MetaFilter posts tagged with justice

There is a paradox in our distaste for "an eye for an eye."

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:22:13 -0800

The Case For Revenge Just Deserts: An Interview with Danielle S. Allen

I can tell you the origin story of the book, which is simply that, as an undergraduate, I took a class on Athenian politics in which we read a lot of the speeches that were given in Athenian law courts. I was really taken aback by the fact that there was very little mention of imprisonment in those speeches, and I suddenly realized that I couldn’t imagine a world where prisons weren’t a major part of how we think about punishment. That captivated me, and I wanted to understand a world where imprisonment was not the dominant mode of understanding punishment. In that regard, the origin of the book was absolutely the shock of discovering, by looking at the ancient world, that our world is contingent, and that one particular contingency is the degree to which we use incarceration. It bears some thinking as to how we got there and what a world without extensive incarceration looks like.

Ain't No Prison Like The One I Got

artof.mulata — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 18:49:28 -0800

On The Tamms Poetry Committee: "One of the artists' initiatives was "photo requests from solitary." Prisoners on solitary would request photos and professional photographers would then shoot the request and send the photo back. The gallery of prisoners requests is surprising and poignant."

Hollywood icon John McTiernan is 1 month into a 12 month prison sentence

shimmerbug — Tue, 28 May 2013 15:34:53 -0800

A very sad tale of one of the most respected action movie directors in cinema history.

Faced with such high stakes, it's no wonder that so many defendants cave

lalochezia — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:08:51 -0800

Bail is Busted - How Jail Really Works

RTF Print

the man of twists and turns — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:37:57 -0800

Small Print, Big Problem (part I)

Imagine you’ve clicked on your computer screen to accept a contract to purchase a good or service—a contract, you only realize later, that’s straight out of Kafka. The widget you’ve bought turns out to be a nightmare. You take to Yelp.com to complain about your experience—but lo, according to the contract you have given up your free speech rights to criticize the product. Let’s also say, in a fit of responsibility, (a bit fantastic, I know) you happened to have printed out this contract before you “signed” it, though you certainly hadn’t read through the thing, which is written, literally, on a “twenty-seventh grade” reading level. Well, you read it now (perhaps with the help of a friend who’s completed the twenty-seventh grade). And you see that there was nothing in the contract limiting your right to free speech at the moment you signed it. That part was added later. Your friend with the twenty-seventh-grade education points to the clause in the contract in which you’ve granted this vendor-from-hell the right to modify the terms of the contract, unilaterally, at any time into the vast limitless future.

Small Print, Big Problem (part II) fair contracts.org asks "what have you agreed to today?" The Guardian: Not reading the small print can mean big problems. Do users read license agreements? - "The short answer is no." Adobe demands 7,000 man-years a day from humankind in time to read the EULA. Do Lawyers Actually Read Boilerplate Contracts? Looks like some Circuit Court judges and one Supreme Court Justice do not. You should always Read The Fine Print.

If she weighs the same as a duck... she's made of wood!

blahblahblah — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:55:50 -0800

Trials by Ordeal were a method of determining guilt or innocence by putting the accused through various torturous experiences. Today these approaches are frequently-mocked and banned almost everywhere, though Sassywood remains common in Liberia. However, economist Peter Leeson argues that trial by ordeal may have been a very effective way of dispensing justice, especially when courts and juries were expensive or broken. According to the paper [PDF], a superstitious belief in iudicium Dei, or the justice of God, may have discouraged the guilty from ordeals, while tilting the scales in favor of the innocent - echoes of the practice persist today in swearing on a Bible. Even Sassywood [pdf] may be better than Liberia's broken justice system.

Incommensurable values

kliuless — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:42:30 -0800

Economists and the theory of politics - "why unions were often well worth any deadweight cost" abstract:

The standard approach to policymaking and advice in economics implicitly or explicitly ignores politics and political economy, and maintains that if possible, any market failure should be rapidly removed. This essay explains why this conclusion may be incorrect; because it ignores politics, this approach is oblivious to the impact of the removal of market failures on future political equilibria and economic efficiency, which can be deleterious. We outline a simple framework for the study of the impact of current economic policies on future political equilibria — and indirectly on future economic outcomes. We then illustrate the mechanisms through which such impacts might operate using a series of examples. The main message is that sound economic policy should be based on a careful analysis of political economy and should factor in its influence on future political equilibria.

viz. What kind of mass movement with truly powerful institutional support can take the place of unions? - "I agree with just about everything they say about the value of unions, but I also feel forced to acknowledge that it doesn't matter. As a truly powerful mass movement, unions are dead and they aren't coming back. This has left a gaping hole in American politics: Corporations and the rich continue to have enormous institutional power, while the working and middle classes have almost no one to speak for them. I figure that filling this hole is the most important problem the left has to address over the next decade or so. Unfortunately, I don't know how." cf. The Tyranny of Political Economy - "In reality, our contemporary frameworks for political economy are replete with unstated assumptions about the system of ideas underlying the operation of political systems. Make those assumptions explicit, and the decisive role of vested interests evaporates. Policy design, political leadership, and human agency come back to life... Expand the range of feasible strategies (which is what good policy design and leadership do), and you radically change behavior and outcomes." also btw...

Markets in almost nothing - "One of the first things I noticed when I started studying economics was that goods that can't be bought and sold are basically ignored."
Wealth and Motivations for Saving - "teach the public more about how wealth builds over time"
The Supply and Demand for Safe Assets - "Where do safe assets come from? Empirical evidence suggests that the private sector creates more near riskless assets when the supply of government debt is low and reduces privately-created near riskless assets when the supply of government debt is high."
The safe asset shortage - "Safe debts – or what is often called information insensitive assets, as they do not suffer from the types of financial frictions that are characteristic to other financial assets – play a major role in facilitating transactions for institutional investors. And, as we have learned in the recent years, they also play a major role in triggering financial crises when they lose their safety status and turn into information sensitive assets."
GDP, welfare and the rise of data-driven activities - "The worry today is not that investment in technology might not be as productive as we thought (the so-called computer paradox), but the fact that the economic value of the fast growing consumption and production of online data may not be adequately captured in official statistics."
Uncle Sam, venture capitalist - "AMERICA, like much of the world, is facing a crisis of innovation. Its roots rest in several significant challenges: an awareness that rapid technological progress and growth will be crucial in weathering demographic headwinds and the threat of climate change among them. But there is very little consensus in Washington on just what the government ought to be doing to help."
What Google Reader tells us about banking and nationalisation - "Which is why the government taking charge of a service like RSS for the benefit of the public good — or for that matter providing the country with universal internet or high quality media — should not necessarily be treated with suspicion or mistrust. In the civilized world there is a perfectly reasonable way to ensure arm's length detachment and to protect such institutions from the political meddling of government."
If You Can't Fix It, You Don't Own It - "Who owns our stuff? The answer used to be obvious. Now, with electronics integrated into just about everything we buy, the answer has changed. We live in a digital age, and even the physical goods we buy are complex. Copyright is impacting more people than ever before because the line between hardware and software, physical and digital has blurred. The issue goes beyond cellphone unlocking, because once we buy an object — any object — we should own it. We should be able to lift the hood, unlock it, modify it, repair it... without asking for permission from the manufacturer. But we really don't own our stuff anymore (at least not fully); the manufacturers do. Because modifying modern objects requires access to information: code, service manuals, error codes, and diagnostic tools."

like think about sovereign debt -- that is safe assets -- more as a national equity: [1,2,3,4,5]

The US national debt is in truth - like all national debts - a complete and surreal fiction: it is a national equity, the greater part of which is interest-bearing either as claims over public or private revenues. At least two-thirds of the quasi tax credits created by banks came into existence as mortgage loans, and are therefore backed by claims over the productive value of the US land and buildings which they fund. Much of the rest consists of claims over the value of US assets which fund the productive capacity of US corporations. The remainder - which provides the credit necessary to finance the circulation of goods and services in the US - is based upon the magnificent productive capacity of the US people. Only by liquidating US Incorporated could this National Equity ever be redeemed... There is no shortage of dollars because every dollar's worth of productive capacity - public or private; productive people or productive assets - in the US is the capacity to issue a dollar credit, which reflects the increase in the US national wealth which underpins the US national equity. President Barack Obama and his government should get busy creating national equity by instructing the Fed to create and issue the necessary finance for the creation of a new generation of US infrastructure; the transition to a low carbon future which the US can, and should, be leading; and in increasing the capacity of the US people to do so.

(or how the government budget constraint is different than a household's or corporation's -- namely that they can tax and can't be liquidated, unless extraordinarily mismanaged or conquered, I guess...)

