After 25 Years, These Regulatory Regimes Are Proven to Be Misguided, Dysfunctional, and Excessively Punitive. It’s Time to Replace Fear With Function.
by Casey J. Bastian
The term “sex offender registry” (“SOR”) is known to nearly every person in America. It evokes fantastic visions of human monsters, offenders who have committed ...
by Casey J. Bastian
In February 2018, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy convoked the Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Committee (“CSDC”) to analyze the state’s sentencing laws. The CSDC was tasked with providing specific recommendations “to ensure a stronger, fairer, and more just state.” The CSDC’s initial annual report was published ...
by Casey J. Bastian
There are not many people who can truly relate to the Kafkaesque experience of the three men currently stuck in the Missouri prisons. All three are factually innocent but have spent decades behind bars. Christopher Dunn, Kevin Strickland, and Lamar Johnson have each spent multiple decades ...
by Casey J. Bastian
ShotSpotter markets technology that uses microphone sensors to detect the specific acoustic signature of gunshots and then record the time and location of the signature it detects. The technology can also detect firecrackers, car backfire, and other similar sounds—not just gunshots. It is up to a ...
by Casey J. Bastian
More than a year after the killing of George Floyd, an explosion of protests led to an emphasis being placed on changing the way we police our communities. “The systems we’ve got right now in some ways are fundamentally incapable of delivering safety in the ways ...
by Casey J. Bastian
In a first-of-its-kind study, renowned cognitive bias expert Itiel Dror and co-author Nina Surnde researched the reliability and biasability (the impact of contextual information) of digital forensics (“DF”) experts’ performance. The study is titled “A hierarchy of expert performance (HEP) applied to digital forensics: Reliability and ...
by Casey J. Bastian
In any emergency, Americans have been conditioned to call 911. Those three digits are typed into a phone by someone experiencing a critical situation around 240 million times per year. Despite its universal familiarity, the 911 system has existed for only 53 years. While we can ...
by Casey J. Bastian
When a white Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, videos of the callous act went viral. The event prompted a seemingly unprecedented wave of racial justice and anti-police protests that have continued since that day May 2020. Millions of protestors took to the streets. A great ...
by Casey J. Bastian
The desire to implement significant reforms in American policing, particularly in metropolitan areas, is not new. However, the specific demand to literally defund the police is a nascent concept. Contemporary reform advocates assert that the enormous funding provided to law enforcement agencies should instead be focused ...
by Casey J. Bastian
For many Black Americans, the thought of calling the police for help is not an option. Most won’t request assistance from law enforcement unless there is a truly violent crime occurring. Minor situations are frequently escalated and end with unnecessary police violence and brutality. Far too ...
