The new laws will make it easier for long-term inmates to apply for parole and for ex-inmates to expunge their criminal records after serving time.
Last year’s 17 percent decline in homicides and 10 percent drop in nonfatal shootings contributed to a decrease of about 3 percent in reported violent crime overall. However, both property crimes and auto thefts did increase.
Locking up a California state prisoner for one year costs nearly twice as much as tuition at the state’s top private universities. The number surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and remains high because of inmate medical costs and pay boosts for prison guards and other workers.
Inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith has appealed a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that would allow his execution through the use of nitrogen gas, a method which has never been used on a human before.
Most states set repayment periods for criminal fines, fees and restitution far longer than they do for consumer and civil debt — in some cases for decades. The consequences are severe.
Is crime out of control? The homicide rate went down 12 percent last year. Still, there’s more than one kind of crime, more than one data set and more than one way to spin things.
The laws target low-income and minority renters for eviction, violate their civil rights and fail to reduce crime.
States define recidivism differently, which can result in misleading interpretations of the statistics.
For five decades, Idaho has been putting mental health patients into prisons, despite receiving 14 notices that it needs a secure mental health unit that is not a prison.
The Dallas native was the state’s first Black district attorney and used DNA testing in cases, leading to about two dozen exonerations. His Conviction Integrity Unit has been nationally and internationally recognized.
Effingham County, Ill., has seen a decrease in the number of inmates and a reduction in caseloads just three months after the state ended cash bail. However, the long-term impacts of the end of cash bail remains to be seen.
States around the country are enacting common-sense, bipartisan reforms that will help break the cycle of poverty, crime and incarceration, making our system fairer and our communities safer.
States are passing new laws to combat retail theft, though government data doesn’t show that it is actually increasing. None of the new laws are likely to reduce crime and could disproportionately impact marginalized groups.
A federal judge excoriated two high-ranking officials within the state’s Department of Homeland Security for their roles in the state’s efforts to intentionally destroy evidence in a class-action lawsuit.
The state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has partnered with CSU Dominguez Hills and has enrolled 33 students in a two-year master’s program in humanities. The program launched in September.
The attorney general’s office is ending its pursuit of criminal prosecution over the Flint water crisis after seven years of no convictions, following the state Supreme Court’s rejection of efforts to revive charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder.
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