America: Leader of the Unfree World

On Friday, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to allow nearly 50,000 nonviolent federal drug offenders to seek lower sentences. The commission's decision retroactively applied an earlier change in sentencing guidelines to now cover roughly half of those serving federal drug sentences. Endorsed by both the Department of Justice and prison-reform advocates, the move is a significant step forward—though in a global context, still modest—in reversing decades of mass incarceration.

How large is America's prison problem? More than 2.4 million people are behind bars in the United States today, either awaiting trial or serving a sentence. That's more than the combined population of 15 states, all but three U.S. cities, and the U.S. armed forces. They're scattered throughout a constellation of 102 federal prisons, 1,719 state prisons, 2,259 juvenile facilities, 3,283 local jails, and many more military, immigration, territorial, and Indian Country facilities.

Compared to the rest of the world, these numbers are staggering. Here's how the United States' incarceration rate stacks up against those of other modern liberal democracies like Britain and Canada:

States of Incarceration: The Global Context

That graph is from a recent report by Prison Policy Initiative, an invaluable resource on mass incarceration. (PPI also has a disturbing graph comparing state incarceration rates with those of other countries around the world, which I highly recommend looking at here.) "Although our level of crime is comparable to those of other stable, internally secure, industrialized nations," the report says, "the United States has an incarceration rate far higher than any other country."

Some individual states like Louisiana contribute disproportionately, but no state is free from mass incarceration. Disturbingly, many states' prison populations outrank even those of dictatorships and illiberal democracies around the world. New York jails more people per capita than Rwanda, where tens of thousands await trial for their roles in the 1994 genocide. California, Illinois, and Ohio each have a higher incarceration rate than Cuba and Russia. Even Maine and Vermont imprison a greater share of people than Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Egypt...

Excerpt, read the entire article here.

#BringBackOurGirls: 276 Schoolgirls Abducted in Nigeria, Threatened to be Sold into Slavery and Forced into Marriage

By Leann D. Stanick, J.D.

The international community has wearily awaited authorization to intervene as Nigerian families have been begging the government to recover 276 schoolgirls who were kidnapped from their school and hid in an undisclosed location in the forest. Threats of selling the girls, aged between 16 and 18, into slavery, forced marriages, and rape have outraged human rights activists worldwide.

On April 14, 276 the students were kidnapped in Chibok by a terrorist organization known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram, which translates to “Western education is sin”, states that its aim is to impose strict enforcement of the Sharia law across Africa.

A member of Boko Haram stated in a video obtained by Agence-France Presse:

“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. [. . .] There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.” 

After the initial abduction, at least 8 more girls were kidnapped from a nearby village and 150 people were killed—some burned alive—in an attack on Gamboru Ngala, causing rising international pressures to find the missing girls.

International Intervention

Former prime minister and current United Nations’ special advisor on girls’ education, Gordon Brown, launched a fundraising and awareness campaign, stating:

“We cannot stop terrorism overnight, but we can make sure that its perpetrators are aware that murdering and abducting schoolchildren is a heinous crime that the international authorities are determined to punish.” 

Initially, foreign aid was mostly uninvited. As one representative put it: "If countries can help us by way of arming our people through modern surveillance equipment, for defence and all that, it will be most welcome. [But] what the Boko Haram is doing is not a formal kind of fight but a guerrilla kind of fight, and it is only the local people that will tell you how to fight it." However, after almost a month has passed without any signs of rescue, it seems that the Nigerian government is now more willing to concede to outside assistance. Efforts to retrieve the girls have been frivolous due to suspected leaks in the chain of command, which is evidenced by rescue plans being repeatedly ambushed.

Only after the Boko Haram attacked the village hosting troops that were searching for the girls did President Goodluck Jonathan accept U.S., British, and Chinese offers to aid in finding the girls. The United States offers law enforcement and military consultation, in conjunction with a joint coordination cell at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja aimed at providing intelligence, investigations, and hostage negotiation expertise. Great Britain is sending a team of experts. Satellite and intelligence services are also to be provided by China to assist in the search. 

International Cooperation in Countering Attacks on Human Rights 

The Boko Haram has been terrorizing Nigeria for years and is responsible for bombings, murders, attacks, and countless human rights violations. It is unfortunate that it took such a deplorable act as kidnapping 267 schoolgirls during their final exams to convince the Nigerian government to put down its shield of state sovereignty. At this point, it is no longer about government control, or a lack thereof. It is about violence against women, forced marriage, rape, human trafficking, modern-day slavery, kidnapping, mass murder, and other related crimes against humanity. 

With the advent of social media and other forms of technology spreading the news of the missing girls faster than ever, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls has gone viral. Since the news stories developed so quickly, why is international governmental communication, cooperation, and interdependence still a seemingly slow-moving wheel? For the sake of international human rights and the girls themselves, the aid of three major superpowers ought to effect change in combating the Boko Haram immediately. 

Recent Updates

A Boko Haram leader recently stated on a second video that the girls would be released if imprisoned members of Boko Haram are freed. Approximately 100 of the kidnapped girls were seen in the video released again by Agence France-Presse. The Nigerian government continues to explore negotiation options. 

The United States is providing aerial surveillance, China and France are helping with search efforts, and Israel plans to send a team of counterterrorism experts.

Sources: CNN, The Guardian, USA Today

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Leann D. Stanick graduated from Florida Coastal School of Law having earned an International & Comparative Law Certificate, and recently passed the New York and New Jersey state bar exams. She completed an internship at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the Caribbean Law Clinic, and study abroad programs in Rwanda, South Africa, and the Cayman Islands. She is a new member of the ABA Section of International Law, International Human Rights Committee.