The three problems I proposed were the validity of drug-use-related crime, the blurred line between revenge and justice, and lack of reform opportunities.

My solution to the problem of drug-use related crime is the decriminalization of use of all drugs. The idea is that the funds formerly being used toward arrests, trials, and incarceration for drug crimes could then be used for mandatory and/or voluntary drug treatment programs instead. The programs can be run or monitored by former prison security guards, and if there are success stories, it may allow those same guards to see prisoners in a different light, making abuse of prisoners less likely. Along with decriminalization, there should be a public campaign attempting to publicize the benefits of drug treatment programs, and take away any fears people might have of seeking help. The production and sale of drugs would still be criminalized. The main risk this idea poses is that more people would end up trying drugs because they know they wouldn’t be arrested for doing so. However, trying drugs isn’t the problem. The problem is becoming addicted or hurting one’s self or others while on drugs and drug treatment programs would be available to prevent that. Also, this idea was implemented in Portugal in 2001 and has so far been successful.

The drug treatment programs mentioned above would also tie in with the third problem I mentioned, which was a lack of reform programs. My idea for combatting this problem is similar. Shorten sentences for certain crimes, and instead use the money that would’ve gone toward further housing inmates to implement mandatory re-entry programs. In addition, one of the biggest problems former inmates face is lack of job opportunities. I think that this is in part because employers don’t think former inmates will be trustworthy. Therefore, I think that inmates should be allowed the option to have their progress throughout their time in prison documented to show former employers. This would allow employers to see the potential employee’s behavior, and how it may have improved over time while incarcerated. Employers would be more willing to hire former inmates if their records showed that they were actually reformed while in prison. This would increase how many formerly incarcerated people would be hired, decreasing the likelihood that they would return to crime for survival. In addition, it would be prison guards and/or psychiatrists that monitor this progress and make reports. In actively trying to view an inmate’s progress over the course of incarceration, prison guards would be less likely to see them as a nuisance and more likely to see them as people trying to improve themselves. This could therefore improve interactions between prison guards and inmates.

I have not yet come up with an ideal solution to separating revenge from justice. There were many factors to be considered and ultimately I didn’t see a solution that was actually viable. Revenge seems like something so hardwired into our minds that most legislation or social programs I thought of seemed like they would face fierce opposition, or, be written in law, but not really enacted

Sources:

http://www.alternet.org/story/151635/ten_years_ago_portugal_legalized_all_drugs_–_what_happened_next

It has long been known amongst sociologists that crime is both a cause and consequence of poverty. This is especially true in the United States where poorer neighborhoods often have substantially worse schools; the absence of structure and lackluster career prospects resulting from poor education often entices teens to join gangs and engage in other illicit activities. In one study, it was found that that education’s biggest impacts were on the rates of violent crime such as murder, assault and motor vehicle theft. While engaging in these high-risk activities, an offender might find himself arrested and subsequently incarcerated. After serving his sentence, the ex-offender’s prospects of attaining a “real” job are abysmal. Essentially, it becomes true that “In the sense that prison may incapacitate inmates from committing further crimes, it also incapacitates inmates in all other domains of life, including employment.” Thus, the cycle is further propagated as ex-cons are forced back into their former trades once released as they attempt to sustain themselves financially.

One innovative solution, modeled after the Robin Hood Foundation, would be to create a public grants program, whereby non-profit and not-for-profit organizations can become government contractors that act within a framework of optimal poverty reduction. Such a solution calls for New York State to enact a new administrative body: an Economic Development Council. Such an Economic Development Council (EDC) would measure success through clear cost-benefit ratio analyses and as such could direct the appropriate amount of funding (not too much to fertility clinics at the expense of education) to credible charity groups. To put it simply, such an administrative body would grant the appropriate funds to credible charities in the same way businesses gauge the value of a particular branch of a company; the greater a charity contributes to the bottom line (the reduction of long term poverty), the more preference it receives in the grants process. Charities which do not  meet the standards of efficacy and effectiveness will not receive grants whatsoever.

