The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/)
A program launched this year by the Illinois Department of Corrections transfers inmates with less than four years remaining on their sentence to a facility that provides life-skills training and job counseling. The sense of hope among participants is hard to miss, says a reporter who attended a recent “Day with Dad” weekend at the Kewanee Re-Entry Center.
The FBI says overall reports of violent crime increased by 8.6 percent in 2016, and homicides were up 4.1 percent. One analyst called the increases “ominous,” following similar upticks in 2015. Others point out that crime in the U.S. is still at modern historical lows. “What’s going on?” asked another expert. “No one really knows.”
Police said Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, a Sudanese emigre, walked into a small church just after services ended and fire indiscriminately at churchgoers. He apparently was wounded during a confrontation with an armed congregant.
The disgraced former congressman from New York City will serve prison time for sending sexual messages to a 15-year-old girl. He had pleaded guilty to transmitting obscene material to a minor and was hoping for probation to deal with a self-described “sickness.”
A lawsuit by Shari Webber-Dunn, a convicted murderer and practicing Thelemite, alleges that women prisoners in Kansas are subjected to endless Christian imagery and propaganda, including an 8-foot wooden cross, Christian-themed radio and TV broadcasts, and housing units plastered with proselytizing messages.
The prototype court, funded with federal money, has diverted 113 people to treatment after they tested positive for opioids during arrests in Erie County, N.Y., which recorded about 300 overdose deaths last year.
Starting Oct. 18, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be banned from entering the United States. Citizens of Iraq and Venezuela also face heightened scrutiny.
Kansas City authorities say at least 10 roadway shootings have occurred since Aug. 17 on the east and south sides. Police say they appear to be random incidents by a number of shooters. “It’s ridiculous,” said a police spokeswoman.
Andrzej Duda introduced a law that would retire the most senior judges on the supreme court and allow parliament to select which officials should appoint new judges, a proposal that comes as the European Union considers disciplining Poland for politicizing its court system.
Some worry that a risk-assessment tool under development could predict recidivism by weighing factors that serve as a proxy for race and socioeconomic status, ultimately incarcerating more black and brown defendants while allowing white defendants to go free.
Seattle lowered its speed limits last year, joining a number of U.S. cities intent on reducing traffic deaths. But some residents are complaining about conflicting signage on speed limits. The police default advice: Go slower.
In a survey to law enforcement officials, the company formerly known as Taser International announces a product that will allow citizens to submit photos or video evidence of “a crime, suspicious activity, or event” to Evidence.com, the company’s cloud-based storage platform, to help agencies “in solving a crime or gathering a fuller point of view from the public.”
An ambitious plan laid out by the Police Department calls for the training to expand to 40 hours a year for every officer beginning in 2021. It comes as the department attempts to add nearly 1,000 officers to its force by the end of next year.
“When reviewing solitary confinement as a policy and practice we determined that as a department we can effectively operate without it,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark. The state had only 76 inmates in punitive solitary confinement as of July 31.
In the first congressional votes on gun issues since President Trump took office, a bill easing regulations on the purchases of gun silencers could reach the House floor as early as next week. Another measure allowing concealed-carry permit holders to take their weapons to other states is expected to move through the House Judiciary Committee soon.