The Crime Report

Viewpoints

Spock vs Kirk: The Battle Over NY Bail Reform

By Greg Berman | 2 hours ago

The angry debate that has erupted over the state’s landmark decision to eliminate money bail for most offenses isn’t helping the public understand the complexities of making long-term change in the justice system, writes the director of the Center on Court Innovation.

Media

Covering America’s Corrections Systems: A Media ‘Handbook’

By TCR Staff | 2 hours ago

The complex challenges of U.S. corrections rarely enter the public debate, and legislators and practitioners contemplating changes are hampered by simplistic rhetoric. In an effort to reinforce evidence-based coverage, The Crime Report has published an updated “handbook” for journalists that may prove equally useful for advocates and practitioners.

U.S. Department of Justice

Stone Sentencing Heightens Drama at DOJ, But Gets it Past Hurdle

By Crime and Justice News | 2 hours ago

The scenes inside the courtroom where Roger Stone was sentenced Thursday raised more questions about what in the world is happening inside Attorney General William Barr’s DOJ, but officials also expressed relief that the sentence of three years and four months roughly corresponded to what U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson called the “unprecedented” second recommendation directed by the AG.

Sex Crime

Olympic Wrestler Accuses University of Michigan Doctor of Abuse

By Crime and Justice News | 4 hours ago

He is the first athlete to make public accusations against Anderson following complaints this week from other former students that the doctor sexually abused them decades ago. The revelations echo high-profile sexual abuse allegations made against sports doctors at other universities.

Prisons

TX Closing 2 Prisons Amid Dwindling Inmate Population

By Crime and Justice News | 4 hours ago

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s executive director, Bryan Collier, said diversion, treatment and education programs, as well as a low rate of people getting sent back to prison, led to the decision. Crime rates have also decreased in Texas, according to reports from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Immigration

MA Judges Slam ICE for Deporting Defendants

By Crime and Justice News | 5 hours ago

The judges cited a new case in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stepped in and deported an illegal immigrant before his criminal cases wrapped up, and said ICE didn’t let the courts or prosecutors know that would be happening

TCR Special Reports

‘The Extraordinary Ordinary Prisoner’

By Stephen Handelman | 23 hours ago

Jeremiah Bourgeois was convicted of murder at age 14, with every expectation he would spend the remainder of his life in prison. A collection of his writings for The Crime Report, published by Amazon this week, tells an extraordinary story of how one man found a path back to redemption—and freedom— after spending 27 years inside America’s carceral state. Bourgeois will be a featured speaker at a John Jay College conference Thursday.

Community Supervision

New York City Success Story: Leaving ‘Mass Imprisonment’ Behind

By Vincent Schiraldi | 23 hours ago

While efforts should always continue to reduce unnecessary incarceration and improve jail conditions, New Yorkers can arguably soon say they live in a post-mass incarceration town, writes former NYC probation chief and Columbia Justice Lab co-founder Vincent Schiraldi.

Elections 2020

Bloomberg 'Stop-and-Frisk' Policy Condemned at Debate

By TCR Staff | 24 hours ago

Michael Bloomberg came under fire at the presidential debate for his “stop and frisk” policy while mayor of New York City, and his apology did not seem to appease the other candidates, and has flunked at least one media fact check.

Courts

Court: Released FL Felons Can Register to Vote Still Owing Fees, Fines

By Crime and Justice News | February 20, 2020

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Tallahassee federal judge’s preliminary injunction that a state law implementing Amendment 4 amounted to an unfair poll tax that would disenfranchise many of the released felons.

Department of Justice

Roger Stone Sentencing Expected Amid Upheaval at DOJ

The case against Stone, 67, a longtime friend of Trump’s, has become a cause célèbre among the president’s supporters. Trump has attacked the prosecutors, the jury forewoman and the federal judge overseeing the trial, casting his former campaign adviser as the victim of a vendetta by law enforcement.

Immigration

ICE Makes Arrests at CA Courthouse Despite State Law

ICE said California’s law doesn’t supersede federal law and “will not govern the conduct of federal officers acting pursuant to duly-enacted laws passed by Congress that provide the authority to make administrative arrests of removable aliens inside the United States.”

Guns

Everytown for Gun Safety to Pump $8 Million into Texas Races

Everytown for Gun Safety unveiled plans Wednesday to use the same strategies it employed last year in Virginia, where Democrats won control of the state house for the first time in two decades. Since then, Virginia lawmakers have advanced proposals to expand background checks and limit handgun purchases, but a bill to ban assault-style weapons stalled this week.

Prisons

TN Inmate Latest to Choose Electrocution Over Lethal Injection

Nicholas Sutton, 58, has not indicated why he chose electrocution — an option for inmates whose crimes were committed before the state adopted lethal injection as its preferred execution method — but other inmates have said they thought the electric chair would be quicker and less painful.