For the formerly effective charity, which may have received grants in the past, but has not met EDC demands for a brief to protracted amount of time, the grants will be revoked or diminished until the charity can reorganize itself more effectively. Of course, this is no draconian evaluation; long before grants are withdrawn, EDC advisors and inspectors would have sat with the directors of the charity to counsel them on the best methods of improving their social effectiveness.

This approach, termed Venture Philanthropy, has seen successful application throughout the charity world, but more so in New York City than anywhere else. In the years since its inception, The Robin Hood foundation-funded charities have become the largest emergency food groups in New York City, serving 5 millions meals annually, they have also become the best job placement agencies for ex-convicts with double the long-term placement rate of public institutions. Additionally, students in Robin Hood Funded charter schools consistently outperform their counterparts in non-Robin Hood schools by 10 grade percentage points. All this has been done with an administrative openness that has earned the Foundation the highest possible rating by Charity Navigator for financial efficacy, accountability and transparency. With an adequate understanding of how education and economic opportunity impacts a community’s crime, it is abundantly clear that the state government could stand to learn from organizations such as these.

Nearly 100,000 New York City public school students pass through metal detectors on a daily basis before entering their school buildings (“A Look at School Safety”). As Max pointed out in his comment to my original piece, the need to prevent violence is very real in certain schools, and the detrimental effects of metal detectors may seem worthwhile if lives are saved as a result of their use. However, there is little evidence to show that metal detectors effectively reduce violence in schools (Hankin). An alternative to employing metal detectors would be to implement new programs and services to help students cope with conflict, emotional distress, and heightened feelings of aggression. The Department of Education can incorporate these topics into health curricula throughout middle and high schools, teaching students about conflict resolution and how to seek help when experiencing emotional turmoil. Additionally, the DOE can increase the number of guidance counselors and psychologists working in schools and better train them to counsel students who struggle with aggression. In this way, instead of viewing school as a source of antagonism where they are criminalized, students will be able to see it a place where they can receive help for their problems. In order to effectively increase trust and reduce the hostility that many students may feel toward their school environment, schools should also slacken their zero-tolerance policies and have administrators and counselors address minor conflicts rather than sending teens and preteens through the criminal justice system. The city’s budget for school safety exceeds $221 million, so reducing metal detector use and police presence in schools would allow the city to allocate some of these funds to implement such programs and hire and train counselors (“A Look at School Safety”).

For years, the Bronx’s court system has been plagued by backlog, a problem that has recently been significantly alleviated by the temporary transfer of judges from other districts into the Bronx. These judges have now left the borough, and the possibility of backlogged cases accumulating once more looms (Rivera). A feasible solution to this problem would be to create a division within the Bronx’s judicial system whose job it would be to preside over cases that are over two years old and expedite their completion. This division would behave much like the transfer judges who recently presided over the borough’s backlogged cases, except that it would be a permanent fixture in the Bronx’s judicial system. As Prof. Binz-Scharf pointed out, the county likely lacks the funds to employ experienced legal personnel in such a division, so it could instead hire law school students or recent graduates who would be willing to work for less in exchange for gaining school credit or work experience.

The NYPD’s distrustful relationship with the city’s civilian population, particularly with African Americans, can be addressed by improving the cultural sensitivity training that police officers receive. In the wake of the Eric Garner case, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton had officers attend a three-day training course, where cultural sensitivity was only one of the topics discussed (Durkin). Ideally, the Police Department should instead incorporate cultural sensitivity training into the Police Academy curriculum and assign it the same importance that it allots to firearms and safety training so that officers can develop the human skills necessary to interact civilly with people of all backgrounds and presentiments about the Department. However, because training all Police Academy graduates may be financially unrealistic, the NYPD could instead offer a small pay raise to officers who volunteer to take select classes at local universities to enhance their people skills, similar to the program that grants NYC public school teachers a $3,000 pay raise for completing 30 credits above their Master’s Degree (“Moving Up the Pay Scale”).

