1. Remedies: Nearly impossible to successfully sue the government for discrimination or failure to protect.  Police Officers have “Qualified Immunity”  Cole page 166-167  The state is not responsible for protecting children from their abusers  Deshaney v. Winnebago

2. 14 th Amendment Due Process of Law: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within it jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” Can a private citizen hold the state responsible for failing to protect one from violence? Even Children?

3. Deshaney case  Joshua Deshaney: suffered severe brain damage at the hands of his father.  DSS visited Joshua on 5 separate occasions but did nothing to protect the boy  The lawsuit claimed that by failing to intervene and protect him from violence about which they knew or should have known, the agency violated Joshua's due process rights to equal protection under the law.  Supreme Court upheld the lower courts thereby blocking the lawsuit from going forward to trial.

4. When is the state accountable for wrongs suffered by the citizenry?  “The 14 th Amendment’s Due Process Clause forbids the State itself to deprive individuals of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law," but its language cannot fairly be extended to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means.”  "While the state may have been aware of the dangers that Joshua faced in the free world, it played no part in their creation, nor did it do anything to render him any more vulnerable to them."

5. Deshaney cont: Justice Blackmun’s dissent  "Poor Joshua! Victim of repeated attacks by an irresponsible, bullying, cowardly, and intemperate father, and abandoned by respondents who placed him in a dangerous predicament and who knew or learned what was going on, and yet did essentially nothing except, as the Court revealingly observes, "dutifully recorded these incidents in [their] files." It is a sad commentary upon American life, and constitutional principles - so full of late of patriotic fervor and proud proclamations about "liberty and justice for all" - that this child, Joshua DeShaney, now is assigned to live out the remainder of his life profoundly retarded. Joshua and his mother, as petitioners here, deserve - but now are denied by this Court - the opportunity to have the facts of their case considered in the light of the constitutional protection that 42 U.S.C. 1983 is meant to provide."

6. Do you agree with the majority or Justice Blackmun? Why/Why Not?

7. Consequences of the Court’s Unwillingness to Act on Behalf of Those with Less Power According to David Cole, what have been the consequences of the continuing inequalities in our crimnial justice system? According to David Cole, what have been the consequences of the continuing inequalities in our crimnial justice system? Mistrust and the erosion of law enforcement Mistrust and the erosion of law enforcement Mistrust encourages Crime Mistrust encourages Crime Perceptions of Fairness (p.172) Perceptions of Fairness (p.172) Breakdown of community Breakdown of community Deepening Societal Divisions Deepening Societal Divisions Racial Stigmatization Racial Stigmatization

8. Remedies 1: Mass Imprisonment and Prisoner Re-entry Programs Study Question: What are some of the broad challenges to effective prisoner reentry ?  In 2003, more 656, 000, state and federal prisoners returned to communities across the U.S. (DOJ Statistics)  “Cycle of Removal and Return” (Rosenfeld et al 2005)

9. What are some of the specific challenges to effective prisoner reentry ? (Cont.)  Employment & Prisoner Work Release  Health and Health Care  Housing and Reentry  Drug Use and Reentry  Families and Reentry