Browsing: National News

Probation is often billed as an alternative to incarceration, but instead it is frequently set with unrealistic conditions that undermine its goal of keeping people from being locked up, she wrote for the Prison Policy Initiative. For example, probation often comes with steep fees, which, like bail, women are in the worst position to afford.

     A longtime religious leader who has played a prominent role in helping to change the self-perceptions of his countrymen, Dr. Chakwera said that the past history of corruption in Africa is ending through more democracy and participation by all the people of Africa for a better more sustainable economic, social and political future.

     The Volunteer State’s “Tennessee Promise” program, passed in 2014 by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, offers two years of tuition-free community college or technical school to all high school graduates. An expansion of the program adopted in 2017, called “Tennessee Reconnect,” guaranteed two years of free community college or technical school to all adults in Tennessee who didn’t already have a degree or credential.   

“After spending my career around the criminal justice system, I’ve seen up close how it can fail to ensure that poor defendants receive a fair trial and due process, as guaranteed to all of us in our Constitution,” said Sen. Harris. “All too often, our public defenders are overworked and lack sufficient resources. This makes public defense unsustainable over the long haul. And the person who suffers is the defendant, whose liberty is on the line. It’s wrong, and it’s the opposite of justice.”

     “We are assembled together from across the nation as the media of America at a time when the Trump administration continues its frontal assault on the freedom of the press,” said Chavis, who received an invitation to attend the event from Urban Radio Network White House Correspondent April Ryan and AARP’s Senior Vice President of Multicultural Leadership Edna Kane Williams.