Works Cited:

“A Look At School Safety | New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) – American Civil Liberties Union of New York State.” A Look At School Safety | New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) – American Civil Liberties Union of New York State. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nyclu.org/schooltoprison/lookatsafety>.

Durkin, Erin. “Bratton: I Need 1,000 Cops after All.” NY Daily News. N.p., 08 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Hankin, Abigail, Marci Hertz, and Thomas Simon. “Impacts of Metal Detector Use in Schools: Insights From 15 Years of Research*.” Journal of School Health 81.2 (2011): 100-06. Web.

“Moving up the Pay Scale.” Moving up the Pay Scale. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. <http://www.uft.org/new-teachers/moving-pay-scale>.

Rivera, Ray. “Bronx Courts Trim Big Backlog, With Outside Judge at the Helm.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 July 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

A long debate over police reform has recently been put into the spotlight because of officer misconduct. However, ideas for improvement are not a new occurrence. These suggestions vary both in quality and ideology; opinions on government and policing often coincide with party lines. One of the many issues being discussed, as I did in my Problems 1 assignment, is that of police officer training. Even this focus has to be clarified because of different people advocating for firearms training, proper conduct training, mental training, etc. I decided to specify firearms training as a source of problems. Rather than look at the incredibly difficult problem of tackling how police officers discern their situations and decide to react, I advocate for a change to the firearm training policy because I think that it is a simpler problem that if solved can have an immediate positive impact.

A problem with today’s police force is that many officers cannot use their weapons properly. Whether this is due to police departments not holding officers’ weapon proficiency accountable or because some officers are not used to high stress situations where they are forced to draw their gun, it is an inexcusable problem. This neglect is displayed in every confrontation where innocent bystanders are struck, an occurrence to often happening in New York City. While handguns are difficult to accurately shoot at longer distances, police should be aware of this effective range. While this is sometimes the problem, in an incident known as the Empire State Shooting, two police officers opened fire on an armed murderer from a reported distance of only 8 feet. Although this distance should have made for a clean kill, 16 shots were fired, killing the target but also hitting 9 innocent bystanders fleeing the confrontation. For the same reason that doctors have medical degrees and bus drivers have drivers licenses, a police officer must not be put in a position where they are given a deadly instrument that they are unable to properly operate.

I propose stricter tests, not allowing officers to carry a gun without meeting these higher standards. Many officers do not fire their weapon throughout their term of duty so this is much less of an inhibiting factor than it seems. However, the ultimate goal of this reform is to return weapons to all officers as long as they are proficient in its use. These tests would require changes at the police academy to obstruct the access of guns to those not qualified as well as the retesting of current officers. As seen in the presentation from Milk Not Jails, New York City has many more police than is necessary to handle the current crime rate. By reducing the police force by even 5 percent, enough money would be saved for the cost of retraining. Additionally, assuming that underperforming police with a history of misconduct are let go, only the superior members of the police force will remain. The additional training will aim to make sure that officers can fire their weapon accurately and know when protocol dictates the use of deadly force. A higher quality of police officer is important to the wellbeing of the city, not a higher number of police.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/nyregion/empire-state-building-shooting.html?pagewanted=all

https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/fighting-police-abuse-community-ac

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/137-shots-13-cops-dead-unarmed-civilians-equals-taxpayers-hook-3-million/

In my “Policing Problems” post, I began by discussing the wedge that distrust between citizens and law enforcement has created in our nation. As I went on to discuss my other two issues (stop-and-frisk and police quotas) I realized that mistrust was inherent in each of these topics. The overarching issue (in my opinion) plaguing policing is mistrust. Of course, solving the tension between citizens and law enforcement will not come over night, but I believe that we need to start with policies that mend this issue.

