The Washington Post and New York Times have articles on the results of a report issued by the Pew Center on the States, which found a Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison, approximately 1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars.  You can find a copy of the report here.  That is extraordinary, especially when you consider that the US puts more people behind bars both in absolute (~2.3 million persons) and percentage (~1% of its population) numbers -- even more than China. 

As both articles point out, the cost of this retribution policy has caught up with the federal and state governments, with state governments spending on average approximately 7% of their budgets on corrections, or cumulatively spending nearly $50 billion per year.  That figure does not include the federal government's expenditures.  All of that money comes from taxpayers' pockets.  And that's just the economic costs; that doesn't even include the social costs of a perceived racially unjust system (see the figures comparing incarceration rates among various races in the articles).

Have all those promises by politicians of being "tough on crime" (i.e., increasing incarceration sentences) really paid off?  Is incarceration really the most (cost-/socially-)effective way of punishing people?  No one disputes that violent offenders should be kept behind bars.  However, it seems that putting non-violent offenders behind bars for extended periods of time not only punishes the offender, but also the community in terms of taxpayer dollars that could be spent on arguably better pursuits like education and healthcare.

A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Wikileaks.org to be shut down.  Wikileaks is a forum used to post leaked documents for public analysis in order to discourage unethical behavior by governments or corporations.  You can find an article about it in the New York Times here. 

While the case implicates freedom of speech and First Amendment issues, I find it amusing that the action was brought by a bank whose disgruntled ex-employee leaked documents revealing the bank's "trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion."  The bank is Julius Baer Bank and Trust of the Cayman Islands.  I imagine they will have to revise their trust structures now, and will probably try to keep their employees more content. 

You can find a quick tutorial on money laundering here.

The Criminal Justice Section of the ABA is holding its 22nd Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime Conference at the Miami Marriott on March 5th, 6th & 7th.  Among the panel discussions is “Internal Investigations in an Age of Uncertainty: Where Do We Go from Here?”

Ed Little will be one of the speakers and expects some vigorous debate among the panelists, especially the DOJ representatives, given the written submission by Ed and Lisa Cahill – “Corporate Cooperation: Doing the Right Thing or Assisted Suicide?” – being published in the bound volume & CD available at the event.

The ABA expects record attendance at this annual event, and many law firms, accounting firms and investigative firms are hosting competing cocktail parties at various hotspots in South Beach.  (Regrettably there won’t be as many potential clients in attendance.)

For a downloadable PDF version of the written submission "Corporate Cooperation: Doing the Right Thing or Assisted Suicide?", please click the icon to the right.