Philly’s new top prosecutor is rolling out wild, unprecedented criminal justice reforms.

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

In the church, queries and complaints from constituents that might have made his predecessors cringe were softballs for Krasner: a loved one has been wrongfully incarcerated? Send the case to the revamped Conviction Review Unit, a sort of in-house innocence project. How can lying officers be kept off the stand? He has staff working to verify and expand a formerly secret “do not call” list of 29 suspect officers. Late in the meeting, one elderly woman asked a question that cuts to the core of concerns for those who doubt Krasner’s reforms: What would he do about the drug dealers and users on her street that make her feel unsafe? He didn’t miss a beat: “The past solution was to lock [corner drug dealers] all up and that didn’t work. We have to go after root cause,” he says. This came after an extended riff promising “to go after doctors, and pharmaceutical corporations” for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis. Notably, his office had already initiated legal proceedings against some of those pharmaceutical companies.

…Krasner issued a memo to his staff making official a wave of new policies he had announced his attorneys last month. The memo starts: “These policies are an effort to end mass incarceration and bring balance back to sentencing.”

Over 90 percent of criminal cases nationwide are decided in plea bargains. …In an about-face from how these transactions typically work, Krasner’s 300 lawyers are to start many plea offers at the low end of sentencing guidelines. For most nonviolent and nonsexual crimes, or economic crimes below a $50,000 threshold, Krasner’s lawyers are now to offer defendants sentences below the bottom end of the state’s guidelines. So, for example, if a person with no prior convictions is accused of breaking into a store at night and emptying the cash register, he would normally face up to 14 months in jail. Under Krasner’s paradigm, he’ll be offered probation. If prosecutors want to use their discretion to deviate from these guidelines, say if a person has a particularly troubling rap sheet, Krasner must personally sign off.

…Krasner’s lawyers are also now to decline charges for marijuana possession, no matter the weight, effectively decriminalizing possession of the drug in the city for all nonfederal cases. Sex workers will not be charged with prostitution unless they have more than two priors, in which case they’ll be diverted to a specialized court. Retail theft under $500 is no longer a misdemeanor in the eyes of Philly prosecutors, but a summary offense—the lowest possible criminal charge. 

…When a person does break the rules of probation, minor infractions such as missing a PO meeting are not to be punished with jail time or probation revocation, and more serious infractions are to be disciplined with no more than two years in jail.

In a move that may have less impact on the lives of defendants, but is very on-brand for Kranser, prosecutors must now calculate the amount of money a sentence would cost before recommending it to a judge, and argue why the cost is justified. He estimates that it costs $115 a day, or $42,000 a year, to incarcerate one person. So, if a prosecutor seeks a three-year sentence, she must state, on the record, that it would cost taxpayers $126,000 and explain why she thinks this cost is justified. Krasner reminds his attorneys that the cost of one year of unnecessary incarceration “is in the range of the cost of one year’s salary for a beginning teacher, police officer, fire fighter, social worker, Assistant District Attorney, or addiction counselor.”

…Krasner’s election was consistent with Philadelphia’s recent mood around criminal justice. Two years ago, the city elected Mayor Jim Kenney, who Philadelphia Magazine labeled “Mr. Criminal Justice Reform.” Under his leadership and with the help of a multimillion-dollar grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the city has brought the jail population down by 26 percent since July 2015.

Philly’s new top prosecutor is rolling out wild, unprecedented criminal justice reforms.

Wild.

Theories on why American passenger trains are so bad

On By peanutgallerynhIn Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The way Amtrak is currently set up, there’s no real incentive to undertake incremental improvements. The Northeast Corridor already generates an operating profit, which simply defrays losses elsewhere in the system. Making it run better doesn’t generate any wins for the people who would have to do the work, and would plausibly just lead Congress to reduce subsidies.

…America’s railroads ship a dramatically larger share of total goods than their European peers. And this is no coincidence. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, the railroad infrastructure is generally owned by freight companies — Amtrak is just piggybacking on the spare capacity.