In the community, police usually interact with only two types of people: criminals and victims. This is the wrong approach. Rather than just appearing during a negative situation, law enforcement should also be immersed in the community through positive outreach. Currently we see a huge divide between authority (police officers) and everyone else (the citizens being policed). We need to close this gap by involving police in community events–ones where they are not only around to enforce the law. A precinct in Orlando recently sponsored GED classes, counseling for emotionally scarred kids, and a community housing project where police helped plant shrubbery in the neighborhood. During these events, police became familiar with the people in the area and crime rates dropped dramatically (thirty-two percent!). Changes in Orlando are not an anomaly, a Philadelphia precinct also experienced decreases in homicides, shootings, aggressive assaults, and narcotic sales as a result of community outreach. New York City, a state whose law enforcement has acquired a negative reputation, could greatly benefit from a program such as those in Orlando and Philadelphia, by showing the community that the police are not the enemy.

On the other side of the spectrum a popular approach called “focused deterrence” has been shown to also build community trust in the police. Unlike stop-and-frisk, where police are criticized for their efforts to “score easy arrests,” focused deterrence targets a communities worst culprits. This policy, like stop-and-frisk, seeks to lower violent crimes in low-income areas, however, the goal of focused deterrence is not to amass large amounts of misdemeanors or subject citizens to racial profiling. Rather, focused deterrence is based on the theory that small cohorts of individuals are responsible (in a trickling down type of effect) for most of the violent crime in minority districts. Where stop-and-frisk pit the authorities against the citizens, creating a neighborhood of suspects, focused deterrence would seek to work with the community to reach a common goal: decreased violence. The thought is that this partnership would put the community at rest. They would no longer be subjected to petty charges and their neighborhood would ultimately become safer in the process. Focused deterrence is not a new idea. It has long been studied by criminologists and has been shown to decrease crime.

Sources:
http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2013-11-examining-alternatives-to-stop-and-frisk

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/opinion/better-ways-to-police-than-stop-and-frisk.html?_r=0

http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/alt.html

The criminal justice system in the U.S. is riddled with flaws. Flaws which need to be addressed so to have better law-abiding communities. The three issues which I will address in this post are the difficulty formerly incarcerated people  have with re-integrating into communities, racial biases in criminal justice, and police brutality.

In my previous post Problems 1, I wrote about the challenges formerly incarcerated people have as they attempt to integrate back into their communities. These challenges are both social and economic. They are looked down upon socially. They have a difficult time finding housing and employment. An incentive program to hire ex-convicts already exists. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is a Federal tax credit available to employers for hiring persons from certain groups who struggle to find employment. These include ex-felons. However, these individuals continue to struggle. I believe a better solution are programs that aid ex-offenders in re-integrating into communities. For example the WorkNet program in Hawaii. WorkNet is a non-profit corporation which provides “vocational and risk profile assessment, substance abuse assessment services, cognitive skills training, employment training, community re-entry transition services, ID and document restoration, housing and job placement services” for ex-offenders. WorkNet’s recidivism rate is about 9% as compared to  the 50% recidivism rate in Hawaii.

The racial biases that exist in the criminal justice system is a difficult problem to address. This is because it is difficult to determine the cause of this issue. In my previous post I wrote “1 in 17 Anglo men is expected to serve time in prison during his lifetime, compared with 1 in 6 Hispanic men and 1 in 3 African-American men.” However is this issue rooted in policing or in prosecuting? I believe the first step is to address racial discrimination in policing as it is the most obvious connection between the criminal justice system and the community or people. There has been a general consensus that the cause of these racial biases are “implicit” or “unconscious.” Police officers need training which make them aware of these implicit biases.  The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office offers a curriculum which does not only provide training for police officers but also for supervisors. Superiors are taught how to identify racially biased personnel and how to properly respond to racially biased personnel.  In short we need better training and more accountability.

Police brutality is a very important issue. Not only does is unjust but it also damages the police’s relationship with the public. There may be two causes for this issue: improper training of police officers or the overworking of police officers. The Police Training Officer (PTO) program was developed in collaboration with the US Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). It encourages preventative techniques in policing rather than reactive. I believe preventative techniques are essential in effective policing.

