Steven Yoder
Journalist covering sex crime policy + other criminal justice, business. All opinions mine.
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San Quentin's coronavirus outbreak shows why 'herd immunity' could mean disaster
Ron Lin - Los Angeles Times 169d 14 tweets
Public health experts say the rampant spread of the coronavirus at the prison shows the dangers of trying to achieve 'herd immunity' with the coronavirus.
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Steven Yoder 2/3 of those in San Quentin have been infected. Mortality rate of 767/100K. If that was the rate nationally, would mean 2.5 million deaths 167d
Sen. Josh Hawley Says He 'Took on an Asian Trafficking Ring' and 'Freed a Dozen Women in Sex Slavery.' That's Not True.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown - Reason.com 197d 17 tweets
As a state attorney, the young GOP senator oversaw raids of more than a dozen massage parlors, but didn’t secure a single sex trafficking conviction.
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Steven Yoder Why to never, ever take at face value police/prosecutor claims of rescuing women from sex trafficking rings. unmasks the latest, again 190d
‘Pacing and Praying’: Jailed Youths Seek Release as Virus Spreads
Erica L. Green - Nytimes.com 288d 8 tweets
While some states have moved to release adults from prisons where the coronavirus poses a threat, efforts to free juveniles from detention have met resistance.
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Steven Yoder Kids in juvenile lockups are just as much at risk as adult prisoners for corona. So facilities respond by keeping them in isolation >23 hours a day 286d
New York City Success Story: Leaving ‘Mass Imprisonment’ Behind | The Crime Report
The Crime Report 341d 1 tweets
While efforts should always continue to reduce unnecessary incarceration and improve jail conditions, New Yorkers can arguably soon say they live in a post-mass incarceration town, writes former NYC probation chief and Columbia Justice Lab...
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Steven Yoder NYC is on its way to an incarceration rate of 188/100K, well below all U.S. states, & a jail population lower than anytime since 1920: And: a record-low crime rate: 341d
New York City Crime Hits Record Low in First Half of 2019
WSJ 341d 1 tweets
Major crime in New York City reached a record low for the first half of 2019, but the number of shootings rose, police officials said Monday.
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Steven Yoder NYC is on its way to an incarceration rate of 188/100K, well below all U.S. states, & a jail population lower than anytime since 1920: And: a record-low crime rate: 341d
Critical Rape Kit Backlog Funding Passed By Congress | RAINN
Rainn.org 397d 1 tweets
Congress reauthorized the nation’s primary DNA testing program through 2024. The U.S. Senate voted to renew the Debbie Smith Act, which has increased the use of DNA and has led to more than 192,000 DNA matches in CODIS (the FBI’s DNA database...
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Steven Yoder $150M a year in reauthorized funding for DNA testing of rape kits, excellent. And also: this is 3X the fed funding for sexual assault prevention & about 1/20th the amount we spend on sex offense registries & related paraphernalia 397d
Secret Memos Show the Government Has Been Lying About Backpage
Elizabeth Nolan Brown - Reason.com 520d 30 tweets
Sealed memos fought over in federal court last week show authorities have known for years that claims about Backpage were bogus.
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Steven Yoder Finally reading 's latest excavation on Backpage: "It seems clear the government put the political usefulness of a crusade against a caricatured evil tech company above the genuine safety of American women and children" 423d
The Absurdity Of Charging 10-Year-Olds As Sex Offenders
Forbes 427d 5 tweets
A ten-year boy has just been charged as a sex offender as a result of a schoolyard game of tag that got out of control.
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Steven Yoder "The boys should be disciplined, and, even more important, taught the error of their ways. But charging a 10-year-old as a sex offender is a devastating, merciless response." 425d
Miami-Dade County closing down homeless camp while promoting awareness week
WPLG 434d 1 tweets
A group of people living in a Miami homeless camp is being told to leave. 
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Steven Yoder Miami-Dade passed a law that makes 97% of the city's apartments/houses off limits to those on the state sex off registry. Now it's ordering an encampment of them to move again in the middle of homelessness awareness week 434d
How a Tool to Help Judges May Be Leading Them Astray
The Appeal 538d 3 tweets
In Cook County, Illinois, 99 percent of defendants deemed ‘high risk’ for pretrial violence don’t reoffend.
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Steven Yoder "High risk" in Cook County's risk assessment tool: 99% of people flagged as high risk for violence who were released pretrial weren't charged with any new violent crime during their release. For those deemed lower risk, it was 99.5%: in 530d
Business and Nonprofits Offer Free Programs to Help California Inmates - Comstock's magazine
Comstock's magazine 605d 1 tweets
Nonprofit groups and businesses have launched programs to help inmates better prepare for life and a career outside the ...
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Steven Yoder Monthly futbol at Folsom State Prison, organized by Sacramento FC's gen manager: "This is a part of our population that's important. They're going to be our neighbors again," in 605d
Remove Children from Sex-Offender Registries | National Review
National Review 607d 3 tweets
There are good reasons to reconsider some aspects of the 1994 Crime Bill, because we’ve had a chance to see the unintended consequences.
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Steven Yoder This in the National Review 605d
Many “Violent Offenders” Have Committed Nonviolent Crimes
The Marshall Project 662d 4 tweets
Embezzlement and selling drugs near a school are among the offenses some states classify as violent.
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Steven Yoder & again on why focusing only on nonviolent offenders in cj reform doesn't work: purse- snatching, meth manufacture, & drug theft are considered violent crimes in several states. & in MN, attempting suicide. 656d
Kinetic Justice Faces Repression Following Riots in ADOC
#FightToxicPrisons 763d 1 tweets
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- December 16th, 2018 Press Contacts- Mei Azaad – (206) 409-5390 [email protected] Nikki Davenport  (256) 221-7658 [email protected] Alabama Department of Co…
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Steven Yoder Prison rights group says their founder was just thrown in solitary for asking that the prison water fountain be fixed 763d
Breaking open the “black box”: How risk assessments undermine judges’ perceptions of young people
Prisonpolicy.org 886d 2 tweets
It's complicated enough for judges to weigh the influence of youth in their decisions. A new paper argues that algorithmic risk assessments may further muddy ...
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Steven Yoder From this story: 70% of judges don't know much about the risk assessment tools they use in deciding on sentences, bail, and the like 808d
Patch Publishes Completely Unnecessary Sex Offender Maps to Keep Kids Safe on Halloween
Lenore Skenazy - Reason.com 834d 5 tweets
There is zero evidence that sex offenders prey on trick or treaters.
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Steven Yoder Annual public serv announcement from that everything you've been told by officials and re Halloween & sex offense registries is wrong 831d
I support compensating the wrongfully convicted in New Jersey
Innocence Project 853d 2 tweets
Assembly Bill 1037 would fix New Jersey’s wrongful conviction compensation law by expanding eligibility to innocent people who were previously excluded because they pled guilty
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Steven Yoder The fruits of the near-extinction of jury trials, in 2 sentences: John Dixon pled guilty in 1991 to a sexual assault he did not commit because he feared a harsher sentence if he went to trial. After serving 10 years, DNA testing proved his innocence 853d
Did Illinois Officials Muzzle a Prisoners’ Debate over Parole Reform? | The Crime Report
The Crime Report 868d 1 tweets
A lawsuit filed last month claims inmates who started a debating team at the Stateville Il., Correctional Center were disciplined for political activism. Authorities say the program was cancelled for “security reasons.” The team’s coach gives her...
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Steven Yoder IL Corrections shuts down successful inprison debate program because... prisoners turned out to be too good at debating 868d
A non-political approach focused on what works is key to solving prison crisis
TheHill 881d 6 tweets
John Wetzel, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Corrections, says easy and common notions about recidivism are dead wrong.
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Steven Yoder Head of PA Dept of Correx: "Giving a lower-risk person who didn't commit a violent offense a long sentence, knowing it’s likely to increase their future criminal potential, is the definition of stupidity, on so many levels" 878d
Case Of Intellectually Disabled Teen Falsely Accused of Sex Offense Reveals Registry Flaws
The Appeal 884d 2 tweets
Before Edgar Coker was exonerated in a rape case, he underwent therapy to prevent him from sexually reoffending. Thousands of other kids involved in sexual offenses are forced into therapies like “relapse prevention" that experts say are...
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Steven Yoder States are forcing kids charged w/ sex crimes into treatment that may make things worse: in 882d