The Crime Report

Viewpoints

Is ICE ‘Culture of Secrecy’ Putting Public, Detainees at Risk During Pandemic?

By Mark Dow | 11 mins ago

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has been accused in the past of neglecting the health needs of immigrant detainees. The COVID-19 crisis puts those failures in sharper relief, writes the author of “American Gulag.”

Policing

Campus Cops Need Closer Scrutiny: Paper

By Andrea Cipriano | 26 mins ago

Police departments operating in U.S. colleges and universities have the same arrest and investigative powers as their municipal counterparts, but aren’t subject to the same standards of accountability and transparency, charges a new study.

COVID-19

Staff Bring Virus Into Prisons, Infecting Inmates

By Crime and Justice News | 1 hour ago

Hundreds of cases are confirmed behind bars in New York, California, Michigan, Alabama and a dozen other states. Some in custody are afraid to report symptoms because they’ve seen others placed in solitary confinement for doing so.

COVID-19

Inmate Dies, 30 Prisoners, Staff Test Positive at LA Prison

By Crime and Justice News | 1 hour ago

At the Oakdale federal prison in Louisiana, one inmae has died, a guard is in intensive care and 30 inmates and staff have tested positive for coronavirus.

COVID-19

With Many Cops Ill, Police 'Are Scared Out There'

By Crime and Justice News | 1 hour ago

The growing virus toll raises questions about how laws should be enforced and about how departments will hold up as the virus spreads among those whose work puts them at increased risk.

Courts

Courts Turn to Technology During Coronavirus Crisis

By Crime and Justice News | 2 hours ago

The sudden shift has frayed personal connections that build trust among lawyers and judges and challenged the idea that defendants have a right to confront accusers.

COVID-19

NYC Social-Distance Violators May Be Fined

By Crime and Justice News | 3 hours ago

Fines will be a last resort, but Mayor Bill de Blasio has authorized police officers to give them out to people who are ordered to disperse but fail to do so.

Drugs

Meth Replaces Opioids As Key Drug Problem in Many Areas

By Crime and Justice News | 3 hours ago

“Meth, that’s our drug now,” said Dennis Lowe, commander of an Ohio law enforcement task force. In several states, there have been more overdoses from than from opioids.

Guns

Tech Firm Again Makes 3-D Gun Files Public

By Crime and Justice News | 5 hours ago

A technology company made thousands of digital-gun files publicly available, including blueprints that will enable users to make plastic guns with three-dimensional printers.

COVID-19

COVID-19 and the ‘New Normal’ in Criminal Justice

By TCR Staff | March 27, 2020

How are criminal justice agencies adapting to the coronavirus pandemic? Aubrey Fox, head of New York’s Criminal Justice Agency, and Greg Berman, former head of the Center for Court Innovation, recently discussed the challenge in an email conversation. They invited The Crime Report to post their discussion.

Community Supervision

Don’t Have Your ‘Felon Card’? In Alabama, That’s a Crime

More than 300 Alabamans have been charged since 2014 under state law requiring people with more than two felony convictions to register with local sheriff’s offices and carry cards identifying them as repeat felons. One legal expert compared it to the ID cards Jews were required to have in Nazi Germany.

Juvenile Justice

NYC Accused of ‘Negligence’ in Caring for Homeless Youth During Pandemic

Young people in youth shelters are particularly at risk, advocates say. City agencies respond they are doing all they can to address their needs.

Guns

Are Gun Stores Essential? Debate Grows Across the U.S.

As some counties and states decide to shut down gun stores, gun rights advocates and industry lobby groups see it not only as a Second Amendment issue but as a threat to public safety. “People want to exercise their God-given right to bear arms and protect their families,” said one.

