Senate action Wednesday likely ensured House passage of a bill expunging criminal records of thousands of Connecticut residents.
criminal justice
Posted inJustice
After 22 years, educating incarcerated youth still a challenge
The state started trying to improve education in juvenile detention in 1993. It’s still trying.
Posted inJustice
Public weighs in on Connecticut’s search for its next chief state’s attorney
Advocates view the selection of a new chief state’s attorney as a chance to further Connecticut’s criminal justice reforms and reduce the system’s racial disparities.
Posted inJustice
Public forum to help determine Connecticut’s next top prosecutor
Those interested in criminal justice can weigh in on the search for the next chief state’s attorney at a forum in the Legislative Office Building this afternoon, from 2 to 5 p.m.
Posted inJustice
Those with criminal records should help decide their fate, member says
Rep. Robyn Porter, co-chair of the Council on the Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Record, said she is open to the idea: “The people closest to the problems are closest to the solutions. That’s why people closest to the pain need to be closest to the power.”
Posted inJustice, News
Project Youth Court, giving young offenders an alternate route
There are more than 1,000 youth courts across the country, but in Connecticut, there’s only one. As its director Jean Michaud, explains in this Sunday Conversation, Project Youth Court in New Haven uses trained teenage volunteers to run hearings for young, non-violent misdemeanor offenders.
Posted inJustice, News
James Forman Jr., tackling criminal justice from multiple angles
James Forman Jr. is a professor at Yale Law School, where he teaches courses including constitutional law, “Race, Class and Punishment” and a seminar where he brings law students into a Connecticut prison to take a class alongside people who are incarcerated. In this Sunday conversation, The Mirror sat down with Forman at his office in New Haven to hear about his career, the classes he’s teaching at Yale, and his 2017 book called “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.”
Posted inJustice
New-crime recidivism rates continue to show modest improvement
Inmates released in 2014 were arrested, convicted and sentenced for new crimes at lower rates than past groups, continuing a positive trend in those post-prison outcomes, but returns to prison are not declining at the same rate.
Posted inJustice
Malloy tries again to expand reach of juvenile courts
In a Boys & Girls Club not far from the State Capitol, the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy renewed its push Wednesday to expand the reach of the juvenile court system, a reform endorsed by a leading criminal justice expert at Harvard and imitated by the states of Illinois, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Posted inJustice
In Connecticut, a formula helps make bail decisions
With proposals for bail reform again on the table at the legislature, it’s important to understand how the present system assesses the risk posed by each defendant. It turns out, there’s a formula to help with that.
Posted inPolitics
CT Senate unanimously backs police accountability bill
The state Senate responded early Tuesday to demands for greater police accountability by unanimously passing legislation that would establish standards for investigating officer-involved shootings and equipping police with body cameras.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy says justice must mean a ‘second chance’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy outlined “second-chance society” initiatives for non-violent offenders Tuesday in a Yale policy address that pronounced the zero-tolerance approach of the 1980s and 1990s a waste of human and fiscal capital.
Posted inNews
An apology and $6M for innocent man’s 21 years in prison
Kenneth Ireland, who was wrongly imprisoned for 21 years and subject to the constant threat of abuse as a man labeled a rapist and murderer, was awarded $6 million and an apology Thursday by Connecticut’s claims commissioner.
Posted inNews
Memo 2014: A collection of essays on Connecticut
We asked Mirror readers to send us their thoughts on what the state’s priorities should be. If cuts have to be made, where should they happen? What issues would they like state lawmakers and those running for office to consider? How can we improve the life of our state?
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Memo 2014: A collection of essays on Connecticut
We asked Mirror readers to send us their thoughts on what the state’s priorities should be. If cuts have to be made, where should they happen? What issues would they like state lawmakers and those running for office to consider? How can we improve the life of our state?