John Lash

OP-ED: Who Benefits from Zero Tolerance Policies?

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I have been out of high school since 1984, and I realize that things these days are different. It was a time when kids were told to punch bullies in the nose (or the solar plexus), when I usually had a knife in my pocket (because that’s what guys did), there were no police at the school, and breaking a rule could get you suspended or expelled, but not handcuffed, and certainly not put in jail. It was the time before Columbine, and the slew of other school shootings that have led us down the path of zero tolerance, anti-bullying, police officers in schools and the related criminalization of actions that would have previously been solved through school discipline. It was a time before wearing a t-shirt could get a kid threatened with fines and jail time, no matter what the shirt said. That is exactly what has happened to Jared Martin, a 14-year-old student at Logan Middle School in Logan City, W.Va.

John Lash

OP-ED: Justice for Sara

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Have you heard Sara’s story? She was raised by an abusive, drug addicted mother. Her father was almost entirely absent from their lives.

John Lash

OP-ED: Extending Justice to All Kids

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Humans naturally form groups, and the way we treat those inside our groups is different, usually radically so, from the way we treat outsiders. One cause of this is  moral exclusion, “excluding other individuals or groups from one’s own moral community; i.e. viewing others as lying beyond the boundary within which moral values and rules of justice and fairness apply.”
Those within our group are part of our “scope of justice.” Those outside are treated to varying degrees of fairness. This is why people in churches, normally peaceful places, cheered when Osama Bin Laden was killed. This is why Americans in general are horrified by Newtown and indifferent to children who are casualties of drone strikes in Pakistan. One of the most glaring examples of moral exclusion and the limited scope of justice in the United States occurs in youth detention.

John Lash

OP-ED: Justice Isn’t Always Blind

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I think I first heard the phrase “people over process” a few years ago in Illinois. I was in a room with a hundred or so people, studying Restorative Circles, and most of us were intently focused on the mechanics of the process. A participant in a practice circle did something that wasn’t on the “script”, and it threw us (or at least me) into a tizzy. Dominic Barter, the developer of the process, said that given a choice between following the process or the person, choose the person. That stuck with me, and I have applied it in all sorts of settings since, and I notice when it isn’t applied to me.

Administration’s Public Health Approach to Addiction Begins to Take Hold

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R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director, National Drug Control Policy / Photo by Lisa Pilnik
Early in his tenure as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, R. Gil Kerlikowske told a reporter he no longer wanted to use the term “war on drugs” to describe drug control policy. When asked what “bumper sticker” phrase he would use as a replacement, Kerlikowske responded that he thought the American public was “ready for a greater dialogue and discussion about our drug problem than a bumper sticker answer.”

Kerlikowske shared this anecdote at a forum on 21st Century Drug Policy Reform hosted by the Urban Institute, where he and other speakers emphasized prevention and treatment of substance abuse. “We have to approach drug policy from a public health standpoint, not just the criminal justice standpoint,” said Kerlikowske, emphasizing that programs and policies should be based on a foundation of science. He added that although his office has advocated this approach for four years, he’s only seen it begin to take hold in the past six months.

A Day in Family Court

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NEW YORK -- Daphne Culler whispered the words from the courtroom visitor’s bench, so quietly practically no one could hear.

“Just relax,” she said.

Culler, her face impassive, never broke eye contact with her daughter, who sat across the room at the witness table.

The 15-year-old, who was accused of assaulting a shop owner, mumbled each answer. Twice the judge told her to speak up. Her demeanor alternated between anxiety and annoyance at the repeated questions, a quick smile sometimes flashing across her face until the next question called her to attention.