Sources:

http://www.worknetinc.org/

http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/ex-cons-make-great-employees/

http://www.calea.org/calea-update-magazine/issue-101/police-training-officer-pto-program

http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/February_2009/biased_policing.htm

Using the knowledge I have gained these past few days through class discussions, the precinct visit, and Brenden Beck’s presentation I was able to formulate some possible solutions for the policing problems that I identified previously. The problems that I brought up regarding policing practices were unreasonable and unnecessary use of force, police training, and racial profiling.

As I discussed previously, a major problem regarding the training police officers receive in the academy is that they are instilled with this notion of react first and prevent a problem before it is fully realized. This of course leads to rash reactions such as injuring or even killing innocents such as in the Michael Brown case. A solution to this problem would be improved police training by teaching officers to correctly analyze body movements and expressions in order to more accurately understand when a situation is about to get out of hand. An addition to improved police training would be to also encourage the use of pepper spray, tazers, and other non-maiming ‘weapons’ instead of guns. It should be also encouraged for police officers to try to keep order through discussion and negotiation instead of directly resorting to shooting.

Another major problem that I discussed was racial profiling practices such as stop and frisk. Not only is stop and frisk not effective, with less than 10% of stops resulting in arrests, they also wrongfully target those of color and low income neighborhoods, with approximately 80% of stops made on Blacks and Hispanics. A solution to combat wrongful stops would be to require officers to submit a report for every stop and frisk they perform, explaining the reason they stopped that individual and the outcome of the search. This would encourage officers to conduct searches only when they are justified. Another solution would be for a zero-tolerance policy for police misconduct associated with stop and frisk. Such a policy could be implemented through the use of cameras on police officers, which is something that is been discussed lately. Although requiring the entire police force to wear a camera could be very costly for the city, this idea should not be dismissed as impossible. Police executives should also convey to their departments a clear message about the purpose of the stop and frisk policy and lay out expectations for police conduct.

In order for police reform to truly be effective, the ultimate goal for any organization or community should be to understand the underlying factors behind major police problems. Police reform needs to start by rebuilding the trust between the police force and the communities they are meant to protect. Police officers need to be trained to conduct their duties in a respectful and appropriate manner such as in the case of searches or when confronted with a possibly violent situation. The community needs to start viewing the police force as people who are there to protect them. Only when both the police force and civilians bridge the mistrust created can there be true police reform.

Sources:

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2013/03/4-ideas-fixing-stop-and-frisk/5055/

http://www.ibtimes.com/eric-garner-chokehold-case-fuels-demands-police-reform-1733549

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/02/nypd-stop-and-frisk-keeshan-harley-young-black-men-targeted

Finding a solution that will fix all the problems we can identify as readily wrong with our policing system is problematic. As mentioned in my previous post, I believe that the problems with our police do not lie directly in how the force is run, but in individual officers whose bad behavior catches the media’s attention and gives our overall police force a bad name. There are no laws that we can pass to completely stop problems such as racial profiling, as racism could be considered the root of this specific problem. However, I believe that stricter, more extensive and more reformed police training would be able to militarization of police, lessen police brutality, and abuse of power.

In the 1990s, the United States faced a worsening drug crisis. In response to this, Congress enacted the National Defense Authorization Act. Section 1208 of the NDAA allowed the Secretary of Defense to “transfer the Federal and State agencies personal property of the Department of Defense, including small arms and ammunition, that the Secretary determines is – (A) suitable for use by such agencies in counter-drug activities; and (B) excess to the needs of the Department of Defense.” It was called the 1208 Program. The basic idea behind this act was to make the police force army to fight in the war against drugs. In order for them to act like the army, the U.S had to equip them with military style firearms. They spent around $4.3 billion in firearms and other army like equipment. Now, twenty-five years later, the war on drugs is not as serious as it was before; however, our police force is still being trained and equip as if it is. (1) This militarization is instead being used in situations where extreme force is not necessary. The solution to this problem would be to reduce the amount of this militaristic training and to stress during training that this extreme force is only to be use in appropriate situations.

