Things to be aware of

2020 National Crime Victims Week

Recognizing the important role corrections officers play in our criminal justice system.

Anthony Dixon, Director of Community Engagement Parole Preparation Project, calls on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant emergency clemencies to older people in prison and others with compromised immune systems in response to the death of a person incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility who tested positive for COVID-19 April 3, 2020 outside the prison in Ossining, New York. Juan Mosquero was the first incarcerated person with the virus to die in a New York State prison. (Photo: Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

Summit County, Ohio, will launch a new smartphone probation app this week, with 1,000 of the 4,000 people currently on probation using an app that monitors their whereabouts with GIS technology.

The virus arrived in San Quentin after busloads of prisoners were transferred from another facility where infections were rising. What happened is a warning for the nation’s prisons, experts say.

Rehabilitation, or rehabilitative justice, purports that the purpose of the system is to correct undesirable behavior so that convicted criminals don’t reoffend when they are released back into society. This goal seems much more worthwhile and morally defensible than retribution. The problem, however, is that at present rehabilitative justice just doesn’t work.