The barriers to effective access to justice encountered by litigants in person in private family matters post-LASPO

In February 2019, some six years after the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed legal aid from a wide range of civil and family matters, the Government released its Post Implementation Review of the impact of LASPO and accompanying action plan. Publication is at a time when governmental policy extolling the virtues of mediation and online dispute resolution has the potential to have a profound effect on family law process. Against this background and having regard to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the family justice system, this paper discusses the findings of the author's qualitative study on the experiences of litigants in person in civil and family courts. It suggests a typology of litigants in person, explains how and where litigants in person in child arrangements proceedings seek advice and the significant access to justice barriers arising from the compulsory requirement to attend a MIAM before commencing proceedings and attending the fact-finding stage without representation. Ultimately, the paper offers fresh evidence of the harsh realities of litigating without representation in the family court, which despite espousing an inquisitorial process, remains adversarial in character.

Implementation of indication-based antibiotic order sentences improves antibiotic use in emergency departments.

INTRODUCTION: Prior data have suggested that suboptimal antibiotic prescribing in the emergency department (ED) is common for uncomplicated lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), urinary tract infections (UTI), and acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI). The objective of this study was to measure the effect of indication-based antibiotic order sentences (AOS) on optimal antibiotic prescribing in the ED. METHODS: This was an IRB-approved quasi-experiment of adults prescribed antibiotics in EDs for uncomplicated LRTI, UTI, or ABSSSI from January to June 2019 (pre-implementation) and September to December 2021 (post-implementation). AOS implementation occurred in July 2021. AOS are lean process, electronic discharge prescriptions retrievable by name or indication within the discharge order field. The primary outcome was optimal prescribing, defined as correct antibiotic selection, dose, and duration per local and national guidelines. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were performed; multivariable logistic regression was used to determine variables associated with optimal prescribing. RESULTS: A total of 294 patients were included: 147 pre-group and 147 post-group. Overall optimal prescribing improved from 12 (8%) to 34 (23%) (P < 0.001). Individual components of optimal prescribing were optimal selection at 90 (61%) vs 117 (80%) (P < 0.001), optimal dose at 99 (67%) vs 115 (78%) (P = 0.036), and optimal duration at 38 (26%) vs 50 (34%) (P = 0.13) for pre- and post-group, respectively. AOS was independently associated with optimal prescribing after multivariable logistic regression analysis (adjOR, 3.6; 95%CI,1.7-7.2). A post-hoc analysis showed low uptake of AOS by ED prescribers. CONCLUSIONS: AOS are an efficient and promising strategy to enhance antimicrobial stewardship in the ED.

The Impact of Remote Hearing Policies on Racial Equity in Criminal Case Outcomes During the Pandemic

The criminal justice system confronted unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, court systems nationwide quickly instituted policies to enable criminal cases to proceed while protecting public health. The shift toward criminal hearings by videoconference or teleconference has persisted. All fifty states now conduct criminal hearings remotely. Yet evidence about how remote proceedings affect case outcomes remains sparse. Using data for all arrests and criminal case dispositions that occurred in California between 2018 and mid-2021, I characterize the impact the pandemic had on arrest and case resolution rates, estimate the impact of adopting policies to permit remote hearings on conviction and sentencing outcomes, and determine which factors contributed to racial differences in outcomes. Remote hearing policies contributed to racial inequalities in outcomes, which predated the pandemic and persisted amid it.

Guest editorial

[...]most individuals who are under correctional control serve time in the community on probation or parole. Because health care for older adults is exceedingly complex and costly when compared to younger adults, this large and growing older adult population under correctional control (prisons, jails, parole or probation) ought to sound an alarm through the public health and carceral fields. Service providers in community-based settings such as area agencies on aging, senior centers and leaders in long-term care are encouraged to prepare for an influx of elders with a criminal legal history and to examine current strengths and potential barriers in rising to the challenge of compassion in the wake of custody.