Bail

Bail System ‘Improvements’ Considered by Pennsylvania Supreme Court

In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court noted at the outset of its review: “Any attempt to advocate for the abolition of cash bail will not be entertained.” And the special master appointed to oversee the review, Senior Judge John Cleland, declined to even use the phrase bail reform in his December report to the court, arguing the system is fundamentally sound.

Research & Analysis

Reforming the System

A ‘Record’ 152 Laws Reducing Reentry Barriers Passed in 2019

New Jersey topped the list of 43 states that passed legislation last year aimed at reducing barriers faced by people with criminal records in employment, voting, jury duty, and many other areas of daily life, according to the latest annual report of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center.
Pretrial Release

Are Pretrial Risk Assessments Biased? The Debate Sharpens

The Pretrial Justice Institute has changed its view and now opposes tools advising judges on releases. Two experts issue a rebuttal.
Science & Technology

Facial Recognition: Beware the ‘Long Arm of the Algorithm’

A pilot project in facial recognition used by the South Wales police has raised doubts about whether scientific coding is sufficient for making a case against criminal suspects without the assistance of human judgment, say two UK researchers.
Science & Technology

Police Use of Artificial Intelligence Poses ‘Alarming’ Threats to Privacy: Paper

The growing deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by police forces requires new vigilance about balancing civil liberties and public safety, warns a professor at the University of California-Davis School of Law.
Prisoner Reentry

Report Gives States Failing Grade in Inmate Education

A new report by the Council of State Governments Justice Center says that only 10 states allow all people behind bars to access college and employment certification courses, while the rest prohibit some inmates from participating.
Immigration

Criminal Prosecutions for Illegal Border Crossings Dropped 37% During 2019

The sharp drop between October 2018 and October 2019 was recorded even as the number of undocumented individuals apprehended at the border increased, suggesting a shift in DOJ priorities since the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

WORTH A READ

Viewpoints

Polarized Politics Got You Down? Chill Out With Justice Reform
By Emily Mooney | February 19, 2020
Who would have imagined that former lifer-turned-criminal-justice-advocate Alice Johnson and President Donald Trump could share the goal of healing our broken justice system? Despite today’s divisive politics, bipartisanship is alive and well in the world of justice, and it offers hope for real change, writes an R Street Institute Research Fellow.
cash register justice

How a Kentucky County Escaped the ‘Fines and Fees’ Trap
By Ben Kleppinger/Advocate-Messenger | February 19, 2020
For years, Boyle County in Kentucky’s bluegrass region has taken 50 percent off money paid to inmates by their families as a way to fund jail operations. But recently, authorities decided that the fee didn’t “further any legitimate goal of the criminal justice system.”
Elections 2020

Some Dem Justice Reforms Could Fuel a New ‘Crime Wave,’ Warns Critic
By TCR Staff | February 18, 2020
A point-by-point analysis of Democrats’ justice reform proposals by criminologist Barry Latzer, writing in the National Review in the runup to the Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses, argues that efforts to make the system “less punitive” endanger public safety.
Reforming the System

Did NY Bail Reform Push Crime Up?
By TCR Staff | February 18, 2020
An analyst takes an honest look at the numbers, as rhetoric heats up on both sides.

Featured

Bill Moyers on Justice

By TCR Staff | December 1, 2017

Moyers was honored as TCR’s 2018 “Justice Media Trailblazer.” Watch the video of his remarks at the Feb 15, 2018 John Jay College dinner here.

The Crime Report - Your Complete Criminal Justice Resource

Viewpoints

Spock vs Kirk: The Battle Over NY Bail Reform

By Greg Berman | 2 hours ago

Media

Covering America’s Corrections Systems: A Media ‘Handbook’

By TCR Staff | 2 hours ago

U.S. Department of Justice

Stone Sentencing Heightens Drama at DOJ, But Gets it Past Hurdle

By Crime and Justice News | 2 hours ago

Sex Crime

Olympic Wrestler Accuses University of Michigan Doctor of Abuse

By Crime and Justice News | 4 hours ago

Prisons

TX Closing 2 Prisons Amid Dwindling Inmate Population

By Crime and Justice News | 4 hours ago

Immigration

MA Judges Slam ICE for Deporting Defendants

By Crime and Justice News | 5 hours ago

Courts

Court: Released FL Felons Can Register to Vote Still Owing Fees, Fines

By Crime and Justice News | February 20, 2020

Department of Justice

Roger Stone Sentencing Expected Amid Upheaval at DOJ

Immigration

ICE Makes Arrests at CA Courthouse Despite State Law

Guns

Everytown for Gun Safety to Pump $8 Million into Texas Races

Prisons

TN Inmate Latest to Choose Electrocution Over Lethal Injection

Bail

Bail System ‘Improvements’ Considered by Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Trump Continues Tweeting About DOJ After Barr Speaks Out

White House Makes Moves to Take More Control Over Pardons, Commutations

Weinstein Jurors Zero in on Annabella Sciorra’s Rape Allegation

Rapper Pop Smoke Killed in Hollywood Hills Home Invasion