Archives

News Article Queens Daily Eagle April 6, 2020

Illness spreads with little scrutiny in Queens' private jail

Judith Greene is quoted in this article about the lack of COVID testing in the, private for-profit, eight-unit dormitory-style prison warehouse facility located in Springfield Gardens, Queens run by GEO under contract with the US Marshalls Service where inmates are getting sick, and an entire unit refused food provided them by unmasked, ungloved staff.  Inmates also report Warden William Zerrillo has told them they could not be tested for COVID-19 and would have to "let the virus take its course."

News Article Politico March 3, 2020

Bloomberg's record on Rikers complicates prison reform rhetoric

Justice Strategies' Executive Director, Judith Greene and others, discuss conditions at Rikers during former mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg's tenure, and his claim that it was his policies that reduced the number of those incarcerated in the notoriously violent island prison complex.

News Article Newsweek September 25, 2019

Trump Administration Has Doubled Private Prison Spending With Most Money Spent on Detaining Immigrants

Newsweek reporter Chantal Da Silva discusses the sharp increase in funding by the Trump Administration of the for-profit private prison company GEO Group, even as overall national incarceration rates in 2017 were at a twenty-year low.  In just the first eleven months of fiscal year 2019 over $595 has been obligated to GEO by the Administration, 53 percent of which went to ICE for the detention of immigrants.  Justice Strategies’ Executive Director is extensively quoted in this article.

JS Publication March 20, 2019

"Zero Tolerance" policy greatly accelerates immigrant criminalization through end of 2018

This brief by Judy Greene of Justice Strategies and Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership provides data and infographics showing that in 2018 more than 109,000 people were prosecuted for improper entry or re-entry into the United States. 

News Article The Huffington Post July 6, 2018

More Democrats Want To Abolish ICE. Decriminalize Migration? Not So Much.

This article by Huffington Post reporter Roque Planas quotes Justice Strategies’ Executive Director Judith Greene, pointing out that at the root of the current family separation crisis is the criminalization of migration itself.  The article recounts the origins of this practice to a 1929 law introduced by South Carolina Senator Coleman Livingston Blease and embedded in the anti-Mexican and segregationist legacy of the times.  Despite calls from current day Congressional Democrats to end the Trump Administration’s practice of family separation, few are willing to call for an end to the racially charged practice of criminalizing migration.

News Article NPR All Things Considered June 19, 2018

The Last "Zero Tolerance" Border Policy Didn't Work

In this story on the “Zero Tolerance” border policy by NPR’s All Things Considered reporter John Burnett, Judy Greene, Justice Strategies’ Executive Director, discusses the role of Operation Streamline and its failure to deter migration.  Read the original article or listen to the story by following the provided link.

JS Publication June 21, 2018

It's Time to Decriminalize Immigration

This Texas Observer article by Executive Directors Judy Greene, of Justice Strategies, and Bob Libal, of Grassroots Leadership calls on Congress to repeal the law that allowed the Trump Administration to separate children from their migrant parents, and for an end to the criminalization of migration.   In it the authors provide the historical links of this destructive policy to the mass incarceration tactics of the failed War on Drugs, now used in a new War on Immigrants, the growing for-profit private prison industry, and increasing attempts under the Trump Administration to federalize local and state criminal justice enforcement mechanisms.  These policy choices have led to a federal court docket 45 percent of which is occupied with the criminal prosecution of migrants for entry into the United States, a misdemeanor, and re-entry, a felony that carries a penalty of from two to five years in federal prison.

JS Publication November 10, 2017

Elections 2017: Beginning of the End of Willie Horton Politics?

In this article for The Crime Report, Justice Strategies' Director, Judith Greene, raises the prospects that the 2017 elections may indicate signs that we are turning the corner away from politicizing crime. The results in off-year gubernatorial elections indicate that urban/suburban voters in both Virginia and New Jersey are no longer swayed by “penal populism.” Republican candidates were soundly defeated despite their attempts to gain political capital by stoking fears of an immigrant crime wave which does not exist.

News Article All Things Considered NPR.org April 13, 2017

San Francisco Program Aims To Make Smaller Fines More Fair For Poor

The abuse of traffic fines as a municipal revenue scheme endemic to the tensions that flared up in Ferguson have prompted jurisdictions like San Francisco to examine the fairness and impact of their fines on the poor. In this NPR story Judy Greene discusses her previous work on the topic and how a fairer fines structure can not only help the poor but can make it possible for government to capture a greater share of the fines they issue. 

News Article Huffington Post December 22, 2016

‘Tis The Season For Miracles: Eight-Year-Old Darina Tries To Get Her Incarcerated Dad Closer To Home

This article, by Patricia Allard, of Justice Strategies, and Lillan Hewko, Attorney & Co-founder of the Incarcerated Parents Project of the Washington Defender Association, and equally moving embedded video by Silicon Valley De-Bug, relates the story of Darina, an eight year old whose wish is to have her incarcerated father moved to a federal facility nearer her home so that she could "just drive" to see him.  In three years Darina has been able to make the 2,000 mile journey to see her father in Texas only once.  In this season of compassion and caring for others, we are reminded by Darina's story that our criminal justice system should and can do better to ensure that, yes, justice is done but in a manner that takes into account the burdens placed on the children and families of the incarcerated, and preserves parent-child bonds important for successful re-entry back into family and community life.