The United States Sentencing Commission, Compassionate Release, and Judicial Discretion: The 2022–2023 Amendment Cycle

The Sentencing Commission is meeting for the first time in three years to promulgate guideline amendments. This amendment cycle promises to be among the Commission's most consequential. Among its tasks, the agency must update USSG 1B1.13, the policy statement that governs reduction of sentence for "extraordinary and compelling reasons.” So-called "compassionate release” has taken on new significance since Congress amended the authorizing statute in the First Step Act of 2018. Because the Commission had no quorum at the time and for several years after it has been unable to amend the guideline to conform to changes made by the FSA. Creative litigation has transformed compassionate release from the last resort for incarcerated people who were aging, debilitated, or dying to one used for a variety of situations deemed extraordinary and compelling by federal courts. These include grants based on reasons ranging from vulnerability to COVID all the way to the injustice of continued incarceration of people serving sentences the FSA lowered but did not make retroactive. Confronting the Commission is the question of whether and to what extent it might cabin the discretion judges have been exercising to recognize various grounds for compassionate release, including intervening changes in the law that make the sentence inequitable.In this article, the author traces the history of compassionate release, discusses the transformation of its use since passage of the FSA, explores the various proposals the Commission has presented for comment, and presents the choices through the lens of one incarcerated person's experience.

Cross-language sentiment analysis of European Twitter messages during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social media data can be a very salient source of information during crises. User-generated messages provide a window into people's minds during such times, allowing us insights about their moods and opinions. Due to the vast amounts of such messages, a large-scale analysis of population-wide developments becomes possible. In this paper, we analyze Twitter messages (tweets) collected during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe with regard to their sentiment. This is implemented with a neural network for sentiment analysis using multilingual sentence embeddings. We separate the results by country of origin, and correlate their temporal development with events in those countries. This allows us to study the effect of the situation on people's moods. We see, for example, that lockdown announcements correlate with a deterioration of mood in almost all surveyed countries, which recovers within a short time span. © ACL 2020.All right reserved.

A Prosecutorial Duty to Seek Non-Custodial Sentencing

Mass incarceration, which caused the sharp increase in the American prison population over the last five decades, explains why America today comprises five percent of the world's population but houses twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners. This widespread issue has led to many others, including prison overcrowding. American prisons are dramatically overcrowded, with 2,068,000 prisoners as of 2019. Of the fifty states and the District of Columbia, twelve of them have a prison population that is more than fifty percent Black, even though only 13.4% of the US population is Black. Although many incarcerated people are in jail awaiting trial, the majority are incarcerated because they were sentenced there. Therefore, sentencing reform must be part of the solution. This Note will argue that prosecutors should have a duty to recommend non-custodial sentencing whenever feasible, and to otherwise pursue the lowest prison sentence available, because of 1) current overcrowding in prisons, 2) the impact of current COVID-19 protocols, and 3) the societal impact of incarceration.