That means the technology isn’t optimized for passenger rail needs. But it also means passenger train scheduling needs to take a back seat to freight priorities.

The real reason American passenger trains are so bad – Vox

hmmm

Patient Demands Treatment And Release From NH Prison Since He Didn’t Commit Crime

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Drugs & Drink,, Granite State,Leave a comment

Patient Andrew Butler, 21, who was a well-known athlete as a Hollis Brookline High School student, argued through his attorney that he is locked up in a maximum-security prison because of mental illness even though he hasn’t committed a crime.

…“He is held as a mental health patient without being in an accredited hospital, denied contact visits with his father, denied contact visits with his attorney, forced to wear prison clothing,” wrote his attorney Sandra Bloomenthal. “He is locked down 23 hours a day. He has been tasered. The treatment he has received is cruel and unusual punishment without having been convicted of a crime and with no pending criminal process.”

…[Butler’s father] believes his son may have reacted badly to illegal drug experimentation on a trip to Vermont in late August of last year.

…The problem, he believes, was compounded by the psychotropic drugs Andrew was prescribed.

…[Andrew Butler] was civilly committed to the New Hampshire Hospital, the state’s psychiatric hospital, in the fall of 2017, then involuntarily transferred to the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the men’s prison, according to his father, Douglas Butler.

…The state labels his son as psychotic and schizophrenic, [Douglas Butler] said, diagnoses that he doesn’t believe and is unable to get a second opinion or consider alternative treatments because he is no longer Andrew’s guardian.

…Andrew Butler is being denied his “right to due process of law by the State holding him indefinitely in a maximum-security prison,” attorney Bloomenthal wrote. “He is not being treated by an accredited hospital for his mental illness and in fact his treatment is harmful and cruel and violates the Americans with Disability Act.”

Patient Demands Treatment And Release From NH Prison Since He Didn’t Commit Crime | InDepthNH.org

hmmmm

Trump administration’s ‘secret shutdown’ of immigration program discriminated against Latinos: Lawsuit – ABC News

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

In 2014, more than 50,000 minors reached the southern U.S. border seeking asylum from the violence wracking three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The largest wave yet of child migrants, it forced the Obama administration to take a multi-pronged approach: sending millions more in aid to the three countries; detaining families who had crossed the border illegally, until a court ordered them to stop [emphasis: mine] two years later; and creating a path for children to come here legally.

That path became the Central American Minors, or CAM, program, which allowed parents lawfully present in the U.S. to apply for refugee resettlement or a temporary status called parole for their children and other eligible family members — the child’s other parent or caregiver or the child’s own child, the parent’s grandchild.

…Families had to prove their relations through a DNA test, applicants had to be interviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, and applicants had to meet the definition of a refugee — someone outside the U.S. who is fleeing persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

If a CAM applicant did not qualify for refugee resettlement, they were automatically considered for parole status and informed of whether or not they were granted it when they got their refugee decision.

Parole allows non-U.S. citizens to enter the country for a period of time on humanitarian grounds, although it does not automatically provide a path to legal status. Similar programs were created in the past for Vietnamese fleeing in the 1980’s, Filipino World War II veterans, and certain eastern Europeans after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

CAM parole applicants had to prove they were not at risk of harm, had cleared background vetting, and had someone to financially support them. Once they were granted approval, there were a series of final checks to clear: a medical exam and paying the U.S. or its contractor to arrange flights. They’d then be given a travel date and instructions to meet an official at the airport and receive their paperwork and plane ticket.

…The Central American Minors program, which reunited children and other eligible family members with parents legally residing in the U.S., was one of Trump’s early targets as he sought to crack down on legal immigration. Designed during the Obama administration to avoid the scenes at the U.S.-Mexican border that have gripped the nation this week, its termination is now being blamed by some for worsening the migrant crisis and possibly sending more children north.

