Police departments are understaffed and recruiting has become more difficult. In recent years, the number of communities using community responders to handle non-violent situations has skyrocketed.
Of the 12,910 guns recovered from crimes from 2017 to 2023, 93 percent were linked to an initial sale outside of the state, three times higher than the national average and far exceeding second-ranked Baltimore.
Black Americans are still being incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of whites. There’s much that state lawmakers can do to reduce inequities and make legal processes fairer.
Laws that were enacted to provide community-based alternatives to the state’s youth prisons may actually be fostering a new “shadow” juvenile system in which officials are circumventing transparency laws behind closed doors.
New Mexico and Minnesota are the two most recent states to allow people previously convicted of felonies to vote upon leaving prison, following 21 other states. Ten more states are considering similar legislation.
A $70 million effort is trying to put a third party on the 2024 presidential ballot. Meanwhile Democrats present a short target list, crime doesn't pay and more.
Everyone in the criminal justice system — sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, parole boards — has enormous discretion. Some lawmakers believe that authority is now being abused.
Nearly 10 percent of the state can’t participate in elections because they have been convicted of a felony. Restoring the right to vote to those who have completed their time is complicated and frustrating, advocates say.
The legislation that awaits Gov. Beshear’s signature would increase the starting pay of security workers at juvenile detention centers, with the hopes of retaining staff, and require better mental health services for the youths.
The technique, which teaches how to identify guilt and deception from the word choice, cadence and grammar of those calling 911, relies on junk science. But law enforcement agencies continue to use it.
Twenty-seven states allow capital punishment, but public support for it has declined over the decades. Fifty-five percent of Americans support the death penalty for convicted murderers, the second-lowest support since 1972.
Lawmakers in some states are pushing to make it harder for defendants to avoid pretrial detention. There are better ways to protect public safety that don’t conflict with the presumption of innocence.
A bill would require jails to establish polling places exclusively for prisoners to ensure those in detention centers are able to enact their right to vote. The legislation does not extend to those convicted of a felony.
The First Step Act was meant to compassionately release people from federal prison who are terminally ill or aging and who pose little to no safety threat. But data shows that judges rejected more than 80 percent of requests.
Proposed legislation would remove protections surrounding school librarians who allow students to check out books found to be obscene and would, instead, expose them to a misdemeanor of a “high and aggravated nature.”
Republican and Democratic legislators can be counted on pulling in opposite directions on ESG investing, police reform and LGBTQ issues, where the focus will be on transgender rights and school curriculum.
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