Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Fall 2010 issue of Alaska Justice Forum

The most recent issue of the Alaska Justice Forum features articles on school resource officers (SROs); methamphetamine prevention efforts; and a recent 9th Circuit ruling on felon disenfranchisement. The 8-page issue includes the following articles:

Alaska Justice Forum 26(4), Winter 2010"Police in Schools: Public Perceptions" by Brad A. Myrstol

This articles provides a history of School Resource Officers (SROs) — certified, sworn police officers who are employed by a local police agency but are assigned to work in local schools — and presents results of public perceptions of SROs in Anchorage School District schools based on questions in the 2009 Anchorage Community Survey.

"Measuring and Fighting Meth Use in Alaska and the U.S." by Marny Rivera and Jenny Baker

A description of efforts nationally and in Alaska to combat the use of methamphetamines, with particular focuse on the work of the Alaska Meth Education (AME) Project, which collaborates with local governments — including the Municipality of Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough, and the City and Borough of Juneau — to educate youth and the general public about the dangers of meth use.

"9th Circuit Update: En Banc Order Vacates Felon Disenfranchisement Opinion" by Deborah Periman

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stood alone among the circuits in holding, in Farrakhan v. Gregoire, that state law denying felons the right to vote is a violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, where discrimination in the state’s criminal justice system results in race-based denial of the vote. Now an en banc order by the 9th Circuit has vacated that decision, which was discussed in a previous Forum article. Implications of this decision are discussed.