Confinés en prison : l'expérience carcérale au temps de la COVID-19

Durant la pandémie de COVID-19, des mesures exceptionnelles restreignant les libertés ont été appliquées avec pour mot d'ordre : « Restez chez vous! » Si la prison est devenue métaphore du confinement, peu de choses sont connues sur la façon dont la période a été vécue par les personnes détenues. À partir d'une enquête sociologique réalisée dans cinq prisons françaises durant la pandémie (2020-2021), associant observations et entretiens, cet article interroge les effets des politiques de confinement sur l'expérience carcérale. Nous montrons que l'altération ou la suspension des principales « activités » dans lesquelles les détenus sont tenus de s'impliquer durant l'incarcération (l'école et la formation professionnelle, le travail, les soins), et dont l'engagement est récompensé en temps ordinaire par des réductions et des aménagements de peine, a exacerbé l'un des paradoxes majeurs d'une institution enjoignant son public à l'« activité » tout en le contraignant à l'immobilité. Nous soutenons qu'au-delà d'un quotidien bouleversé, c'est le sens même de la peine de prison, construite autour du thème de la « réinsertion », qui a été troublé dans une institution à l'arrêt et une société confinée.Alternate :During the COVID-19 pandemic, exceptional measures that restricted freedoms were applied using the motto : "Stay home! " If the prison became a metaphor for confinement, little is known about how this period was experienced by actual detainees. Based on an ethnographic field study conducted in five French prisons during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and combining observations and interviews, the present article questions the impacts of confinement policies on the penitentiary experience. We show that the alteration or suspension of the major activities that inmates are required to partake in during their time in prison (school and training, work, healthcare)–and whose commitment is rewarded in ordinary times by sentence reductions and accommodations–has exacerbated one of the main paradoxes of an institution that pushes its population towards "activity," while forcing them into immobility. We suggest that it is the very meaning of the prison sentence, built around the theme of "reintegration," which has been disturbed in the context of a standstill institution and a confined society.Alternate :Durante la pandemia de Covid-19, se aplicaron medidas excepcionales de restricción de libertad, bajo el lema de « ¡Quedaos en casa! ». Si la cárcel se volvió una metáfora del confinamiento, poco se sabe sobre cómo las personas detenidas vivieron dicho periodo. Partiendo de una investigación sociológica llevada a cabo en cinco cárceles francesas durante la pandemia (2020-2021), asociando observaciones y entrevistas, este artículo se interesa por los efectos de las políticas de confinamiento sobre la experiencia carcelaria Los autores muestran que la alteración o la suspensión de las principales « actividades » en las que los detenidos pueden implicarse durante su encarcelamiento (escuela y formación profesional, trabajo, cuidados de salud), y cuya implicación se recompensa en tiempo ordinario con reducciones de pena y beneficios penitenciarios, ha venido a exacerbar una de las mayores paradojas de una institución que exhorta su público a la « actividad » mientras lo obliga al mismo tiempo a la inmovilidad. El artículo sostiene que, más allá de la vida cotidiana en prisión, es el propio significado de la pena de prisión, construido alrededor del tema de la « reinserción », el que ha sido puesto en cuestión en una institución paralizada y una sociedad confinada.

EXPANDING JUDICIAL DISCRETION TO GRANT COMPASSIONATE RELEASE DURING COVID-19

In the 1980s, Congress introduced compassionate release to counteract the increased rigidity of our federal sentencing system. This mechanism allowed courts, through a motion filed by the Bureau of Prison's director, to reduce a prisoner's sentence if "extraordinary and compelling" circumstances warrant such a reduction. However, because the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) seldom brought these motions, few people were released early via compassionate release. At the same time, public discourse and concerns regarding mass incarceration have continued to grow, causing lawmakers to revisit and revise compassionate release through the First Step Act of 2018 to ensure that this mechanism's potential is fully realized.

Working Toward a Fair and Just Reentry Process

[...]because of the lack of preparation, support, and services, many formerly incarcerated individuals wind up re-incarcerated. According to a BJS review of criminal history data from 34 states, 6 in IO people released from prison in 2012 were rearrested within three years. Correctional facilities serve as congregate care settings, with limited access to appropriate protective equipment and materials to maintain sanitary conditions, limited ability for incarcerated people to adopt public health mitigation measures such as social distancing, and relatively low rates of vaccination. See Craig Haney, The Psychological Impact of Incarceration: Implications for Post-Prison Adjustment (prepared for the From Prison to Home Conf., Jan. 30-31, 2002), https://tinyurl.com/yc335v5v. [...]there is often an inability to maintain a healthy lifestyle, with limited access to nutritious food, time outdoors, or physical activity, and a woeful lack of access to treatment and resources for individuals with chronic physical health, mental health, and substance use issues.

A Recommender System for Communication Apps by Analyzing Reviews

Due to the impact of Covid-19, various means of virtual communication such as online education and online teamwork have become increasingly popular under different circumstances. However, it is difficult to select the one that suits your needs fast from a large number of online communication apps. Therefore, this study is aimed to build a system that is capable to recommend online communication apps and meet the needs of users through analysis of app reviews. Despite attempts made in some of the existing studies to recommend apps using the negative/positive information carried by reviews and the historical data of users, it cannot be said that the use of textual information included in reviews is directly linked to user needs. This study built a system that is capable to recommend online communication apps and meet the needs of users through analysis of app reviews. In this research, by employing the user requests (hereinafter referred to as "request sentences") and app review data extracted in advance, the online communication apps that match the user needs are output in a ranking list. © 2022 ACM.

