FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2007
Friday Edition: Is Compassion for Convicts Out of Style?
I understand the public anger that propels the notion that criminals should stay in prison/jail for as long as possible. But I was intrigued by a Web site that shows how presidential pardons and acts of clemency have dried up during the Bush administration.
Look at these statistics, keeping in mind that the prison population and the general population grew while clemency declined.
I wonder what is happening on the state level. I am willing to bet that we would find a similar trend. Think about what you could find if you searched for a dozen people who have been pardoned. Have they stayed out of trouble? Are they leading productive lives? Who is awaiting pardons at the federal level? You might start with the federal public defender's office closest to you.
Given that pardons and clemency have all but dried up at the federal level, Congressman Charles Rangel this year introduced
federal legislation that would set up guidelines for nonviolent offenders, enabling them to apply to have their records expunged if they stay clean, get a high school diploma, do a year of community service, etc.
The bill was referred to the House subcommittee in March and has 15 co-sponsors.
Blacks Disciplined More Often in Schools
What would you find if you looked locally?
The Chicago Tribune finds:
In the average New Jersey public school, African-American students are
almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled for serious
disciplinary infractions.
In Minnesota, black students are suspended 6 times as often as whites.
In Iowa, blacks make up just 5 percent of the statewide public school
enrollment but account for 22 percent of the students who get suspended.
The story continues:
In every state but Idaho, a Tribune analysis of the data shows, black
students are being suspended in numbers greater than would be expected
from their proportion of the student population. In 21 states�Illinois
among them�that disproportionality is so pronounced that the percentage
of black suspensions is more than double their percentage of the
student body. And on average across the nation, black students are
suspended and expelled at nearly three times the rate of white students.
No other ethnic group is disciplined at such a high rate, the federal
data show. Hispanic students are suspended and expelled in almost
direct proportion to their populations, while white and Asian students
are disciplined far less.
Yet black students are no more likely to misbehave than other students
from the same social and economic environments, research studies have
found.
Don't miss this bit of context:
"There simply isn't any support for the notion that, given the same set
of circumstances, African-American kids act out to a greater degree
than other kids," said
Russell Skiba, a professor of educational
psychology at Indiana University whose research focuses on race and
discipline issues in public schools. "In fact, the data indicate that
African-American students are punished more severely for the same
offense, so clearly something else is going on. We can call it
structural inequity or we can call it institutional racism."
Want to be an Astronaut?
If all the craziness here on earth is getting to be too much, maybe you need a break.
Here is where to apply.
Fake Duck Worth $1.3 Million
The Boston Globe takes us inside the curious world of duck decoys -- really expensive duck decoys. There is hidden in this story a germ of
an idea for you. The story focuses on a master craftsman of
duck decoys and mentions that the sale of "tangibles" like
folk art have rocketed since Sept. 11, 2001. It seems that in times of uncertainty, people want to hold on to something, even if that something is a fake duck. What other tangibles have been pulling in
huge amounts of money these days? It might be worth looking into the sculpture, framed art, rug and antique markets.
When Gold Sells High
The record-setting price of gold has folks talking about whether they should be buying gold coins.
There is a big difference between bullion and rare or antique coins. Are
your coin shops or antique dealers seeing more people trying to sell
their old watches, coins and old gold jewelry these days?
I have heard of some speculation that rising gold prices would ruin Christmas for jewelry stores. Stock market analysists who watch the stocks of jewelry companies say
the price of gold represents only 5 to 10 percent of the sales price of a piece of fine jewelry.
Al's Morning Multimedia: Gaming the ElectionI have been teaching a Poynter seminar this week about how to reinvent political coverage. A couple of our participants showed us some new additions to their Web sites. The additions include election games, which are very good at holding people on a Web site for long periods of time. Web site "stickiness" is essential to Web site success.
The newest of these political games is on
USA Today's Web site.
With the game, users can choose how they feel about a major issue, then see which candidate they agree with most often. The big improvement I have seen in this game over others throughout the years is that the
USA Today game also allows you to assign "weights" to the issues. So for example, if the Iraq War is THE issue you care about, you can assign a weight to it so that it is more important to the outcome of the game.
The
Des Moines (Iowa) Register also has
a fun interactive game that requires you to "name that face."
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
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