Category Archives: Crime

Severe Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

Posted on January 4, 2017 by matt ohern

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that juveniles and people with intellectual disabilities should not be executed due to their diminished culpability. However, it remains legal to execute people who suffered from severe mental illness (SMI) at the time of … Continue reading →

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Time to Stop Criminalizing Mere Misconduct

Posted on December 30, 2015 by matt ohern

By Christian Braunlich and Angela Ciolfi Why does Virginia have the highest rate of referring school children to police? A report last April by the Center on Public Integrity, using U.S. Department of Education data, demonstrated that Virginia schools referred students … Continue reading →

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Shutting Down the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Posted on October 28, 2015 by matt ohern

Amid growing national concerns about “mass incarceration,” particularly of African-Americans, a Center for Public Integrity study found in August that Virginia schools refer students to law enforcement agencies at a higher rate than schools in any other state in the country … Continue reading →

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Time for Reform in Juvenile Justice

Posted on October 14, 2015 by matt ohern

If the evidence showed that taking a particular medication actually made the disease worse, would you keep on taking it? Of course not. But a recent paper, Juvenile Justice Reform, co-issued by Justice Fellowship, Right On Crime, and the Thomas … Continue reading →

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Human Trafficking Happens Here In Virginia

Posted on January 21, 2015 by matt ohern

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, so it is time to recognize, and bring awareness to, the horrible evil of human trafficking. Human trafficking is when individuals use violence, threats, debt, and other forms of coercion to … Continue reading →

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