Fewer and fewer high school age kids are working these days. There are lots of jobs: Fast food service, summer landscaping, pizza delivery, auto detailing, data entry, and step-and-fetch-it jobs for teens in almost every industry. The list of potential money-making opportunities is almost endless, but there seems to be a lack of wanna. Snowplow…Continue reading Why Kids Should Work
Police investigators here and across the country are concerned about the growing ties between social media and youth homicides. Just connect the dots. In many cases the victim in a shooting was previously warned or threatened on Instagram, Twitter, TicTok, and others. Mothers are literally buying bus tickets to get junior out of town. When…Continue reading Social Media & the Rise in Youth Homicide
Let’s just put the answer out right up front: Yes. Here’s what the experts say… Jeffery Ulmer, professor of criminal law and justice, who oversaw a study by Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute says, “In the big picture, religious presence seems to [influence] the amount of violence and crime in a community, it matters…Continue reading More God, Less Crime…Really?
For those who think that ex-offenders can’t make a stunning comeback, I give you Charles Dutton. He was sentenced to five years for manslaughter in 1967 after a knife fight in which a man was killed. Out on parole, he was arrested on robbery and handgun charges and was sentenced to the Maryland Penitentiary for…Continue reading From Solitary to the Stars, From Convict to Closer
It has long troubled me that our state legislators do not pass a 36 percent APR cap on payday loans in Indiana. Ninety percent of Hoosiers agree that a 36 percent Annual Percentage Rate (APR) cap should be enacted—so what’s the hold up? These small loans are aimed at those with an urgent need and…Continue reading Ohio Payday Loan Legislative Scandal…Here?
A good friend who I’ll call “Benny” is a former inmate who is having a rough time. He’s been out of prison for a couple of years, but it has been a series of uphill battles with few successes. He entered prison as a teenager and made very few decisions on his own for the…Continue reading It’s Up To Him
A few years ago, I put together a recidivism map that showed re-incarceration rates in Indiana counties were between 30 and 50 percent, using source data from the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC). But after learning that IDOC only counts Indiana prison inmates who are re-incarcerated in an Indiana prison, it became obvious why the…Continue reading Amended Recidivism Rates & The High Cost of Prison’s Revolving Door
We all know there is an epidemic of gun violence and we are all shocked every time we hear of the latest murder. But did you know that far more kids are killing themselves with guns??? I didn’t know it. Yet, a little research into youth gun violence uncovers the horrific number of children who…Continue reading Kids Kill Kids But More Kids Kill Themselves
When people compare the United States to just about any other country with a low incarceration rate it is usually far from a realistic comparison. While many first world countries have lower rates of incarceration, they also are much smaller and do not have the melting pot of cultures and values that we have in…Continue reading Why Are So Many Incarcerated in the U.S.?
Across the United States, approximately 1.22 million people are incarcerated in state and federal facilities. This does not include the 3000+ county jails in the U.S. that have begun to hold longer-term prisoners as well. About a half million reentrants are released every year. In Marion County, Indiana alone, annual estimated releases are about 12,000….Continue reading The Recidivism Yardstick
