corrections costs are bringing minnesota county commissioners to revolt. as both the strib and pioneer press report, counties are now shouldering an increasing share of the costs of incarcerating short-term inmates. it may seem like a wonky issue but any cost shift from the state to local counties is a potential budget-buster in these times. from the strib:

As more than 100 county commissioners from across Minnesota stood on the steps of the State Capitol, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and state legislators came under heavy criticism Thursday for forcing counties to pay the increasing cost of housing short-term offenders. The rally came as the Association of Minnesota Counties complained that requiring counties to take certain state prisoners — the result of a 2003 deal to balance the state budget — has led to rising numbers of inmates in county jails and dwindling reimbursements from the state to pay for housing them.

and the pi press:

“It’s nothing more than an old-fashioned shell game, where the money is sliding back and forth,” Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said. “But nobody is fooled here, nobody at all.” The daily reimbursement is expected to drop from $27.24 this year to $9 next year, while the actual daily cost of jailing a short-term state offender ranges from $55 to more than $100, depending on the facility and transportation costs. Those figures don’t include medical costs.

House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, blamed the Republican governor for the cost shift. Democrats have long fingered Pawlenty’s efforts to hold down state taxes as the culprit for rising local property taxes. County officials said jail costs are fixed and they might have to cut other services to keep up.

yeesh. the association’s presser puts the issue more succinctly:

the phrase blaming the victim refers to situations in which the victims of crime or injustice are unfairly held responsible for their own predicament. i’ve heard the phrase used critically with respect to daniel patrick moynihan’s (1965) report on the negro family, but also in a more literal sense regarding rape myths that blame the targets of sexual assault.

the not-so-strange case of mr. gabriel schwartz, drugged and robbed at the republican national convention, seems to offer an ideal-typical case of an unsympathetic victim. from david hanners’ pioneer press account:

He met her in the bar of the swank hotel and invited her to his room. Once there, the woman fixed the drinks and told him to get undressed. And that, the delegate to the Republican National Convention told police, was the last thing he remembered. When he awoke, the woman was gone, as was more than $120,000 in money, jewelry and other belongings. … The haul included a $30,000 watch, a $20,000 ring, a necklace valued at $5,000, earrings priced at $4,000 and a Prada belt valued at $1,000, police said. Schwartz is a single attorney and a fixture in Colorado Republican politics. …

In an interview filmed the afternoon of Sept. 3 and posted on the Web site LinkTV.org, Schwartz was candid about how he envisioned change under a McCain presidency. “Less taxes and more war,” he said, smiling. He said the U.S. should “bomb the hell” out of Iran because the country threatens Israel.

Asked by the interviewer how America would pay for a military confrontation with Iran, he said the U.S. should take the country’s resources. “We should plant a flag. Take the oil, take the money,” he said. “We deserve reimbursement.” … He said an attack on Iran was needed to protect Israel, and he offered how it could be accomplished through “strategical airstrikes.” “Hopefully, just bomb the hell out of them from the sky. No troops,” he said.

yeesh — he’s not just talking strategical airstrikes, but strategical nukular airstrikes. even if we grant that mr. schwartz was joking and/or inebriated when he made those comments, they don’t make him a very sympathetic victim, do they? moreover, young mr. schwartz further offends our sensibilities with his staggeringly annoying personal injury law commercials — and a blazer that only elroy “crazylegs” hirsch could pull off.

nevertheless, this loud man in loud clothing remains the victim of a serious crime. and, if you scratch the surface of crime reports, you’ll see that many victims are far more foolish, annoying, and/or repugnant than mr. schwartz. that’s why there’s a real danger in drawing lines between worthy and unworthy victims: if this victim’s account is accurate, somebody is robbing and drugging peoople at a hotel a few blocks from my department.

so, while some may snigger that mr. schwartz “got what was coming to him,” i get a real cold chill whenever i hear a criminologist, a cop, or a correctional officer express such sentiments. to an even greater extent than mr. schwartz’s fashion choices and political statements, blaming the victim is ugly business.

the federal bureau of investigation just released the 2007 edition of their crime in the united states. by this measure, crime is down across all categories. the rate of rape fell about 2.5 percent between 2006 and 2007, with robbery, aggravated assault, and murder down by less than one percent. overall, property crime fell 1.4 percent, led by an 8 percent decline in the rate of motor vehicle theft.

