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In a 5-4 decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court voted that criminal defendants have the right to effective lawyers in the plea bargain process. Over 90 percent of criminal cases in the United States end in a plea, rather than a trial. Evidence shows, however, that not all defendants have proper counsel during the plea […]

Damon Horowitz teaches Philosophy in California’s San Quentin State Prison through the Prison University Project. In the short clip below, he provides a powerful testimony of the moral questions that result from an interaction with a student.  

There is tremendous disparity in our nation’s drug sentencing laws based on whether one is dealing crack or cocaine (same drug in powder form). People convicted for selling crack have historically received similar prison sentences as people convicted of selling 100 times as much powder cocaine. In the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, this disparity […]

On Thursday October 13, Professor Bruce Western (of Harvard and the Prison Studies Project) spoke at a Seattle Town Hall Meeting on “Punishment and Inequality in America.” The event was attended by over 600 people and was sponsored by Seattle’sPost-Prison Education Program. Professor Western outlined the crisis of mass incarceration in the United States and […]

Senator Jim Webb (D) of Virginia has been working for the past three years to pass legislation which would establish a bipartisan National Criminal Justice Commission. The act would create a bipartisan commission of experts to conduct an 18-month review of the nation’s criminal justice system. Senator Webb has stated that “Our criminal justice system […]