Mandating treatment for drug possessors: The impact of Senate Bill 123 on the criminal justice system in Kansas

Kansas' Senate Bill 123 (SB 123) created mandatory community-based drug treatment for individuals convicted of first- or second-offense drug possession. This study examined the impact of SB 123 on sentencing practices, supervision, and treatment services across Kansas. The study indicated that SB 123 diverted drug possessors not from prison, as intended, but from one form of community supervision to another, subjecting more offenders to greater surveillance and longer sentences. Such “front-end” net-widening was due to the structure of the law itself and a lack of understanding of pre-implementation sentencing practices. In some counties, judges engaged in some circumvention of the law, suggesting possible local-level differences in buy-in among courtroom actors; such circumvention was also focused on offenders with more serious criminal histories, indicating judicial-level evaluations of offender amenability to treatment. While SB 123 offenders received the treatment they were assessed to need, the provision of treatment remained heavily concentrated in a few providers, increasing disparities in access to treatment and making the success of the program highly dependant on a small number of institutional actors.     

EU DEVELOPMENTS IN IP, IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS LAW

This is the latest edition of Baker & McKenzie’s column on recent developments in EC law relating to IP, IT and Telecommunications. This article is updated for each edition of this Journal to reflect those developments on a European level which are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, E-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. For clarity, developments are not always kept on the table once finalized, readers should revert to earlier issues/academic texts for legislation which is more than six months old. This is a reference guide, and links to outside websites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links.     

Self-Interest,Automaticity, and the Psychology of Conflict of Interest

This paper argues that self-interest and concern for others influence behavior through different cognitive systems. Self-interest is automatic, viscerally compelling, and often unconscious. Understanding one's ethical and professional obligations to others, in contrast, often involves a more thoughtful process. The automatic nature of self-interest gives it a primal power to influence judgment and make it difficult for people to understand its influence on their judgment, let alone eradicate its influence. This dual-process view offers new insights into how conflict of interest operate and it suggests some new avenues for addressing them or limiting some of their greatest dangers.