Steven Yoder
Steven Yoder has written about criminal justice and other domestic policy issues for Salon, Al Jazeera America, The Fiscal Times, and others—online at @syodertweets.
Recent Articles
The Coming Asylum Squeeze
Trump administration policies will force a growing number of asylum seekers back to their countries, where they could face threats, violence, and death.
Dec 13, 2016
A growing number of the Central Americans showing up on the U.S. southern border are fleeing for their lives, not coming in search of American jobs, as president-elect Donald Trump likes to suggest. But under a Trump administration, those fleeing violence for asylum here may soon find the U.S. is no longer a safe haven. Trump has pledged to deport between two and three million undocumented immigrants with “criminal records.” That’s a shift from the mass deportations he had pledged on the campaign trail, but still a goal that immigration experts say could not be achieved without sweeping raids and violations of due process. Among those who will bear the brunt of Trump’s plan will be immigrants validly seeking asylum in the U.S. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras now have some of the highest murder rates in the world . The number of asylum seekers coming to the U.S. from those three countries has more than tripled in three years, hitting more than 49,000 in...
Getting Beyond Prison: A Vermont Case Study
The federal sentencing reform advancing in Congress would expand programs designed to cut recidivism among released offenders. One state thinks it’s found a solution—give former prisoners a circle of volunteer supporters.
May 04, 2016
Seated in an office of the Montpelier City Hall on a recent April morning, an ex-criminal offender whom we’ll call Gene sat playing a parlor game of sorts with three community volunteers. One by one, the four participants took turns answering the questions printed on a box of cards that they passed around, which included such conversation starters as: “What’s your basic philosophy of life?” “What’s your fondest memory?” and “On your deathbed, what will be your last thought?” It was something of an unlikely exercise for Gene, who spent ten years behind bars for a sexual assault and now is in his mid-thirties. But in the18 months since Gene has been out of prison, he hasn’t violated any of his stringent probation conditions, and hasn’t reoffended. And his probation officer in part credits it to his participation in this and other meetings run by Circles of Support and Accountability, a prison re-entry program run by the...
Do Trump Rallies Trample on Protesters’ Free Speech?
Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, and his campaign’s eagerness to eject protesters, might prompt First Amendment lawsuits—including against police officers.
Mar 22, 2016
Until now, violent outbreaks at Donald Trump rallies have raised questions mostly about the obstreperous billionaire’s role in inciting aggression; whether Bernie Sanders encouraged protesters, as Trump alleges; and whether anti-Trump agitators or pro-Trump supporters have been to blame. But the political skirmishes that follow Trump wherever he goes also spotlight another group of players whose actions may put the First Amendment on a collision course with public safety: the police officers, private security details and Secret Service officials struggling to keep the peace. The confused and overlapping roles of Trump’s various law enforcement escorts have made it tough to assess exactly what has happened at various rallies. And it’s put some police officers at legal risk, particularly if it turns out that the Trump campaign has been asking them to eject people without cause. Take what happened February 29 at Valdosta State University in Georgia. Three weeks after...
Why Are Police Shootings of Innocents on the Rise?
Oct 31, 2013
AP Photo/The Chronicle-Tribune, Jeff Morehead In New York City, police mistakes get played out on a big stage. In September, the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) performance was caught on camera in crowded Times Square when two officers shot at an unarmed suspect, missed him, and hit two bystanders instead. The man had been lurching in and out of traffic, ignoring police commands to stop, and at one point pulled his hand out of his pants as if he had a gun, according to a report in The New York Times . It was the latest in the department’s two-year run of an unusually high number of unintentional shootings of innocents. Last August, police wounded nine bystanders while unloading 16 rounds at a suspect who’d just shot a co-worker on the street near the Empire State Building. In separate cases last year, cops wounded four other bystanders. Gun battles and shoot-don’t-shoot decisions can be appallingly hard for even experienced cops to handle well. Low light,...
When Kids Stand Their Ground
Oct 23, 2013
AP Photo/Phil Sears On September 20, 21-year-old Bryon Champ was shot at by rival gang members, who grazed his leg with a bullet. That night, Champ and three allies allegedly went to the other gang’s neighborhood and opened fire on a crowd with an assault rifle, wounding 13 people, including a 3-year-old boy. They have been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder. Our nation's libertarian approach to guns has exacted a terrible toll on young people. The U.S. firearms homicide rate is 20 times that of other industrialized countries. But for those ages 15 to 24, it’s an off-the-charts 43 times higher . And until this year, a 17-year congressional ban on federally funded firearms research wrecked efforts to systematically understand the links between state gun laws and gun casualties. (The Obama administration lifted the ban in January.) Violence and easy access to guns have especially created a lethal witches’ brew in poor neighborhoods. Crime experts agree on...
