The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/)
Released under the First Step Act, a former lifer recounts how he overcame the dysfunction of prison life to realize the “error of his ways.” He says there are many more like him.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) reintroduced a proposal to create a 14-member bipartisan commission. An early backer is presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-CA).
As three major drug distributors entered talks to settle litigation brought by state and local governments, Democrats in Tuesday’s debate joined in calls for prison terms for key execs. Kamala Harris compared them to “high-level dope dealers.”
John E. Reid and Associates Inc., a police interrogation training and consulting firm, sued Netflix, writer-director Ava DuVernay, and her distribution company Array over a single disparaging comment made by a character in their “Central Park Five” docudrama “When They See Us.”
When a white Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed a black woman in her house, the victim was holding a gun after she heard noises outside her window. Holding a gun inside a home is legal in Texas.
Defendants said the government cast too wide a net by alleging a vast racketeering conspiracy that includes coaches, an athletics administrator and others. Actress Felicity Huffman reported to prison to serve a 14-day term.
“Get to work or go to jail” is a looming threat in many court cases, which means workers struggle to speak up, said Tia Koonse of the UCLA Labor Center.
After the Parkland shooting last year, which left 17 dead, Florida legislators required school districts to station at least one armed official, including civilians, on every K-12 campus. School districts in Georgia and Arkansas created their own police departments.
Elder financial abuse is being dubbed the “crime of the 21st century” as family members and outsiders target the retirement savings that seniors have built up. The AARP has launched an online training course for banks and credit unions.
Seattle plans to hire experts who would study how 20 other cities investigate police officers who are accused of misconduct.
Two couples and three young children said they made an unexpected detour at the U.S.-Canada border and ended up in a Pennsylvania detention center for a week. U.S. authorities said they were trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
The owners and two employees of the GirlsDoPorn website face sex-trafficking charges in what federal investigators call a “scheme to deceive and coerce young women to appear in sex videos.” A criminal complaint in San Diego alleges that some women were threatened with “legal action or outing” if they didn’t perform.
President Donald Trump asked the parents of a British teenager killed by an American driver who claimed diplomatic immunity to meet with the woman. The parents said they wanted the meeting in Britain with therapists and mediators.
As the national murder total fell, Baltimore’s is rising again. Seventeen people were shot last weekend, four of them fatally.
Software is credited with helping Oakland cut its annual total of shootings from 553 to 277.
Moyers received TCR’s annual “Justice Trailblazer” award at a John Jay College dinner Feb. 15. See the video of his remarks here.