…They were told by authorities they would be given final documentation and a plane ticket to travel in two weeks time — but months went by, and nothing ever came.

Without notifying them, …Trump’s administration had already frozen the program just days into his term, even as it solicited and collected thousands of dollars from S.A. and others like her who had been granted conditional approval, according to a new lawsuit that argues the administration broke the law and was driven by “racial animus against Latinos.”

…The administration’s “unprecedented, unexplained, and unsupported secret shutdown” of the program is also under fire for how it was carried out, with little to nothing communicated to recipients months after the decision was seemingly made and no real explanation ever given.

Trump administration’s ‘secret shutdown’ of immigration program discriminated against Latinos: Lawsuit – ABC News

Sigh…

In rural America, tightened access to Medicaid means tough choices

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Life expectancy in much of Appalachia, where poverty has kept a tight hold for generations, is lower than in Bangladesh or Vietnam, said Carolyn Miles, president and chief executive officer of Save the Children. “That’s a really shocking statistic,” she added.

…In 2016, 14.1 million children grew up in poverty nationwide. But that proportion is higher in rural areas, where 24 percent of kids live in poverty, compared to 19 percent of those in urban areas, according to a new report on rural poverty from Save the Children. That gap widened after the Great Recession, according to Census Bureau data, and remains most persistent for single-parent homes, children with disabilities and African-American children. In the latest report, Tennessee ranks 40th nationwide for states where childhood is most under threat. Nearly 1.5 million Tennessee children were enrolled in Medicaid in 2017. In Perry County, there were 2,078 children enrolled. Britton’s two sons were among them.

…After the Great Recession hit, Perry County, Tennessee, reported an unemployment rate of 29.8 percent, among the nation’s highest. People left if they were able or found jobs in Nashville or as far as Memphis — more than 140 miles away. Today, the jobless rate is much lower, at 4.2 percent, but 22 percent of the county’s nearly 8,000 residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Britton said the community needs more jobs that pay better so families like hers can thrive.

..Having health care coverage is one victory, but actually getting care is another story. The county has no pediatrician, so Britton either takes her sons to a nurse practitioner at a local walk-in clinic or drives 60 miles — twice the distance the federal government defines as reasonable access to care — to see a doctor. She forgoes her own health care “unless I feel like I’m dying.”

Tennessee legislators voted to set up work requirements for Medicaid recipients, joining a number of states, including Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas, that have passed similar laws in recent months. …It is the latest in a series of moves nationwide to tighten access to Medicaid.

…In January, the Tennessee Justice Center estimated that more than 480,000 Tennesseans could lose Medicaid coverage under the state’s then-proposed work requirement. Bureaucratic red tape — not ineligibility — could pose an obstacle to access. And nationwide, 60 percent of 24.6 million current adult Medicaid recipients work at least part-time, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

…Health care advocates say work requirements will deny health care to people already vulnerable to the slightest shift in their economic equation, meaning they are more likely to neglect chronic conditions, end up in emergency rooms more often and ultimately cost the system more money.

…At his Tuesday ‘campaign’ rally in Nashville, President Donald Trump told the crowd that “wages are going up, and they’re going up fast. The forgotten men and women of our country are no longer forgotten.”

Britton isn’t as optimistic.

In rural America, tightened access to Medicaid means tough choices | PBS NewsHour

hmmmm

‘He Does Not Understand What the Role of an Ambassador Should Be’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

With a tweet (instructing German businesses to “wind down operations immediately” in Iran), an interview (in which he told Breitbart News he hoped to “empower” conservatives across Europe), a meeting (with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen as a breach of protocol for another country’s ambassador to arrange) and an invitation (to host Austria’s young, hard-line anti-immigration chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, whom he referred to as a “rock star,” for lunch), [U.S. Ambassador Richard] Grenell has managed to shock and anger Berlin.

…“None of his predecessors intervened in domestic politics or created controversy in such a way.”