today’s times offers a good piece on felon disenfranchisement by solomon moore. in many ways, florida remains the epicenter of the disenfranchisement and reenfranchisement debates. although governor charlie crist has partially opened the voting rights restoration process in that state, hundreds of thousands remain disenfranchised. [photo by chris livingston for the times.]

the appeal in the larry craig “wide-stance” case has gotten little attention locally, but minnpost offers a nice review of the legal issues and a link to a webcast of the proceedings. i was especially interested in the arguments offered in the ACLU’s friend of the court brief:

In short, the ACLU brief claims that Craig’s alleged attempt to solicit sex by nonverbal means was constitutionally protected. The ACLU cites both Minnesota and U.S. Supreme Court precedents that support treating certain types of physical conduct the same as language, thus making Craig’s actions permissible, protected expression.

The ACLU brief then attempts to narrow the scope of the disorderly conduct law, stating that the statute has already been held to be unconstitutionally overbroad by Minnesota courts. For instance, a 1978 Minnesota Supreme Court decision held that the government “may not criminalize expression merely because it is offensive, alarming, angering, or disturbing.”

Finally, the ACLU maintains that Craig allegedly invited Karsnia to engage in conduct which is not, in itself, a crime. The brief states that if Craig’s invitation was to have sex in a restroom stall, then that conduct would be protected under State v. Bryant, a 1970 Minnesota Supreme Court decision which holds that “individuals who engage in sex in closed stalls in public restrooms have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

after today’s proceedings at the minnesota court of appeals, the judges have 90 days to decide whether the hennepin county court erred in denying the withdrawal of senator craig’s guilty plea. i can’t imagine anyone wants a trial on the bathroom incident, but that remains a real possibility.

via alternet: justice emily jane goodman writes about the rising fees assessed to criminal justice system clients:

there are arrest fees (Texas), booking fees (Colorado) and DNA bank fees (New York). Michigan bills for the services of court-appointed lawyers, creating an incentive to waive counsel or to plead guilty at an early stage before legal costs escalate. Eighteen percent of Rhode Island inmates are in custody in connection with court-imposed financial obligations. An open court debt in Florida leads to a suspended driver’s license, which in turn can lead to loss of job or re-arrest for driving with a suspended license. Alabama judges can increase fees from $600 to $10,000. There are special fees for particular offenses such as sex crimes, abuse of children or the elderly and, especially, driving while intoxicated.

yeesh. fees are sometimes even assessed for the legal defense of indigent clients. justice goodman’s piece raises research questions that one could approach on a fine-by-fine or jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis:

1. to what (if any) extent have such fees risen in the recent past?

2. how much revenue do they generate?

3. does the revenue exceed the costs of administering and enforcing them?

4. to what extent are folks punished for failure to pay?

5. are outstanding financial obligations (ceteris paribus) negatively associated with reintegration outcomes (e.g., employment and family stability).

6. are outstanding financial obligations (ceteris paribus) positively associated with recidivism?

to offer a little context on social control at the republican national convention, the minneapolis strib published data on the number of arrests in each party’s national convention for 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008.

i’m skeptical of the data quality here, especially with respect to reporting differences in the number of arrests attributed to the convention. if the data can be trusted, however, arrests at republican conventions have outpaced those at democratic conventions for at least the last three conventions. the strib’s randy furst and anthony lonetree offer a useful companion piece regarding changes in convention policing since the 1999 WTO protests. an excerpt:

St. Paul and Denver each received $50 million in federal funds for policing the conventions. Tony Bouza, former Minneapolis police chief, said he thinks St. Paul could have handled the security with a few hundred extra police officers. “The only reason they did it was an orgy of overtime, subsidized by the United States government under the National Security Act,” he said.

hmm. ol’ chief bouza was never one to mince words…

it was certainly troubling to see all those images of riot police and masked anarchists in my hometown of good ol’ st. paul.

knowing that i had friends and former students on both sides of the lines, i worried that the clash might explode, that blood would be shed, and that careers and lives would be disrupted if not ruined.