A Needs Assessment of COVID-19 Guidance for Adults with Developmental Disabilities

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have been identified as particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus. Besides susceptibility to viral threats, adults with IDD often find it difficult to make the changes in behavior and routine that are necessary to minimize risks of exposure and infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is concerned that individuals with developmental disabilities receive vital guidance in a format they could understand. The CDC engaged the team at Georgia Tools for Life at the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation at Georgia Tech to conduct a rapid assessment as to whether current CDC guidance addressed the unique communication differences that such individuals may require and to suggest ways to improve this communication. A Rapid Needs Assessment study was conducted that involved interviews with six adults with IDD. These sessions asked them to interact with CDC's COVID-19 materials. The team collected feedback on ease of reading, comprehension ability, formatting, and use of images. In addition, a set of group interviews with four care providers was completed, collecting feedback on the same issues and materials. When shown a CDC COVID-19 webpage, individual participants with IDD reported having difficulties reading and understanding the content due to unfamiliar vocabulary, lengthy and complex sentences, and dense text. Both caregivers and individuals with IDD suggested that documents should present simpler words and less text and raised questions regarding the effectiveness of use of images in such guidance. Individual comments helped researchers shape recommendations for production of more appropriate documents.

Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis with Articulatory-Level Feedback Generation for Non-Native Arabic Speech

A high-performance versatile computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) system that provides the learner immediate feedback as to whether their pronunciation is correct is very helpful in learning correct pronunciation and allows learners to practice this at any time and with unlimited repetitions, without the presence of an instructor. In this paper, we propose deep learning-based techniques to build a high-performance versatile CAPT system for mispronunciation detection and diagnosis (MDD) and articulatory feedback generation for non-native Arabic learners. The proposed system can locate the error in pronunciation, recognize the mispronounced phonemes, and detect the corresponding articulatory features (AFs), not only in words but even in sentences. We formulate the recognition of phonemes and corresponding AFs as a multi-label object recognition problem, where the objects are the phonemes and their AFs in a spectral image. Moreover, we investigate the use of cutting-edge neural text-to-speech (TTS) technology to generate a new corpus of high-quality speech from predefined text that has the most common substitution errors among Arabic learners. The proposed model and its various enhanced versions achieved excellent results. We compared the performance of the different proposed models with the state-of-the-art end-to-end technique of MDD, and our system had a better performance. In addition, we proposed using fusion between the proposed model and the end-to-end model and obtained a better performance. Our best model achieved a 3.83% phoneme error rate (PER) in the phoneme recognition task, a 70.53% F1-score in the MDD task, and a detection error rate (DER) of 2.6% for the AF detection task.

Pittsburgh, the Realest City: Shit Talk'n', Storytell'n', Social Livin'

Sakho discusses Pittsburgh PA as the realist city, highlighting the experience of Norm Conti of showing the film Rodney King to his classes and his vision to expand the work of the Elsinore Bennu Think Tank for Restorative Justice beyond the training and educative actions of Inside-Out modeling. She frames her situatedness and then lay a foundation for how she understands the intersection of social living, storytelling, and exploratory writing. She offers this context first in order to provide the reader with her positionality as the author of this work. She identifies as a Black woman adult educationist with Afrocentrism roots who views phenomena through a Black Activist Mothering lens informed by Africana Womanism. These identities and frameworks provide the foundation to "conduct the work of locating one's cultural knowledge and intellect and then snatching one's centeredness from marginalization" when she's seeking to be in conversation with normative intellectual texts.

The Importance of Incorporating Lived Experience in Efforts to Reduce Australian Reincarceration Rates

It is widely acknowledged that ‘good policy’ should be informed by the people it most directly affects. However, learning from people with lived experiences in the criminal justice sector, such as people who have served time in prison, has received little attention. This article discusses the significance of and challenges related to capturing the voices of people who are currently serving time or have served time in prison. We argue that formalising the perspectives of these individuals into policymaking through co-design processes may be an important method for enhancing program responses to rising incarceration and reincarceration rates. *This is a corrected version of the original article published ‘Online First’ on February 17, 2021. Some text in the literature review was unintentionally missing attribution. The Correction Notice can be found at https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.1941

Covid-19 Pandemisi Sürecine Ílişkin Bir Retorik Analiz: T.C. Sağlık Bakanı Dr. Fahrettin Koca’nın Basın Açıklamaları

