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A 2005 article that appeared in The Criminologist was titled, “It ain’t happening here: Working to understand prison rape.” Although I had spent some time working in correctional facilities at that point, I still labored under the popular myth that sexual assaults in prison were absolutely ubiquitous. Kreinert and Fleisher’s article taught me otherwise, and […]
May 11, 2012 by CrimeCents
First, a quick primer on the difference between jails and prisons. Jails are short-term correctional facilities and pretrial detention. Jail holds those who have been convicted, will be convicted, and will be acquitted. It holds those who have been arrested but not arraigned, it holds those who pose a danger to others. Prisons, on the […]
April 5, 2012 by CrimeCents
Have you ever driven a car, blindfolded, at a hundred and fifty miles an hour? It’s a line uttered by the creepy sociopath, Bruno Anthony, in Strangers On A Train, but it might just as well describe American correctional policy since the 1970s. We are out of control, careening down a self-destructive path, ignoring the […]
What yesterday’s US Supreme Court opinion allowing suspicion-less strip searches for any offense says to me: Don’t piss on the street after a night of debauchery because you may get arrested. If you get arrested, you may be taken to the local jail where a bored/sadistic guard will ask you to strip down to your birthday […]
March 27, 2012 by CrimeCents
There is a popular, if unexamined, belief that privatizing government functions is a good idea. People think that private companies with a profit motive will be less wasteful and more efficient, without sacrificing quality of services. This argument ties into a uniquely American mindset, a sincere desire to root for David (in this case, business) […]
July 5, 2012 by CrimeCents
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