Equal Justice Initiative

From The Economist

Mass incarceration in the United States continues at record high levels despite outsized costs. According to recent data reported in The Economist, the United States has the world's highest incarceration rate, locking up five times more people per capita than Britain, nine times more than Germany, and 12 times more than Japan.

On April 30, 2010, Alabama Governor Bob Riley signed a new law that limits incarceration in Alabama's overcrowded prisons for people on probation who commit no new offense but technically violate the terms of their probation. The new law gives judges more non-incarceration options for addressing technical probation violations.

EJI staff with honoree Diane Jones, second from left.

On March 23, 2010, EJI honored George Kendall, Director of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's Public Service Initiative, and Thomas Sager, general counsel of the DuPont Company and DuPont's legal department, with its Equal Justice Award. The second annual award event celebrated the triumph of Diane Jones, the first woman in Alabama to be released from Tutwiler Prison after being sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 2009, Alabama increased its prison population to over 31,000 people. That same period saw the state prison population nationwide decline for the first time in nearly 28 years as states implemented new technology and parole reforms to reduce reliance on incarceration in the face of crippling costs.

EJI is working to assist people who have been forced into homelessness, denied critical medical care, and subjected to permanent imprisonment as a result of Alabama's Community Notification Act.

A national study found that more prisoners today are serving life sentences across the country than ever before. Alabama ranks among the top three states for number of life sentences imposed and is the national leader in racially disproportionate sentencing of children to life in prison.

On July 8, 2009, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a formal pardon for former prisoner Mack Kirby. The Board’s decision, which was unanimous, restores Mr. Kirby’s voting rights and ends his parole supervision.

The Alabama Department of Corrections granted its first medical furlough to Omar Rahman under a new law that allows for release of some geriatric, incapacitated, or terminally ill prisoners.

The United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in Caperton v. Massey about whether West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin violated the Constitution when he cast the deciding vote in favor of his campaign contributors, who spent $3 million to get him elected to the appellate court.