News
Slobogin & Garrett’s ‘Law on Police’ and Reforms Today
By Annie Han Months of Black Lives Matter marches across the nation followed the tragic murder of George Floyd to protest police use of excessive force against Black individuals. Professors Brandon L. Garrett of Duke Law School and Christopher Slobogin of Vanderbilt University School of Law recently assessed how American constitutional law continues to ignore […]
Tags: Black Lives Matter, federal courts, police, police accountability, police use of force, qualified immunity
March 12, 2021
Virginia Sentencing Commission References Wilson Center Work, UVA Colleagues in Annual Report
By Chinmay Amin In its yearly report, the Virginia Sentencing Commission directly cited a recent paper co-authored by Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett and colleagues John Monahan and Anne Metz. The Commission is a state judicial branch agency made up of 17 members – appointed by the Virginia governor, chief justice, and the legislative branch […]
Tags: Brandon Garrett, diversion, judges, Nonviolent Risk Assessment Tool, NVRA, Risk Assessment, University of Virginia, Virginia, Virginia Sentencing Commission
March 10, 2021
Research Seeks to Assess How Eyewitness ID Speed is Interpreted Regarding Accuracy
By Ruthie Kesri Criminal justice is front and center this election season. Politicians across the country are increasingly aware of the need for reforms addressing the high risk of wrongful conviction within this system. “Eyewitness Identification Speed: Slow Identifications from Highly Confident Eyewitnesses Hurt Perceptions of Their Testimony,” is a paper authored by Chad S. […]
Tags: Brandon Garrett, evidence, eyewitness, eyewitness testimony, jurors, Law Enforcement, research
March 9, 2021
Houston Bail Monitor One-Year Report Shows Increased Releases, Reduced Use of Cash Bail
HOUSTON, T.X. – The independent monitors overseeing Harris County’s historic bail reform agreement filed their report describing their first year of work and findings with the federal court this week, noting an increase in releases, a reduced use of cash bail, no change or a decline in repeat-offending, and the implementation of a range of […]
Tags: bail policies, bail reform, Brandon Garrett, cash bail, Houston, ODonnell Monitorship, Sandra Guerra Thompson
March 8, 2021
Curtis Flowers, Attorney Talk Justice, Death Row, Innocence and Hope for a Better Legal System
By Annie Han Curtis Flowers recently joined The Wilson Center to discuss his experience of being tried six times for the same four murders he didn’t commit and serving 23 years on death row. He was joined by his North Carolina attorney, Henderson Hill. Flowers was first suspected of the fatal shooting of four people […]
Tags: Curtis Flowers, death row, Doug Evans, Henderson Hill, In the Dark, jury discrimination, Mississippi, U.S. Supreme Court, wrongful convictions
March 1, 2021
Ongoing Research Offers Insight into Implementing Psychiatric Advance Directives
By Belle Allmendinger People with severe mental illness, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, can experience crisis in which they are unable to make competent decisions and by themselves cannot give consent to treatment. As a result, they may be involuntary committed to psychiatric facilities. Whether it is because of security and safety, for convenience, […]
Tags: Allison Robertson, behavioral health, Jeffrey Swanson, Marvin Swartz, mental illness, Michele Easter, PADs, Psychiatric Advance Directives, psychiatry
February 26, 2021
Roundtable: There are Better Alternatives to Police Response in Behavioral Crises
By Ruthie Kesri Responding safely to behavioral health crises requires sensitivity, extensive training and de-escalation practice. Police have become the de facto first responders to those crises despite rarely receiving adequate training to safely and effectively handle the situation. The Wilson Center recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the topic. The event brought together three […]
Tags: behavioral crises, behavioral health, CAHOOTS, Center for Policing Equity, Crisis Intervention Training, mental health, police alternatives, Police training, White Bird Clinic
February 22, 2021
Urban Institute Report: NC Revocations on Decline Thanks to Justice Reinvestment Act
By Annie Han The Urban Institute recently released an assessment of the outcomes from changes made to the Supervision Revocation Policy in 2011. The report examines outcomes for individuals on probation, post-release supervision, and parole supervision before and after the changes were implemented. In 2010, North Carolina’s prison population was projected to increase 10 percent […]
Tags: Confinement in Response to Violation, COVID-19 in prisons, Justice Reinvestment Act, North Carolina prisons, Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force, revocations, Urban Institute
February 18, 2021