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!

postel's law — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:51:05 -0800

Richmond City Jail hosts a father-daughter dance, bringing fathers and daughters together beyond the visitors booth (photos). “I just gotta break this cycle I’m in. I’m just tired of it,” Andre Morman says, adding that he can’t wait to see his youngest daughter. “I haven’t been able to pick her up in nine months.” He’s been behind bars for the last nine months, this time for failing to pay child support for a 15-year-old daughter from another relationship. He gets out in 88 days. He has nine children total and says he just doesn’t have the money. Only some of the inmates are allowed to attend the dance. It’s open only to nonviolent offenders; interested fathers are interviewed by a jail deputy and have their criminal histories reviewed. They must also get permission from the child’s mother. Many of the fathers attend a fatherhood class in preparation for the dance. At one point, Richmond activist and hip-hop artist Joe’i Chancellor performs her prose-poem Father for the class. Her own father went to jail when she was nine and didn’t come home until she was 21. The men cry as they reflect on their relationships with their own fathers and daughters. According to the Washington Post, "the dance at the Richmond jail is less improbable than it sounds: Historically, the father-daughter dances have been used to help American families reunite. They became widespread in the U.S. after WWII as a way to reintegrate men into family life." [I was unable to find a citation] It’s too early to know whether this dance will have a lasting impact, but for Richmond City Sheriff C.T. Woody, it’s a start.

The Atlantic - Benj Edwards

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:23:43 -0800

The Copyright Rule We Need to Repeal If We Want to Preserve Our Cultural Heritage

James Holmes and the Insanity Defense

Navelgazer — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:25:22 -0800

Today, Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester ordered psychiatric analysis of Dark Knight Rises mass-shooting suspect James Holmes. Holmes will enter a plea tomorrow and is expected to plea Not Guilty by reason of Insanity. Judge Sylvester's court order could involve use of both narco analysis (read: truth serum) and a polygraph test. • The M'Naghten Rule Like most U.S. States, Colorado follows a version of the M'Naghten Rule, which states under its original description that:

the jurors ought to be told in all cases that every man is to be presumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be proved to their satisfaction; and that to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.

This is in comparison to the Durham test, which is broader and states that the crime must have been the "product of the mental defect" in order for insanity to be determined. Colorado's modified version of MNaghten adds the Irresistible Impulse test, which allows for a defense of insanity if the finders of fact determine that the defendant could not have controlled their actions at the time. In general, the burden of proof for M'Naghten is on the party relying on it, but in Colorado, the burden is on the State. • Fifth Amendment Issues The Fifth Amendment protects defendants from self-incrimination. This means, for instance, that a defendant may not be compelled to testify at a criminal trial. It is also the basis for Miranda rights, which provide you not only with the right to remain silent but also the right to be informed of these rights. As you might imagine, a defendant who is ordered to be put on drugs lowering their inhibition so that they may be more pliable to be interviewed by state actors could easily have a claim of violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, as they would be absolutely unable to give informed consent to the interview. So how is the Court allowed to do this, then? Because the statements made in the analysis under the court order almost certainly will not be admitted at trial, and certainly not as evidence towards the question of whether Holmes in fact committed the crime. Insanity is an Affirmative Defense, meaning that because the defense posits facts not argued by the Plaintiff (in this case, the prosecution) the burden of proof shifts away from the "Reasonable Doubt" standard towards the more lenient (again to the prosecution, in this instance) "Preponderance of the Evidence" standard (usually.) Because, however, Colorado's version of M'Naghten places the burden of proof on the State, the State needs to do it's own investigation in order to argue the issue. Not surprisingly, that means psychoanalysis. But the law is fairly clear that such evidence would be admissible only to the question of Holmes' sanity (as judged by the MNaghten standard + Irresistible Impulse) and no other purpose. Such evidence, as it relates to the insanity defense, would most likely come in the form of expert testimony by psychoanalysts from both sides. • Polygraph In general, the Polygraph test works the same way. It is considered by most courts to be not reliable enough to overcome the substantial bias inherent in its results, and thus results are not admissible. (Though for Defendants, a willingness to take a Polygraph may be admissible to show innocence.) However, the state's psychoanalist may have use for one in determining his or her opinion on Holmes' sanity, and the actual results and questions involved would almost certainly not be admissible as evidence themselves.

Recording of Bradley Manning's Speech Leaked

dunkadunc — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:23:39 -0800

Despite a court prohibition on such recordings, an audio recording of Bradley Manning's speech to the military court in Fort Meade has been leaked in full. In his own words, Bradley Manning explains his reaction to the Collateral Murder video and the process that led him to leak it to the world. Glenn Greenwald has more speech highlights. Despite the ban on recordings, independent journalist Alexa O'Brien has been keeping transcripts of the entire trial, including a a transcript of Manning's speech published here.