for better or worse, the conventions have ended, the out-of-towners have left, and the party platforms have been ratified. if you’d like a sneak preview of the role of crime in the coming debates, crimprofs points us to a helpful national criminal justice association guide to each party’s crime platform. a few excerpts and links:

The Democratic platform, adopted during the convention in Denver last week, includes a four-paragraph section on criminal justice focusing principally on support for local law enforcement and ending violence against women. On support for law enforcement, the platform states, “We will reverse the policy of cutting resources for the brave men and women who protect our communities every day. At a time when our nation’s officers are being asked both to provide traditional law enforcement services and to help protect the homeland, taking police off of the street is neither tough nor smart; we reject this disastrous approach. We support and will restore funding to our courageous police officers and will ensure that they are equipped with the best technology, equipment and innovative strategies to prevent and fight crimes.” …

“The Republican platform, adopted last week as delegates prepared to travel to Minnesota for this week’s convention, includes an eight-part criminal justice section on the topics of ending child pornography, gangs, sentencing, reforming prisons, federal law enforcement, fighting illegal drugs and protecting the victims of crime.”

criminologists learn the secret argot of the underworld to enhance our understanding of the people and events we study. poets learn such street jargon because its imagery is often colorfully evocative and metaphorical, yet subtle or sly enough to facilitate secret communication.

boing directs us to a fine 1736 dictionary of thieving cant at fromoldbooks.com. in contrast to compilations by criminologists such as edwin sutherland, only about half the entries i read bore directly on the practice of crime. i should caution that many of the entries are offensive — most notably to women, but also to men, preachers, lawyers, and the irish and roma people. a few of the less-offensive entries:

ADAM TILER, the Comerade of a Pick pocket, who receives stollen Goods or Money, and scours off with them, Tip the coal to Adam Tiler; i.e. give the Money, Watch, &c. to a running Companion, that the Pick Pocket may have nothing found upon him, when he is apprehended.

ARCH-ROGUE, the Dimber-Damber Uprightman or Chief of a Gang; as Arch-Dell, or Arch-Doxy signifies the same Degree in Rank among the Female Canters and Gypsies.

ARK-RUFFIANS, Rogues, who in Conjunction with Watermen, &c. rob and sometimes murder on the Water; by picking a Quarrel with the Passenger and then plundering, stripping and throwing him or her over board, &c.

COSTARD, the Head. I’ll give ye a Knock on the Costard; I’ll hit ye a Blow on the Pate.

A HIGHTE-TITY, a Romp or rude Girl.

KNAVE in Grain, one of the First Rate.

MOVEABLES, Rings, Watches, Swords, and such Toys of Value.

PUPIL Mongers, Tutors at the Universities.

SCHOOL of Venus, a Bawdy-house.

SNUDGE, one that lurks under a Bed, to watch an Opportunity to rob the House.

SUCK, Wine or strong Drink. This is rum Suck; It is excellent Tipple. We’ll go and Suck our Faces; but if they toute us, we’ll take Rattle, and brush; Let’s go to drink and be merry; but if we be smelt by the People of the House, we must scowre off. He loves to Suck his Face; He delights in Drinking.

SOUL-Driver, a Parson.

STROWLING-Morts, who, pretending to be Widows, often travel the Countries, making Laces upon Yews, Beggar’s-tape, &c. Are light-finger’d, subtle, hypocritical, cruel, and often dangerous to meet, especially when a Ruffler is with them.

SWIG-Men, carrying small Haberdashery-Wares about, pretending to sell them, to colour their Roguery. Fellows crying Old Shoes, Boots, or brooms; and thos pretending to buy Old Suits, Hats or Cloaks, are also called Swig-Men, and oftentimes, if an Opportunity offers, make all Fish that comes to Net.

THUMMIKINS, a Punishment (in Scotland) by hard squeezing or pressing of the Thumbs, to extort Confession, which stretches them prodigiously, and is very painful. In Camps, and on Board of Ships, lighted Matches are clapt between the Fingers to the same Intent.

WHIRLEGIGS, Testicles.

To YAM, to eat heartily, to stuff lustily.

ZNEES, Frost, or Frozen; Zneesy weather; Frosty Weather.