Synergistic Epidemic: A Case Study Of Covid-19 And Substance Use Disorder In New London, Ct

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, complicated the already ineffectual delivery of health care for historically hard-to-reach populations. Those who face housing insecurity, substance use disorders, unemployment, or uncertain immigration and insurance status were abandoned, as the mainstream U.S healthcare system struggled to cope under the pressure of the novel virus. While parallel public health crises were put on hold to deal with COVID-19, the pandemic collided with and exacerbated the ongoing opioid crisis. Using New London, CT as a case study, this project set out to address a gap in literature on the potential syndemic effect of COVID-19 and the opioid crisis on people living with substance use disorders (SUDs). Data were collected through a self-administered survey among patients of an urban harm reduction service in New London, CT over a 12-month period. The survey collected demographic data as well as questions on COVID-19 knowledge, COVID-19 risk behaviors, and COVID-19 attitudes and perceptions. Using descriptive statistics and multivariate linear regression models, this study found that there was low COVID-19 knowledge in the sample population, particularly among ethnic/racial minorities or people experiencing unemployment. Additionally, a high proportion of the respondents relied on the ER to meet their healthcare needs, struggled to access testing, and felt quarantine would present difficulties. The population also exhibited a high level of vaccine hesitancy, and their COVID-19 risk behavior increased over time (particularly among racial/ethnic minorities, and people experiencing unemployment). Finally, the survey respondents grew increasingly confused over the COVID-19 messaging they were receiving over time. The results of this study suggest that the opioid crisis and COVID-19 are acting synergistically to increase disease burden for people living with SUDs, particularly those experiencing double marginalization due to their racial/ethnic identity or socioeconomic background. The findings, also underscore the need for further research at the intersection of COVID-19 and SUDs, and carry significant public health implications in terms of COVID-19 information dissemination, COVID-19 vaccine campaigns, and access to basic healthcare for people who use drugs

LGBTQ in Russia: Obstacles in the Late Post-Socialist Period

In the lead up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, President Putin passed a law that placed a ban on all homosexual propaganda in the country. The gay propaganda law was met with an international outcry, as advocacy groups around the world condemned Russian state-sponsored homophobia. Despite their heightened involvement before the Sochi Olympics, international activists had little impact on LGBTQ oppression in Russia as they failed to address two key obstacles facing the Russian LGBTQ movement: enforcement of conservative traditional values,” and Putin\u27s nationalist project to return Russia to a misremembered imperial past. This essay argues that we must understand and address the two obstacles to advocate and build solidarity with LGBTQ people and movements in Russia

Personal Reflections on the Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr.: A Judge, Mentor, and Friend

Twenty-six years – half my lifetime – have passed since I joined Judge Merhige\u27s court family as his law clerk. I attempt here to sketch my personal impressions, distilling what to me was most remarkable about Robert R. Merhige, Jr. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this dynamic man turned legendary judge – a man I revered from the moment I met him – is more vivid to me now than he was to my younger self. Mercurial, energetic, and benevolently despotic, Judge Merhige was a man of extraordinary decency who cherished his vocation and the law. He was a World War II veteran and an accomplished, wickedly talented trial attorney tapped by President Lyndon B. Johnson for the federal judiciary in 1967. As a Lebanese-Irish Northeasterner, he was understandably proud of making good in the famously clubby, genteel Richmond of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. As a judge, he treated his court personnel and law clerks with great affection and caring watchfulness

America is Slowly Awakening to the Structural Unfairness in Our Criminal Justice System

Review of Bryan Stevenson\u27s book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, published by Spiegal & Grau in 2014

Grave Injustice: Unearthing Wrongful Executions

This book review discusses Richard A. Stack\u27s book, Grave Injustice, which illustrates the flaws in America\u27s use of capital punishment. Simply put, the death penalty is shown to be a massive policy failure diminishing the legitimacy of the criminal justice system in the world\u27s leading democracy. Stack uses his reportorial skills to distill the complex subject of the American death penalty into a digestible form, yet he never cuts corners with the human dimension. This dimension is always at the center of crime and punishment and, most hauntingly, at the center of the American death penalty and its tragic frailties. True to its subject, Stack has written a very human book worth reading and worth sharing

America is Slowly Awakening to the Structural Unfairness in Our Criminal Justice System

Book review of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Commissioning Innocence and Restoring Confidence: the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission and the Missing Deliberative Citizen

Since 1989, the United States has witnessed 289 DNA exonerations, with exonerees serving an average of thirteen years in prison. Although DNA and its unmatched power for conclusive results is what brought popular attention to wrongful convictions, the scope of the problem is vastly larger than the number of known DNA exonerations. The actual number of convicted individuals who are factually innocent is unknown. The state of North Carolina has recently responded to this national crisis via a newly created state agency. This essay applauds North Carolina\u27s response, but urges that ordinary citizens, qua jurors, be active participants in its important work. Seventeen years after the United States heralded its first DNA exoneration, in 2006 North Carolina established the North Carolina Inquiry Innocence Commission ( Inquiry Commission ). The Inquiry Commission is the first-ever state agency in the United States with the power to review, investigate and refer claims of actual innocence for judicial review and relief. The Inquiry Commission\u27s pioneering contribution to the problem of wrongful convictions is the much needed post-conviction flexibility afforded by its sophisticated screening, investigating, reviewing and remedial functions. Consequently, the Inquiry Commission is a public policy turning point in the modem wrongful conviction epoch. This essay argues that, in order for the Inquiry Commission to most adequately remedy the harms of wrongful convictions, its final review must include the deliberative voice of jurors selected from the community where the conviction occurred. The discussion proceeds as follows. Part II briefly addresses the origin and structure of innocence commissions in other states. Part III addresses the unique structure of North Carolina\u27s Inquiry Commission. Part IV offers a proposal for enhancing the Inquiry Commission\u27s effectiveness through inclusion of post-conviction jurors in the final stage of review now performed exclusively by a three-judge panel. Including jurors in the Inquiry Commission\u27s final review of innocence cases deemed worthy of judicially-impaneled review will achieve three important confidence-enhancing goals: it would reinforce the jury\u27s central role in our criminal justice system, protect the review process from political pressures on elected officials, and honor the local jurisdiction\u27s natural and substantial interest in the ultimate resolution of the controversy. As it stands now, the Inquiry Commission is a good thing. But it could be even better

Personal Reflections on the Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr.: A Judge, Mentor, and Friend

Twenty-six years—half my lifetime—have passed since I joined Judge Merhige’s court family as his law clerk. I attempt here to sketch my personal impressions, distilling what to me was most remarkable about Robert R. Merhige, Jr. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this dynamic man turned legendary judge—a man I revered from the moment I met him—is more vivid to me now than he was to my younger self

Temporal Arbitrariness: A Back to the Future Look at a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Death Penalty Trial

his essay grapples with a previously unexamined feature of the death penalty: temporal arbitrariness. How does the circumstance of time affect capital defendants? What might this mean for the stability of our notions of justice? I explore these questions using a 25-year-old death penalty trial as a case study, examining the procedural and factual highlights of the case and situating it in its temporal milieu. I then explore how the roles of doctrine, policy, and cultural attitudes would dramatically alter the nature and probable outcome of the case today, illustrating how temporal arbitrariness further exposes the death penalty’s unsteady administration and indeed, its crumbling legitimacy