The myth of universal love

mrgrimm — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:32:17 -0800

"All people are not equally entitled to my time, affection, resources or moral duties." In his book "Against Fairness," (trailer) Stephen T. Asma argues in defense of favoritism and against universal love. "Whence then do we find morality and justice in an unfair world?" * Aristotle vs. Rawls and the meaning of fairness (part 2) * Rawls' Original Position, i.e. "justice as fairness" * Justice as fairness: all gender and no class?

Words of wisdom from the not-so-distant past

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:43:12 -0800

17 Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes You Never Hear

Totenberg on Sotomayor on NPR

hippybear — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:05:41 -0800

In conjunction with the publication of her autobiography, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor sat down with NPR's Nina Totenberg for an extended interview. 1: Sotomayor reflects on her upbringing, her family, and the formative years of her life. 2: Exploring her educational background and her motivations toward excellence. 3: Her post-education career and the path toward her being appointed to the Supreme Court. Audio links and transcripts available for all links. Bonus: Sotomayor talks about her love of reading and how it developed and made her who she is today.

"This was not a complex killing"

Benjy — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:47:49 -0800

On Monday, a 12-year-old California boy was convicted of the second-degree murder of his father, regional Neo-Nazi leader Jeff Hall. Prosecutors were successful with their claim that the boy was guilty of a “premeditated and deliberate” crime when the then 10-year-old shot his father, citing testimony from the youth's younger sister and the boy's history of violence and aggression. The boy admitted to taking his father's .357 handgun from a closet early one morning and shooting him as he lay sleeping on the couch. The defense unsuccessfully pointed to the fact that Child Protective Services had been called to the home over 20 times due to reports of abuse and the fact the the boy, who was expelled from several schools after aggression towards peers and teachers, was being home-schooled. The youth could potentially be kept in juvenile detention facilities until age 23.

Nothing Else Matters

Rhaomi — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:31:51 -0800

Kathryn Bigelow's striking bin Laden manhunt thriller Zero Dark Thirty arrives in wide release tonight on the heels of a final artful trailer -- one with oddly familiar musical accompaniment. The funereal hymn, a cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" (lyrics), deftly recasts the 90s power ballad as a haunting dirge of quiet grief, shattered ideals, and a singleminded focus on revenge, a perfect distillation of the film's profoundly grim thesis. But while the song may be fitting, it wasn't composed for the project -- it's just the latest success story from Belgian women's choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers, whose mournful reinterpretations of classic and modern rock -- catapulted by their rendition of "Creep" in The Social Network -- have made them famous around the world, with star turns in the likes of Homeland ("Every Breath You Take") and Downton Abbey ("With or Without You"). Cover comparison site WhoSampled offers a list of YouTube comparisons between the covers and the originals; look inside for more of their work in movies and television. "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica (used in Zero Dark Thirty) "Creep" by Radiohead (used in The Social Network) "Every Breath You Take" by The Police (used in Homeland) "With or Without You" by U2 (used in Downton Abbey) "Engel" by Rammstein (used in The Possession) "Exit Music (For a Film)" by Radiohead "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana "Yellow" by Coldplay "Everything in its Right Place" by Radiohead "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & the Papas "Last Christmas" by Wham! "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette "Every Breathe You Take" by The Police "Champagne Supernova" by Oasis "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel "Can't Get You Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue "Schrei nach Liebe" by Die Ärzte The Scala choir previously on Mefi

“I thought that modern penology has abandoned that rehabilitation thing”

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:54:39 -0800

In Sentencing Criminals, Is Norway Too Soft? Or Are We Too Harsh?

It’s not very often the concept of restorative justice gets much play outside scholarly publications or reformist criminal justice circles, so first, some credit for Max Fisher at The Atlantic for giving it an earnest look last week. In seeking to explain Norway’s seemingly measly twenty-one-year sentence for remorseless, mass-murdering white supremacist Anders Breivik—a sentence that is certain to be extended to last the rest of his life—Fisher casts a critical eye on the underlying philosophy that animates that country’s sentencing practices, finding it to be “radically different” from what we’re used to in the United States.

The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Practices: A Meta-Analysis Inside The World's Most Humane Prison at Halden (previously), Norway, called by The Economist Plush and Unusual Punishment (Norway's Modern Prisons, previously). Norway also has the famous prison island of Bastøy. Terror, Trial and Justice in Norway

The contrast in these figures is quite striking, and despite the initial shock at what seems to be the near luxury of the most recently built prison, the statistics show that the Norwegian approach is relatively effective. However, we do need to bear in mind that, unlike the U.S., Norway is a small country, with a fairly homogeneous population.

Anders Breivik and the Norwegian Justice System 'Restorative justice emphasizes repairing the harm caused by crime. When victims, offenders and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results can be transformational.' Brief Information About The Norwegian Legal System, from NORLAG, Norwegian Mission of Rule of Law Advisers to Georgia.

This time, I'm innocent.

Potomac Avenue — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:44:12 -0800

Since the 80s Tony Galeota managed Porky's, a Hialeah dive notorious for drugs, prostitution, and violence, where he was part pimp, part bouncer, and completely untouchable. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the country's lax prostitution laws (NSFW) would make him rich. Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish.

epistolary novel

kliuless — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:42:23 -0800

Clay Shirky: How the Internet will (one day) transform government [1,2,3] Open Source Politics: The Radical Promise of Germany's Pirate Party

If anything, the Pirate Party is more akin to the Communist Party, in that it was born out of an emerging economic and social era driven by a new technology, and that it advocates for people's rights in, and postulates new rules of engagement for, how to live in this new era of new advances. If the communists were beholden to industrialization, then the Pirates are beholden to the Internet. "The ancient dream of compiling all human knowledge and culture and to store it for the present and future is within close grasp," the Pirate manifesto posits. "The digital revolution brings humanity the opportunity of advancing democracy" and "enables completely new and previously unthinkable solutions for the distribution of power within a state." "The aim," it calls, "is to distribute power as broadly as possible over all citizens and thus secure their freedom and their privacy." The Internet has radically transformed human society by democratizing access to information, as well as the aspiration to shape knowledge.

also btw... -The Power of Networks -When We Build -The mathematics of democracy: Who should vote? -Military Aid Plummets as Washington Turns Focus to Bolstering Legal System [1,2,3]

Obama/Romney respond regarding poverty.

HuronBob — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:04:28 -0800

There's been little discussion about the problem of poverty in the current Presidential election, the conventions pretty much ignored it. "The Circle of Protection, composed of Christian leaders from across the religious spectrum, released President Barack Obama's and GOP nominee Mitt Romney's video responses today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C." Both candidates responded.

"We need to get this SNAFU under control rapidly".

dunkadunc — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:59:42 -0800

My fellow Oceanians, you know we've always been at war with Eurasia
(Or is it Eastasia?) Either way it's war and we need division to wage it
But now the proles are connecting online bypassing these illusory divisions
Of race, religion and nationality (Sounds grand to me?!) It's a catastrophe!

Rap News (previously) analyzes the ongoing struggle of civil liberties in the Internet Age.
Will it remain the one open frequency where humanity can bypass filters and barriers, or become the greatest spying machine ever imagined?

Injury and the Ethics of Reading

homunculus — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 01:01:47 -0800

Poetry Changed the World: Injury and the Ethics of Reading.

Grape Apes: The Origins of Morality

kliuless — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 07:41:59 -0800

Chimp Fights and Trolley Rides from Radiolab's morality episode: "try to answer tough moral quandaries. The questions--which force you to decide between homicidal scenarios--are the same ones being asked by Dr. Joshua Greene. He'll tell us about using modern brain scanning techniques to take snapshots of the brain as it struggles to resolve these moral conflicts. And he'll describe what he sees in these images: quite literally, a battle taking place in the brain. It's 'inner chimp' versus a calculator-wielding rationale."

"a clear and written threat that they could storm our embassy."

dunkadunc — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:31:46 -0800

Following claims that Ecuador would accept Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's asylum application, Britain has threatened to raid the Ecuadorian embassy if Assange is not handed over.
Vans are gathered outside the London embassy, reports suggest British police have been seen entering the building. Live stream here.

Buying a Kick in the Face

Ice Cream Socialist — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:15:50 -0800

My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court: After a Baltimore car accident between an insured and an underinsured driver left the insured driver dead, Progressive Insurance took up the defense of the underinsured driver against their own policy-holder. Maryland law follows the doctrine of contributory negligence, which disallows any monetary awards if even minimal negligence on the part of the plaintiff contributed to the damages. Presumably the Progressive legal team defended the at-fault driver in hopes of proving some negligence on the part of their policy holder. Other states have moved away from contributory negligence, holding that "the doctrine of comparative negligence is preferable to an 'all or nothing' rule from the point of view of logic, practical experience, and fundamental justice." Does contributory negligence encourage insurance companies to act against their own clients' welfare? previously