Human rights
Missing & Exploited Children
Slavery for Gold in Mali is the way artisanal gold mining is happening. 20,000 children are being exploited in this area according to Human Rights Watch. Children are forced to inhale mercury and work underground risking life and limb after being promised jobs in the tourism industry that end up as empty rhetoric. Mali is said to have laws prohibiting child labor, and are apparently not enforcing them. Africa's Gold Coast consists mainly of Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. Even though Mali is the subject of this report, the entire West African region should deserves close scrutiny.
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Drink and Drive in Oregon and you pay for your breath monitor This is a small step in mandatory minimum sentencing that UWM actually agrees with this as an example of what many alcoholics have been able to get away from for too long.
Painkillers will put you in prison under North Carolina's opium law A few Vicodin or Percocet tablets could earn you a minimum of 6 to 7 years in prison. Under having an ounce of prescription pain pills could land a 7 to 10 year sentence.
Erik Weyant - Shot a gun into the air without intent to harm people in order to protect himself and his girlfriend. He was sentenced under Florida's 10-20-life law to a minimum of 20 years.
Tracy Cowan - Sentenced 20 to 40 years for having a residence that she allowed the father of her children to have keys in order to provide groceries for their child. Her boyfriend was connected to drug activities and unknown to her had hidden cocaine inside a residence that was not her own. Even though she had no knowledge of and none of her fingerprints were found on any drug paraphernalia, she was held 100% accountable.
Prosecutors More Powerful than Judges in exercising authority given to them larger by Congressional laws passed in the 1980's when the war on drugs was declared. Motions such as an 851, 5k or safety valve considerations have resulted in just under 7% of drug related cases going to trial.
Homeschooling
Aurora Robinson a single African American mother successfully begins the process of homeschooling her 2 teenage sons in lieu of what she determined to be an ineffective school system.
The Indigo Nation Homeschooler's Association is a collection of 12 families that formed a cooperative designed to educate their own children after observing what they defined as a collective miseducation process taking place.
Justice System Reform
Englewood Four Exonerated After DNA for the 1991 rape and murder of a 14 year old girl. These men spent more than 15 years in prison and were registered as sex offenders for a crime they did not commit.
Oregon Commission Recommends Drawdown of Mandatory Minimum Sentences The Oregon Commission on Public Safety issued a report that will hopefully be used to institute real reform to the state's justice system. In it they not only examined how prison costs could be better spent, but stated that many of the sentences handed down are creating an undue burden to the state.