Prof Berman News Today

"Cruel and Unusual: U.S. Sentencing Practices in a Global Context" The title of this post is the title of this notable new report released this week coming from the University of San Francisco School of Laws Center for Law and Global Justice.  This press release provides a background and summary of this report, and here are excerpts from the press release: Sentencing laws in the United States are at odds with the country’s human rights obligations to direct its prisons system towards rehabi...

Inaugural rhetoric about freedom and liberty in prison nation I am about to sign off to go watch the inauguration activities on television, but I feel obliged to first remind everyone that soaring inaugural rhetoric does not necessarily translate into improved practical realities.  And I stress this point with a particular focus on our leaders tendency to talk big about freedom and liberty in America, even while the United States continues to be a world leader in incarceration rates and extrem...