FEATURED ARTICLES

Time for Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform

I am delighted that this issue of Human Rights highlights both challenges and innovative solutions for the criminal justice system. As a former federal prosecutor and currently a criminal defense lawyer, and as a former chair of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section and still one of its representatives in the House of Delegates, much of my work in the ABA has been devoted to reform and improvement of the criminal justice system.

Women Prisoners: Altering the Cycle of Abuse

Because the lives of women prisoners are largely unknown, ignored, and discounted, their civil and human rights are frequently violated.

Let’s Abolish Mandatory Minimums: The Punishment Must Fit the Crime

Mandatory minimum sentences deprive judges of discretion and often lead to overpunishment, violating two bedrock human rights principles: (1) punishment should not be cruel, inhumane, or degrading; and (2) sentences should be proportionate to the crime.

The Right to Life? Policing, Race, and Criminal Injustice

The only way to reduce questionable police killings is to take seriously the notion that everyone has individual constitutional and human rights.

Ensuring Employee Rights in Internal Investigations

Corporations and other organizations faced with potential criminal investigations and enforcement proceedings need to be able to conduct their own investigations to learn the facts and make informed judgments about how to respond.

A Broken Indigent Defense System: Observations and Recommendations of a New National Report

Due to funding shortfalls, excessive caseloads, and a host of other problems, many indigent defense systems are truly failing. Not only does this failure deny justice to the poor, it adds cost to the entire justice system.

Better Than Prison: A Prosecutor’s Collaborative Models for Reducing Criminal Recidivism

As this nation crams an ever-rising number of people into prisons, one has to wonder whether such a level of confinement really furthers the ultimate goal of our criminal justice system—to ensure that members of society are safe in their persons and property.

Challenging Disenfranchisement for Felony Convictions

More than five million Americans cannot vote as the result of a felony conviction, many of whom have completed their sentences and live in the community. Growing public dissatisfaction with these laws since 1997 has led to a groundswell of support for reform.

Restricting Sex Offender Residences: Policy Implications

With laws in at least thirty states that prevent registered sex offenders from residing within a specified distance of places commonly frequented by children, many sex offenders are having difficulty finding compliant housing.

Human Rights Hero: Justice John Paul Stevens

His innate sense of pragmatism, coupled with several early formative experiences, transformed this mild-mannered jurist into one of the staunchest defenders of the rights of the accused and the convicted.