Portside

Freedom of speech vs freedom from fear?

Analyzing offender data on roughly 1.5 million US prisoners, researchers from the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that for one in four, drug treatment, community service, probation or a fine would have been a more effective sentence than incarceration. The study also concluded that another 14% of incarcerated individuals had already served an appropriate sentence. These people could be released within the next year “with little risk to public safety”.

Black Lives Matter activists are concerned about intra-racial violence. But they don’t see police and prisons as the solution.

Systemic problems require systemic solutions. Police alone cannot stop urban violence; it requires action on every front. Rising poverty in the nation's capital has been experienced primarily by black and Latino residents. The average white family's income is $110,757, according to Census estimates. For black families it's $39,081. There's a growing income gap nationwide. This kind of disparity breeds hopelessness, which drives people to acts of desperation and violence.

The latest findings from the FBI provide further evidence that states can reduce incarceration rates without compromising public safety.

Does everyone deserve a second chance?

Here’s the real shock: whites are actually more likely than blacks to sell drugs and about as likely to consume them.