Bu çalışmada, Covid-19 pandemisinin yarattığı risk ve korku sürecinde öne çıkan aktör olan Sağlık Bakanı Dr. Fahrettin Koca’nın ideolojik ya da siyasi olmaktan öte, daha çok bilimsel bir alanda ve pandemi sürecinde gerçekleştirdiği konuşmaların söylem özelliklerinin ortaya çıkarılması amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaçla Türkiye’de ilk Covid-19 vakasının açıklandığı tarih olan 11 Mart 2020 ile kontrollü sosyal hayata geçilen 11 Mayıs 2020 tarihleri arasında Bilim Kurulu toplantıları sonrasında gerçekleştirilen toplam 15 adet basın açıklaması cümleler halinde ayrıştırılmış ve 1.801 adet veri elde edilmiştir. Veriler “Retoriğin Beş Kanonu” ve “Aristoteles’in Üç Íkna Kanıtı” bağlamında betimsel içerik analizi yöntemiyle incelenerek SPSS veri analiz programına kodlanmış, daha sonra Frekans (N) ve CrossTab (Çapraz Tablo) yöntemleri kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Aristoteles’in üç ikna kanıtına yönelik yapılan analize göre öne çıkan ikna bileşeninin logos olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Logos dâhilinde, mantıki gerekçeler ve kanıtlarla kamuoyunu ikna etmeye yönelik çabanın hedefinin, pandeminin yarattığı kriz sürecinde ihtiyaç duyulan güven duygusunu yansıtmak ve panik yayılımının kontrolünü sağlanmak olduğu söylenebilir. Retoriğin beş kanonuna yönelik yapılan analizde, konuşmaların bölümlere ayrılarak yapılandırıldığı, üzerinde durulan konuların bağlamının anlaşılması için yeterli bilgi sağlamak adına öyküleme bölümlerine ve açıklamalara ağırlıklı olarak yer verildiği, ikna öğelerinin alt bileşenlerinin kullanımının ilgili her bölümde konunun bağlamına göre düzenlendiği tespit edilmiştir. Açıklamalarda yalın ve kısa cümlelerin yer aldığı, bununla birlikte süslülük unsurlarına da yer verildiği ve konuşmacının beden dilini etkin şekilde kullandığı belirlenmiştir. Konuşmaların Türkiye’nin geneline hitaben yapıldığı ve sıklıkla tıbbi açıklamalar içerdiği göz önünde bulundurulduğunda cümlelerin doğru bir strateji ile yapılandırıldığı görülmektedir. Kullanılan yalın dil ile iletişimde yaşanacak anlamsal kazaları en aza indirmenin, süslülük unsurları ile kamuoyunun ilgisini devam ettirmenin ve söylemi canlı tutmanın hedeflendiği söylenebilir. Bu bulgular, basın açıklamalarında retorik unsurlarının geniş kapsamda yer aldığını göstermektedir.Alternate : This study sought to reveal discourse characteristics in speeches made by the Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, pertaining to Covid-19 rather than ideological or political matters. Koca has been the most prominent actor in managing the risk and fear caused by Covid-19. The speeches in question were delivered after Scientific Committee meetings during the period from 11 March 2020, when the first case of Covid-19 appeared in Turkey, to May 11, 2020, when controls on social life were first applied. A total of 15 press statements were analyzed and were divided into individual sentences to obtain 1,801 individual pieces of data. The data were examined using qualitative and quantitative content analysis in the context of the “Five Canons of Rhetoric” and Aristotle’s “Three Modes of Persuasion.” They were then coded into SPSS for analysis, which allowed frequency (N) and cross tabulations (CrossTabs) to be calculated. Analysis based on Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion demonstrated that logos was the most prominent persuasion component. The apparent goal of convincing the public with justifications and evidence rooted in logos reflects the need to engender trust during the pandemic crisis and to control the spread of panic. Analysis based on the five canons of rhetoric showed that speeches were structured with clear sections. Narrative sections and explanations were included predominantly to provide sufficient information to contextualize the topics under discussion, and the use of sub-components of persuasion was tailored to the context of the subject in each relevant section. A preference for plain and short sentences was also identified, but ornamentation was also present and the speaker used body language effectively. Considering that the speeches addressed all of Turkey and frequently included medical explanations, they were clearly structured carefully. The use of plain language was likely designed to reduce potential semantic accidents, while elements of ornamentation helped to sustain public interest and to enliven the discourse. These findings indicate that rhetorical elements are widely present in press statements.

