criminaljusticereform
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The Illinois SAFE-T Act: Eliminating Racial Bias in Pretrial Detention
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In January 2023, Illinois became the first state in the nation to completely abolish the cash bail system. Governor Pritzker signed the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, abbreviated as the SAFE-T Act, into law in February 2021 after a 32-23 vote in the Illinois Senate. This Act proposes a…
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The Dubious Nature of “Race Blind” Predictive Algorithms in the Courtroom
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The United States currently ranks first in the world for the rate of incarcerated individuals with an estimated 2.1 million people currently in prisons and jails across the nation. For reference, the Census Bureau estimates the U.S. population as third in the world at just under 333 million people. Home…
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The History of Community Mental Health Care
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More than a third of incarcerated individuals in the United States today have a diagnosed mental illness. In the 1960s, this population constituted fewer than 5% of all inmates. How did having a mental health condition become criminalized? A well-meaning policy intervention called the Community Mental Health Act (CMHA) of…