Blog Apr 1, 2009
Locking Up Teenage Vandals in Texas
I came across this article in the Corpus Christi paper about two teenage taggers who were arrested for a “vandalism spree.” For these crimes they were placed in a juvenile hall for three weeks and then released on house arrest with electronic monitoring. This presents a good example of why the United States leads the world in youth and adult incarceration. When will be learn that incarcerating children for minor crimes does not make them better citizens. Incarceration is for…
As strange as its sounds, American history repeatedly shows that legalization of certain drugs leads to expanded, not reduced, “wars on drugs”: In the late 1800s, the crisis of middle-Americans’ addiction to new, legal patent medicines saturated with opiates, cocaine, and alcohol was buried under vicious official crusades vilifying the Chinese and opium and black men and cocaine. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the explosion in drunk driving and abuse of newly legalized alcohol by…
Blog Mar 19, 2009
Marijuana bill is wrong vehicle for legalization
At first glance, AB 390 by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano (D‑San Francisco) to legalize the cultivation, sale, and use of marijuana under a regulation and taxation system similar to that applied to alcoholic beverages would seem to epitomize the sensible, humane policies for which he is known. By nearly every standard, marijuana is less troublesome than alcohol, better use can be made of law enforcement resources than to arrest and prosecute 70,000-plus Californians for marijuana every year, and…
Newsroom Mar 9, 2009
Daniel Macallair and Catherine McCracken educate California state Judges on juvenile dispositional options
Daniel Macallair and Catherine McCracken educate California state Judges on juvenile dispositional options Executive Director Daniel Macallair, MPA and Sentencing Service Program Director Catherine McCracken, M.S., are leading experts in the development of presentence investigation reports for youthful offenders. Recently Mr. Macallair and Ms. McCracken educated California state Judges on juvenile dispositional options at the exclusive 2009 Juvenile Law Institute.
Executive Director Daniel Macallair, MPA is the leading national expert on juvenile institutional mitigation. He draws on his twenty-years experience in the development and analysis of youth and adult correctional policy. Recently, he presented on “Juvenile Incarceration as Mitigation” at the annual CACJ/CPDA capital case defense seminar. Their website is www.cacj.org .