The Trump Executions

[...]there were statutory and constitutional challenges to the pentobarbital-only lethal injection sequence.8 Second, judges were forced to interpret a statutory "parity" provision requiring that implementation of the federal death penalty mirror that of the state where the court sentenced the prisoner.9 Third, courts struggled with a statutory "savings clause" allowing federal prisoners to bypass otherwise-applicable restrictions on post-conviction relief.10 Finally, the Trump Executions took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby testing broader institutional commitments to the capital punishment process.11 There were other issues too-including claims that typically arise during any post-conviction litigation-although I give the residual category necessarily abbreviated treatment. The 1789 Judiciary Act specified procedure for use in capital cases,20 and the 1790 criminal code required death sentences for roughly twelve federal offenses.21 The federal death penalty statute remained largely untouched for more than a century, until 1897 legislation ended mandatory capital sentencing and shrank the category of death-eligible offenses.22 Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court interpreted the statute to require complete jury discretion to refuse a death sentence.23 Such discretion remained a staple of federal death penalty trials from the 1897 Act until 1972, when Furman v. Georgia24 invalidated capital punishment as practiced across all American jurisdictions.25 Furman was the most important constitutional moment of American death penalty law. In 1976, the Court moved past the Furman-based moratorium, deciding five cases collectively establishing that the Eighth Amendment permitted an appropriately constrained death penalty.28 One of these "1976 Cases," Woodson v. North Carolina2 held that mandatory death sentencing was unconstitutional.30 A 1977 case, Coker v. Georgia,31 called into question capital sentences for any offense that did not result in a killing.32 And in 1987, the Supreme Court decided McCleskey v. Kemp,33 holding that capital sentences tainted by what we would now call systemic racism are constitutionally permitted.34 Among other things, McCleskey removed a major source of constitutional doubt around a federal death penalty statute.35 In 1988, Congress passed a narrow death penalty provision applicable to a Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) offense.36 The CCE statute reflected the constitutional constraints appearing in the 1976 Cases37 and included other statutory items that endure as important features of the federal death penalty.38 In what later became a crucial omission, the 1988 statute provided no statutory guidance as to the manner of execution.39 A more important statute followed six years later: the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act (FDPA).40 The FDPA permitted death sentences for many offenses that resulted in killings41 and so-called drug-kingpin offenses that did not.42 Tracking constitutional constraints announced in the 1976 Cases, the FDPA also required that federal death penalty trials be separated into distinct liability and punishment phases.43 It contained guidance as to the method of execution that the 1988 statute omitted, including a parity provision requiring that a U.S. marshal "supervise implementation of the sentence in the manner prescribed by the law of the State in which the sentence is imposed. In an attempt to make good on constitutional norms against arbitrary enforcement, the "DOJ Protocols"46 require that, before capitalizing the prosecution, a U.S. Attorney must secure pre-authorization from the Attorney General (AG).47 The DOJ Protocols also require that the prosecuting U.S. Attorney provide the defendant with notice regarding any request for authorization,48 thereby ensuring that the defense is able to provide to the U.S. Attorney any information that might dissuade the prosecutor from seeking the death penalty.49 Finally, because the federal death penalty exists alongside state capital punishment schemes potentially applicable to the same offense, the DOJ Protocols require the presence of some special federal interest to justify federal death penalty prosecutions in retentionist states, as well is in states that have abolished capital punishment.50 The DOJ Protocol drafters doubtlessly thought they were making good on congressional intent, insofar as the substantial-federal-interest rule seemed likely to ensure a manageably sized death row for which the pace of executions roughly tracked the pace of sentencing.