…Martin Schulz, the former chancellor candidate and leader of the center-left Social Democrats, said Grenell sounded more “like a far-right colonial officer” than a diplomat in his Breitbart interview.

…“He does not understand what the role of an ambassador should be,” says Nils Schmid, foreign policy spokesman for the center-left Social Democrats in parliament. “An ambassador is a bridge-builder who explains how American politics works, how the American government works, and at the same time explains to America how Germany sees things.” But Grenell, Schmid says, has “defined his role for himself, and it is not the traditional role of an ambassador. … He will work as a propagandist.”

…Still, it’s unclear whether and how this new kind of ambassadorship will continue to clash with German perceptions of the job. “That depends on the future,” says Liebich, the Die Linke MP, asked whether Grenell could reverse the early impression he has made here. “Everyone can make mistakes.” The Foreign Office official put it this way: “He has a great job—if he wants to do it the usual way.”

‘He Does Not Understand What the Role of an Ambassador Should Be’ – POLITICO Magazine

hmmm

Flight 3407 families unhappy with Transportation Secretary’s comments

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao discussed a current shortage of pilots, and she feels training requirements are partly to blame.

“There is the 1,500 hour rule, which came about because of a tragic accident in Upstate New York,” Chao said to the moderator, referring to Flight 3407, which crashed in Clarence on Feb. 12, 2009.

…”The 1,500-hour rule has been in place for 30 or 40 years. It’s an FAA rule. We didn’t come up with that number,” Kausner said.

…Kausner and Eckert, along with Rep. Collins say training isn’t to blame for a pilot shortage; Pay and the nature of the job are to blame. Entry level pilots make only about $20,000 a year.

wgrz.com | Flight 3407 families unhappy with Transportation Secretary’s comments

You can trust this administration to do one thing: not get the facts right.

Texas deputy arrested on allegation of child sexual assault

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

A sheriff’s deputy in South Texas is accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl and threatening the child’s mother with deportation if she reported him, authorities said.

…The sheriff said the assaults may have been going on for months, possibly years, and that there could be other victims.

…Authorities were notified of the alleged abuse when the child “made an outcry” and her mother, from Guatemala, took the girl to a fire station to make a report. The sheriff said authorities believe Nunez is related to the child victim.

Salazar said the criminal charge carries a minimum 25-year sentence. He reported on Sunday that the agency is filling out paperwork to give the mother protective status pending the case’s outcome, but declined to comment on the residence status of the child.

Texas deputy arrested on allegation of child sexual assault – Story | KTVU

Jeezus Christ,,,,

El Paso County Sheriff Prohibits Staff From Moonlighting at Tornillo Tent City for Children

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

El Paso’s sheriff has barred his deputies from working off-duty at a new temporary migrant children’s shelter, one of the most forceful steps yet from a growing chorus of law enforcement critical of the Trump administration’s practice of separating children and parents apprehended at the border. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this month opened temporary tent shelters in Tornillo, about thirty miles east of downtown El Paso, where the sheriff’s prohibition has taken effect. “The Sheriff’s Office will not be working at these facilities, as we don’t support the current administration’s position of separating children simply to discourage illegal immigration,” Sheriff Richard Wiles said. Law enforcement officers frequently work off-duty jobs to supplement their income, but such work requires approval from superiors.

Wiles said he was approached by federal officials to provide off-duty deputies for security work at the Tornillo facility but declined. “I just thought that if the citizens saw that we were working there in an off-duty capacity, it may be [seen] as if we were approving of the administration’s policy, and it would hurt our relationship with the community that we serve.”

El Paso County Sheriff Prohibits Staff From Moonlighting at Tornillo Tent City for Children – Texas Monthly

good

Pam Bondi heckled at Mister Rogers movie over healthcare, immigration

On By peanutgallerynhIn Gulf Coast Region,, Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Florida’s Republican attorney general, Pam Bondi, was escorted out of a movie theater by police on Friday night after being confronted by labor activists over her positions on healthcare and immigration policy.

