"There are thousands of innocent people in prison in this country," Grisham said

[underpants]

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-04-23-0127.html

Grisham focuses on falsely condemned
Author cites legal system's failings during appearance before Richmond group

"There are thousands of innocent people in prison in this country," Grisham said yesterday at University of Richmond's T.C. Williams School of Law.

"I had never really thought about wrongful conviction. I didn't really think about it until 'The Innocent Man' was researched and written," said the author of "The Firm" and other legal thrillers.

Grisham spoke to dozens of students and faculty associated with UR's newly established Institute for Actual Innocence. The program, which involves students, faculty and practicing lawyers, works to identify and exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals in Virginia. It is part of a national group of similar innocence projects.

Grisham cited a number or reasons for wrongful convictions, including sloppy police work, courthouse snitches, junk science, false confessions and bad lawyering. Of the 130 death-row cases that have been overturned in the U.S., he said, two-thirds of them involved willful, malicious misconduct by authorities.

"The challenge now is to convince a lot of comfortable white people that there are a lot of innocent people in prison.

"This system, if we think it's so great -- how can this system send 130 men to death row and later have them exonerated?"

Grisham urged law students to consider some reforms to current judicial procedure, including increasing video interrogations, clamping down on informants and changing perceptions that police and prosecutors are infallible.

[raccoon]

1. After I read THE INNOCENT MAN, and heard of other similar cases,

I'd have to say I strongly agree with Grisham.

All too often, people are railroaded into confessions just to close a case. Especially if the person is toward the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum.

I think sometimes I need the name of a good lawyer just in case I need one. After reading about the man in THE INNOCENT MAN, well, you just never know.

[noonwitch]

2. Or if the person is mentally ill, or developmentally disabled, or so on

There are some personalities that are easier to get to confess, even to things they didn't do.

[High Plains]

5. The criminal justice system is largely a racket, a machine

...for feeding people like sausages into the grinders.

Prosecutors routinely "overcharge," that is, turn one act into multiple felonies, then threaten people with decades in prison if they dare go to trial. Instead, you are supposed to plea bargain, pleaing to one or two of the charges in return for a guaranteed shorter prison sentence. Plea bargains are the way about 90% of all cases are resolved.

[davsand]

3. Virtually any con will TELL you they are innocent.

Usually it is the SODDI defense (Some Other Dude Did It) or else it was a lawyer that sucked according to them. What is so very sad is the realization that in the midst of this there really ARE people in jail that were wrongfully convicted.

Gov George Ryan (now a con himself) here in Illinois put a moratorium on the death penalty when he was in office, and I am convinced that was the right thing to do. While his motives were questionable, I think it did spark a debate nationally that needs to be held. Several reforms have been made to Illinois laws that do help protect civil rights, but nowhere near enough has been done to ever make me feel the death penalty is ever going to be a legitimate option.




Laura

[stillcool]

4. here's some more justice...

from the cradle to the jail..

-- Increasing numbers of young people have been
placed in adult jails where they are at risk of assault, abuse, and death.
Currently, 40 states permit or require that youth charged as adults be placed pre-trial in an adult jail, and in some states they may be required to serve their entire sentence in an adult jail. According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, since 1990 the incarceration of youth in adult jails has increased 208%. On any given day, more than 7,000 young people are held in adult jails.
http://www.campaign4youthjustice.org/Downloads/NEWS/JPI014Consequences_Summary.pdf

In 1985 one out of every 320 Americans were in jail.

In 1995 one out of every 167 Americans were in jail.

Between1980 and 1994, the number of people in federal and state prisons increased 221%.

Today, 2 million Americans are in prison.
1.2 million are African-American men.

• In 2000, 1.5 million U.S. children had an incarcerated parent. Between 1990-2001, the number of women in prison increased by 106%.
• In 1995, 12% of children in foster care had not received routine health care. 90% had not received services to address developmental delays.
• Between 1992-2002, the number of infants and toddlers entering foster care increased by 110%.
• In 1993, more than 60% of the homeless population in NYC municipal shelters were former foster youth.
• According to a 1999 report, less than 50% of foster youth had graduated from high school, compared to 85% of the general population.
• In 2000, of 732 mid-western foster care youths, nearly 52% had lived in three or more foster homes and had moved schools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are more than half a million children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, a 90% increase since 1987.Three of 10 of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,

A study by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenille Justice found 70% of these youth meet the criteria for at least one mental health disorder. What's worse is that 36% of the parents of these youth intentionaly involved the juvenille justice system to access mental health services...some 12,700 children were places in either child welfare, or the juvenilled justice systems to access mental health systems (U.S. GAO 2003) Of course, the U.S. DOJ in recent investigations into the conditions in these juvenille detention and correctional facilities, found inadequate access to treatment, inappropriate use of medications, and neglect of suicide attempts nationwide (U.S.DOJ 2005).
---80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

* 872,000 children and youth were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect in the United States in 2004.

Children are 11 times more likely to be abused in State care than they are in their own homes.
http://fostersurvivor.netfirms.com/statistics.shtml

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/statistics/entryexit2005.htm
Foster Care in the Year 2020 (if nothing changes in child welfare trends)
Children who will experience the foster care system Over 9,000,00014
Children who will age out of the foster care system 300,00015
Foster youth aging out of the system that will experience homelessness 75,00016
Foster youth aging out of the system that graduate from college 9,00017
Number of children killed by abuse or neglect 22,50018
http://www.casey.org/MediaCenter/MediaKit/FactSheet.htm

Nationwide, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are increasingly focusing on a growing tragedy—large numbers of youth with mental health problems becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. A recent study by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice found approximately 70% of the youth in residential juvenile justice settings meet criteria for at least one mental health disorder(Shufelt &Cocozza, 2006).