Far From a "White Problem": Responding to the Overdose Crisis as a Racial Justice Issue

The United States is in the midst of an overdose crisis of tremendous proportions. Even before overdose death rates spiked sharply during the COVID19 pandemic, the United States had twice the mortality rate of the second highest country, and 20 times the global average.1 Deaths from overdose have increased year after year-nearly uninterrupted-for the past four decades. During the pandemic, the United States crossed the grim milestone of 100 000 overdose deaths in a 12-month period. Although overdose deaths have increased for all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, these increases have not been felt equally among all Americans. Overdose and addiction have long predominated among low-income communities,3 and during the "first wave" of the overdose crisis in the early 2000s, deaths were concentrated in low-income White communities.4However, the racial/ethnic profile of the US overdose crisis has changed sharply.5 In 2020, the overdose death rates of Black individuals overtook those of White individuals and now exceed them by nearly 20%. American Indians/Alaska Natives now have the highest overdose mortality rates of any group-30% higher than for White individuals. Far from a "White problem," overdose prevention is now a key racial justice issue. In this issue of AJPH, an analysis of a national data set by Pro et al. (p. S66) considers the individual- and state-level factors that help explain racial disparities in addiction treatment. Economic and community distress-including low education, high unemployment, and housing vacancy-had the strongest negative relationship to treatment success across all racial/ethnic groups. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native patients disproportionately presented for treatment in mid- to high-distress communities. Black patients were also much more likely to experience poor treatment outcomes. In addition, patients in states that have not expanded Medicaid were less likely to experience successful treatment.

Compassionate Release and Decarceration in the States

Though the U.S. prison population has declined slightly over the last decade, progress toward decarceration has been exceedingly modest. creating or expanding mechanisms for early release from prison could help accelerate the pace of decarceration. Compassionate release-early release from prison based on a serious or terminal medical condition-is the only early release mechanism available in nearly every state. This Article uses compassionate release as a case study in the possibilities and limits of early release measures as tools for decarceration in the states. So far, decarceral reforms have largely failed to reach people convicted of violent crimes, who account for over half of the state prison population. The challenge presented by the prevalence of violent convictions is particularly acute for compassionate release. People age 55 and older, who make up a significant and growing share of people in state prisons, are the age group most likely to qualify for compassionate release. They are also the age group most likely to be incarcerated for violent convictions. This Article identifies the significant barriers that people incarcerated for violent convictions face when seeking compassionate release-even when they are not outright barred by their convictions. This Article argues that to be effective tools for decarceration, compassionate release and other early release measures must reduce the obstacles to release for people incarcerated for violent convictions. This Article models this approach with concrete suggestions for how states can reform theircompassionate release measures to reach the hardest cases.

CONFRONTING THE EXPERIENCE OF IMPRISONMENT IN SENTENCING: LESSONS FROM THE COVID-19 JURISPRUDENCE

The prison largely remains a "black box" in the law of sentencing in Canada. Judges are concerned chiefly with the duration, rather than the quality, of a custodial sentence. That changed with the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This paper contends that the pandemic jurisprudence presents an opportunity to rethink the role that qualitative conditions of imprisonment play in the sentencing analysis. Using debates that have emerged between leading cases in this jurisprudence as a foil, I argue that the emergent doctrine of individualized proportionality authorizes sentencing judges to open the black box in punishment theory and consider the likely experience of a proposed custodial sanction in crafting a fit sentence. I conclude the paper by highlighting one case that demonstrates the promise of this approach.Alternate :La prison demeure en grande partie une « boîte opaque » pour le droit en matière de détermination de la peine au Canada. Les juges se préoccupent principalement de la durée, et non de la qualité, des peines de détention. Mais les choses changent depuis l'émergence de la pandémie de COVID-19. Dans le présent article, l'auteur soutient que la jurisprudence établie durant la pandémie présente l'occasion de repenser la place des conditions qualitatives d'emprisonnement dans l'analyse de la peine. Par la mise en relief des débats soulevés autour des principaux jugements faisant jurisprudence, il avance que la doctrine émergente de l'individualisation de la proportionnalité autorise le juge qui prononce la peine à ouvrir ladite boîte opaque, dans la théorie de la peine, et à prendre en considération la façon dont sera vécue la détention envisagée. L'auteur conclut l'article en mettant en lumière un cas qui démontre bien le potentiel prometteur de cette approche.