California voters will be able to decide if certain felonies can be reclassified as misdemeanors.
- The purpose is to reduce prison over crowding.
- Here's background from the New Yorker.
Derek Cohen and Deborah Fowler: Texas Legislature should decriminalize truancy.
- There may be better ways to handle truancy than pushing kids into the criminal justice system.
- The Texas Committee on Jurisprudence is holding hearings on whether civil penalties are more appropriate.
UT/TT Poll: Texans Favor Voter ID by 3-to-1 Margin.
- But the results are divided over partisan lines.
UTSA professor champions new approaches to criminal justice.
- He'd like a shift away from arrest and punish to "community justice and restorative justice."
A Plan to Cut Costs and Crime: End Hurdle to Job After Prison.
- Does Texas make it too tough for ex-felons to find jobs? Does this make it more likely that they will return to prison?
Editorial: The benefits of fighting abuse with education vs. jail time.
- Batterer prevention programs seem to work better than jail sentences.
