Criminal Justice Reform and Crime in Black Communities

In spite of everything that Jeff Sessions is doing to stand in the way, reform of our criminal justice system is perhaps one of the most important issues of our time. It’s even one that sometimes gets bipartisan support. But reform is of very little value without a real understanding of how we got here and how the current system has ruined so many lives.

How did our policies, with respect to policing in black neighborhoods, evolve since the high crimes periods of the mid 70’s and 80’s? What role did public policy play, and what role did community demands and expectations play? How has the war on drugs played a part in this, and what is the real nexus with the civil rights movement of the 60’s?

Unless we understand this history we are not only condemned to repeat it, but we can never begin to address it.

Yale Law Professor James Forman, Jr. gives us one of the sharpest, most cleared and honest analysis of these issues in his new book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

My conversation with James Forman, Jr.

What If Crimes Were No Longer A Matter of Free Will?

Remember the 2002 movie, starring Tom Cruise, entitled Minority Report? Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, it was about a specialized police unit that apprehend criminals based on foreknowledge. In this case, from psychics call Precogs.

Now imagine if cutting edge brain scans and other biometric markers could actually determine if individual criminal behavior was forthcoming.

Or suppose we could literally look into the brains of criminals after they committed a crime, to determine if the cause was biologically determinative as opposed to the actions of free wil.l

Unlike Minority Report, this is not science fiction. This is taking place in courtrooms across America. Journalist Kevin Davis writes about this in The Brain Defense: Murder in Manhattan and the Dawn of Neuroscience in America's Courtrooms.

My conversation with Kevin Davis: