Last year, a pair of publications criticized the use of solitary confinement in New York’s prisons. A report from the New York Civil Liberties Union and an article in The Nation said that officials’ often impose the punishment arbitrarily and excessively. A new article, published last week by ProPublica, questions state prisons’ use of solitary […]
Criminal justice
Posted inNews & Opinion
Analysis finds racial disparity in pot arrests
Blacks in Monroe County are 6.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for possessing pot, says an analysis released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The organization looked at marijuana arrests in counties across New York from 2001 to 2010. It found that, statewide, blacks are 4.5 times as likely as […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NYCLU calls on state officials to reform solitary confinement practices
A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union raises some serious questions about the use of punitive solitary confinement in the state’s prisons. The state has approximately 5,000 beds in special housing units (SHU’s) — many of them built during the last 20 years — at 39 prisons, says the report. Each day, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rochester’s underground justice system
Whenever Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard is asked to explain this year’s surge in violent crime, he answers that many of the city’s altercations are the result of “ongoing disputes.” It’s a response that some people find wanting — after all, couldn’t most shootings, stabbings, and assaults be attributed to a dispute of some kind? […]
