Author: Matt Kelley

Most records and documents created and filed within court systems and police departments in the U.S. are public. And Google is trying to make it feel that way.

The company that conquered the web and coined the phrase “Don’t Be Evil” announced yesterday in a blog post that it was adding full-text decisions from federal and state legal courts to Google Scholar.

This announcement means the free web becomes a richer source not only for education and research, but also for those of us trying to overturn injustice through the court system.

The law is still a paper profession. It’s changing, but slowly. Google’s move only covers opinions filed by courts; those are currently among the easier documents to find. For real reform, we need a sea change in the way the law looks at data. We need to bring the digital revolution to the courtroom and the police station. During the Presidential campaign last year, Barack Obama talked about a Google for Government. He’s right. We need to Google-ize our courts.

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It’s been a week since the American Medical Association reversed its long-held and counterproductive position on medicinal marijuana, but the DEA still included the AMA’s hard line on its website until this evening.

The advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — and online activists — didn’t allow the misinformation to last. The group called on members to email the Department of Justice, and now the bullet point is gone.

While I think the problem was more likely an oversight than an attempt on the part of a government agency to lie to its citizens, LEAP should be congratulated for seeing the error and getting it fixed. The government is aware that advocates for sensible drug policies are watching closely and won’t stand for misinformation. It does feel like the tables have been turned, and this victory is a sign of more to come. Kudos to LEAP for mobilizing quickly and bringing about this change.

And while we’re looking at that hideous DEA site, maybe we should urge the Justice Department to get around to redesigning the DEA website to look all Baracky like the main DOJ site.

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A Michigan man who spent five months in the Washtenaw County Jail in 2008 has been posting about his experiences in installments on the Ann Arbor Chronicle site. It’s a moving and detailed account of life on the inside, and well worth a look.

The journal started as a twitter feed, doling out jail experience 140 characters at a time. It grew into well-written chapters, covering day-to-day life in a local jail — the challenges, the characters, the slang, the work-arounds, the danger.

Here’s an excerpt:

The holding cell is so crowded now, there is no room for anybody to lay down. Some inmates tuck their arms into their uniforms and curl up.

I’ve been in a holding cell for about three hours, added to 56 hours in “suicide watch.” Now, I’m waiting for a vacancy in the overcrowded jail.

At last my name is called. After spending 60 hours in three holding cells a few feet away from the entrance, I am now going to see the jail. As I pass by Bam Bam, Frank smiles and gives me a thumbs-up. It’s an ending, of sorts. Phase I of jail ends.

But it’s all really beginning.

Read his first three chapters at the Ann Arbor Chronicle.

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The latest episode of a great of web radio show, Family Life Behind Bars, focuses on the job search after incarceration, and includes two guests who offer important perspectives on the topic.

David Koch — a pilot, business owner and author — served two years in prison before beginning his career in 1980 at the bottom rung, mowing lawns and cleaning floors at a flight school. He offers some clear and actionable advice to newly released prisoners, but he doesn’t mince words — he’s such a believer in self-determination that he almost denies the challenges are there. He says that the stigma of a felony conviction exists in the felon’s mind more than it does in society. He recommends that newly released prisoners take “jobs that nobody wants” or volunteer their time to help others and get their foot in the door. I’m not sure if he’s offering sound advice or living in a fantasy land.

From the other end of the spectrum, guest Aric Coleman was freed last month in Michigan after serving seven years in prison. He’s struggling to find a job, and he says he sees the stigma against hiring felons as real in society, but then agrees with Koch that it must first be conquered within oneself.

Listen to the podcast here.

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Andrea Young was a 13-year veteran of the Pennsylvania State Police when she sat for the state’s promotion exam. She scored sixth out of 2,000 test-takers. But she was skipped for the promotion, and she argues in a new lawsuit that the snub was just one facet of the consistent harassment she suffered as a female officer on the force.

Just 4% of state cops in Pennsylvania are women, and Young said she endured jokes about her sex life and even received a photo of one officer’s penis. Other officers admitted to her they were cheating on the test, but then accused her of cheating. She says she wasn’t only targeted because she’s a woman, but because she was a speaking up about the conditions under which she worked.

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