new standards as diligently as they have to the traditional criteria for reward and promotion in U.S. police departments