Little project for myself

On Friday I learned I have a captive audience of real-life attorneys and paralegals following my blog.

So the pressure is on to write about something cooler than mail.

An audience member, if you will, suggests I explore how easy or difficult it is to get information from the courthouse.

I think I know what kind of information I will pursue.

The March Atlantic features an article about “prison blocks.”

The city blocks of a particular New Orleans’ neighborhood are sort of a landing pad for people who cycle in and out of prison. Hurricane Katrina interrupted this cycle, but it is re-emerging.

The article includes a map that shows, by block, where people lived before they entered prison in 2007. The researcher, Laura Kurgan, also figured in the cost of incarcerating the people that used to live on each block.

I am wondering whether a similar map could be made for Lincoln’s “Core,” whose poverty and higher crime rates were examined in Lincoln Journal Star last spring.

So, when I have time, I will see whether the government will help me find the information I need to make a similar map. I don’t know whether I will actually make a map — this is more an exercise in info gathering.

(Thanks to R.U. in Berkeley, Calif., for bringing the Atlantic article to my attention.)

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