Research & Analysis

Race and Equity

How to Stop the ‘Third Wave’ of Racial Profiling

Civil rights advocates have achieved significant success in curtailing racial profiling in traffic stops, and in practices that single out ‘Arabic-looking’ individuals as terror suspects. But a third type of profiling that targets people of color for being in places where they don’t ‘belong’ is the next challenge for law enforcement authorities, says a Pittsburgh law professor.
Corrections & Reentry

Prison, Jail Data Show Incarceration ‘Myths’

A new analysis by the the Prison Policy Institute of U.S. prison and jail populations demonstrates what it calls the "enormous churn" of people in and out of custody.
Cybercrime

Transnational Cyberattacks Unlikely to be Deterred by Domestic Laws

Examining the potential for responding to such attacks in the United Kingdom, two researchers concluded that domestic law is an "imperfect instrument" for deterrence or prevention. But civil law and regulations could offer some guidance, they suggested.
Corrections & Reentry

Rehab Programs Cut Recidivism: Study

Adult offenders who participated in rehabilitation programs committed fewer offenses compared with adults who did not participate, according to an analysis released Monday by the National Institute of Justice.
Crime Statistics

Federal Crime Cases Up In Immigration Crackdown

Immigration matters accounted for 38.4 percent of the total federal caseload in fiscal year 2019, the U.S. Sentencing Commission said in its annual report. Sentence lengths in drug cases were stable.
Prosecutors

‘Mindset of Untouchability’ Spurs Prosecutor Misbehavior: Paper

The absence of effective punishment has allowed prosecutorial misconduct to flourish almost unchecked across the U.S., and needs to be addressed through tougher oversight by state attorneys general, says an editor of the Mississippi Law Journal.

WORTH A READ

COVID-19

Fed Rescue Package Will Steer $850 Million to Local Police, Jails
By Ted Gest | March 26, 2020
The largest economic relief bill in U.S. history will provide for "personal protective equipment and other needed medical items and to support overtime for officers on the front lines," says Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
Viewpoints

Can COVID-19 Force Us to Take Criminal Justice Reform Seriously?
By Tomas Keen | March 26, 2020
Prisoners in Washington State have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jay Inslee and state corrections chief Steven Sinclair asking for the release of elderly inmates to halt the spread of the coronavirus. This and similar actions elsewhere are adding long-needed momentum to the movement to reduce mass incarceration, writes an inmate.
COVID-19

Protecting the Homeless Called ‘Urgent Issue’ in Pandemic
By Andrea Cipriano | March 26, 2020
States and cities are struggling to grapple with the threat of infection among people experiencing homelessness. Advocates say more help is needed from the feds.
Policing

Police Foundation Launches Tool to Track Virus Impact on Cops
By TCR Staff | March 26, 2020
The "situational awareness tool" has logged 341 exposures to the virus among 15,159 officers in the departments initially responding as of Wednesday. The tool was launched by the National Police Foundation, in collaboration with the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation and Esri.

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

COVID-19

Staff Bring Virus Into Prisons, Infecting Inmates

By Crime and Justice News | 1 hour ago

COVID-19

Inmate Dies, 30 Prisoners, Staff Test Positive at LA Prison

By Crime and Justice News | 1 hour ago

COVID-19

With Many Cops Ill, Police 'Are Scared Out There'

By Crime and Justice News | 1 hour ago

Courts

Courts Turn to Technology During Coronavirus Crisis

By Crime and Justice News | 2 hours ago

COVID-19

NYC Social-Distance Violators May Be Fined

By Crime and Justice News | 3 hours ago

Drugs

Meth Replaces Opioids As Key Drug Problem in Many Areas

By Crime and Justice News | 3 hours ago

Guns

Tech Firm Again Makes 3-D Gun Files Public

By Crime and Justice News | 5 hours ago

COVID-19

Arrests Plummet Nationwide as Police, Criminals Pull Back

Terrorism

Terrorists Shift Targets, Strategies During Pandemic

Barr Orders More Home Confinement for Inmates

Riots, Tensions in Prisons Worldwide Over Virus

Drug Treatment Hampered by COVID-19 Curbs

Virus Prompts Judge to Order Immigrant Jail Release