THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander Book Review by Jim McCarthy Although published 11 years ago, the content, information, and observations are not only fresh for consideration today but prophetic. The author offers… Read More ›
public defenders
Subtle Perpetuators of Inequity
From inception, the nation’s criminal justice system has had an unhealthy set of roots in slavery and racism. A sample of that codex is found in the 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, which declared slavery unconstitutional but hedged with “except… Read More ›
Around the Novahood
BLACK DEFENDANT + PORTRAITS OF WHITE JUDGES = UNFAIR TRIAL First Louisa, now Fairfax. As reported by VoxFairfax on September 21, 2020 (The Shot Heard Round the Old Dominion, https://wp.me/p9wDCF-1Mf), a Louisa County circuit judge ruled on a motion by attorneys… Read More ›
The Shot Heard Round the Old Dominion
Our title is a paraphrase of a very familiar refrain written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 in a poem Concord Hymn, commemorating the first round of fire in the American Revolution in Concord, Mass. The term has been applied… Read More ›
Gideon’s Trumpet Continues to Blare
Unlike Gideon’s biblical victory over a larger army (Judges 7:16-22), neither Virginia’s nor the nation’s criminal justice system has succeeded to a clear and convincing standard of equal justice for all. Virginia’s experience with the frailties and inconsistencies of its… Read More ›
VA Parole Board Decisions Cast Shadow
Editors’ Note: Excerpted from the Virginia Mercury, August 7, 2020. Editors’ Comment: Last week (Tough on Crime, Rough on Justice; https://wp.me/p9wDCF-1Em), VoxFairfax posted a story concerning the Commonwealth’s public policies on incarceration, prison, and criminal justice, as these are subject to… Read More ›
Around the Novahood
PWC ESTABLISHES PUBLIC DEFENDER Virginia’s second-most-populous jurisdiction, and the only Virginia county that is majority-people of color, Prince William County, has lacked a public defender’s office. It relied, instead on a system of poorly compensated, court-appointed counsel to represent low-income defendants…. Read More ›
Scales of Criminal Justice Tilted by Wage Disparity
The relationship between poverty and the nation’s prison and jail population has been adequately demonstrated by research studies. Less appreciated are the more nuanced, subtle governmental decisions that exacerbate that relationship, and which we are slowly coming to realize are… Read More ›
Brief Cases
Brief Cases is published occasionally to update information on previously published articles and/or to add comment upon them. Sometimes the content will be new, particularly as the material is deemed to be of note. CUCCINELLI APPOINTMENT TO TOP IMMIGRATION JOB… Read More ›