Police brutality and abuse of power can go hand and hand. Police officers are instilled with the mentality that because they are the law, they are able to get away with injustices. However, this should not be the case. Police officers are allowed to legally use physical force, to the point of murder, against violent and dangerous individuals; however, when this physical force is used in situations where it is not necessary it is considered brutality. (3) As a means of upholding their duties, police have certain privileges, which are meant to be used only in appropriate situations and not to their own personal gain. When these privileges are used inappropriately, this is called abuse of power. (4) The solution to this problem would be to stress during training that brutality and abuse of power are serious and should not be done. Punishment for participating in these practices should be serious and there should be less tolerance and forgiveness for the police officers that are caught. As I stated in my previous post, our police force is not bad overall, it is simply those corrupt police officers that are root of our problems.

The overall reform I would make to police training would be to reduce the degree of militaristic training, or delegate only specific officers to receive this training, focus more on stressing how unethical police brutality and abuse of power is to prospective police officers, and having little to no tolerance or forgiveness towards those police officers that are caught participating in police brutality and abuse of power. While it is almost impossible to target specific police officers, measures can be taken during training to prevent prospective police officers from becoming corrupt.

Sources:

1. http://www.newsweek.com/how-americas-police-became-army-1033-program-264537
2. http://reason.com/archives/2014/09/02/four-issue-to-focus-on-in-police-brutali/3
3. http://www.abuseofpower.info/Article_MisusePower.htm

In my post regarding problems with policing, I discussed the lack of speedy trial, police abuse of power, and police funding. It is difficult to find a solution for all these matters because there never seems to be a solution that appeals to everyone. However, I thought of few possible solutions that can be the impetus for solving these issues.

In the first problem of speedy trial, I believe that we could enforce a law that limits the time a person could be held in jail before trial. There is a rule in the New York’s Criminal Procedure Law Section 30.30 that trial should be ready in “six months of the commencement of a criminal action wherein a defendant is accused of one or more offenses, at least one of which is a felony.” However, this does not mean a trial should be taken place within six months, but that the prosecutor has six months to claim that he/she is ready for trial. Therefore, we are not exactly enforcing the law of speedy trial. There should be more campaign that pushes for speedy trial so that people do not wait years like Kalief Browder for trials that might not even happen. There could also be a campaign that raises awareness of this problem in the community. If people become more aware and speak out against it, there will be a pressure for the government to act upon it.

Another problem I addressed was the police abuse of power. This abuse of power seems to arise due to the lack of education that causes police officers to act upon their instincts. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average basic recruit training time is 18 weeks, or about 5 months. The minimum educational requirement is high school diploma or GED. I do not believe the training time or the educational requirement is enough to be a police officers. There should be certain classes that people have to take so that they may be more mentally prepared for whatever situation they might be in. Regarding the news I mentioned in the other post, the main issue seems to be the lack of correct judgment from the police officers. If they learned more about human behaviors through psychology, they might be keener to people’s gestures and actions. Rather than relying on their instincts, psychology can help officers to better pinpoint suspicious actions.

Furthermore, funding is a big problem in policing. If we do want to educate police officers more or put a body camera on every single one of them, we would need a lot of funding. The solution cannot be increasing taxes because that would simply anger the people. Therefore, I feel that funding can be increased by lowering the amount of people being incarcerated and reducing the number of prisons being built. There is more money spent on putting people in jail, rather than saving money for other uses. If we focus more on lowering the incarceration rate, there will be funding available to help the police department. As Brendon Beck has mentioned, the SAFE Parole Act and Milk not Jails should be something we should be enforcing. Therefore, I believe it is more important to focus on using the fundings we already have for a different and better use.

http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202638065307/The-Undoing-of-Speedy-Trial-in-New-York-the-Ready-Rule?slreturn=20150126001537

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/nycode/CPL/ONE/C/30/30.30

http://discoverpolicing.org/what_does_take/?fa=training_academy_life

http://discoverpolicing.org/what_does_take/?fa=requirements