…One activist can be heard asking, “Would Mr. Rogers take children away from their parents?” Unlike Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Bondi has not publicly come out against the family separations.

…”What would Mister Rogers think about your legacy in Florida? Taking away health insurance from people with existing conditions? Shame on you! Shame on you!” one protester can be heard shouting at Bondi as uniformed officers walked her to her car.

…Approximately 1.7 million people in Florida get their health insurance through the market created by the ACA, and over 90% receive subsidies from the federal government to lower their premiums, according to the Orlando Sun Sentinel.

Pam Bondi heckled at Mister Rogers movie over healthcare, immigration – Business Insider

hmmmm

Pentagon: Two US military bases to house migrants

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Modern Parenting,, Race,Leave a comment

Speaking in Alaska, Secretary Mattis named the Texas bases but did not say whether they would house migrant children or families held together.

The Pentagon said last week it planned to house 20,000 detained children on military bases.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump repeated calls for deportations without judicial process.

…In his remarks, the defence secretary [defended the dramatic move as] a “legitimate governmental function.”

…The shelters will be run by HHS and not the Pentagon, according to the Associated Press, and facilities may be available as early as July.

US immigration officials say 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 parents from 5 May to 9 June.

While the adults are held in custody pending court appearances, the children are being sent to holding cells, converted warehouses and desert tents under the “zero tolerance” policy introduced in April.

Officials have gone to court to try to lengthen the time children can be held as parents are prosecuted.

…[Trump] has not made a distinction between economic migrants and those seeking asylum in his Twitter posts.

Pentagon: Two US military bases to house migrants – BBC News

Agggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Walgreens Pharmacy Refuses to Give Woman With An Impending Miscarriage Pregnancy Termination Drugs Prescribed by Her Doctor

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

[Nicole Arteaga] was given the choice of terminating the pregnancy through surgery or prescription medication. She chose the latter option. 

…”If you have gone thru [sic] a miscarriage you know the pain and emotional roller it can be.”

…”I stood at the mercy of this pharmacist explaining my situation in front of my 7-year-old and five customers standing behind, only to be denied because of his ethical beliefs,” she wrote on Facebook and Instagram.

…”I left Walgreens in tears, ashamed and feeling humiliated by a man who knows nothing of my struggles but feels it is his right to deny medication prescribed to me by my doctor.”

Walgreens Pharmacy Refuses to Give Woman Pregnancy Termination Drugs Prescribed by Her Doctor

Unconscionable that Walgreen’s would permit its employees to act in such an unprofessional and callous manner. Interfering with the prescribed medical care of their customers because of a personal issue shouldn’t be tolerated.

New video shows police officer stepping on Sterling Brown’s ankle and fellow officers discussing potential backlash of the wrongful arrest

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Race,Leave a comment

In one of the videos, Brown is on the ground and handcuffed when an officer puts one of his boots on Brown’s ankle, holding it there and at one point pressing down.

..Other videos obtained by WISN-TV show an officer talking with two others who are seated in a squad car as they explained they were trying to protect themselves during the arrest. They also talk about how they could be perceived as racist for arresting a black Bucks player, with one saying if anything goes wrong, it “is going to be, ‘Ooh, the Milwaukee Police Department is all racist, blah, blah, blah.”

Another video shows an officer in his squad car, calling to let a supervisor know he’ll need to be on overtime before singing, “Money, money, money, money, money …”

…It’s unclear why the new videos were not released along with the first body camera footage.

New video shows police officer stepping on Sterling Brown’s ankle and others discussing potential backlash of arrest – Chicago Tribune

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Trump tweet proposes immediate deportations without due process

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Trump on Twitter Sunday proposed that immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally be immediately deported without due process.

[When it suits him though, Trump] is very fond of due process. In February, he plaintively asked on Twitter whether there is “no such thing any longer as Due Process,” apparently objecting to public critique of men accused of domestic abuse. 

Trump tweet proposes immediate deportations without due process

sigh…