The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/author/jackatme/)
A redesigned New York City program aimed at helping at-risk youth learn work ethics and job skills while performing community service in their neighborhoods helped divert hundreds of young people from further involvement in the justice system, says a report released today.
The US Sentencing Commission’s quarterly report shows a decrease in the total number of criminal cases since 2016, despite a slight uptick in the last quarter which appears to be driven by immigration offenses. Immigration and drug crimes made up over 62% of criminal cases in the U.S. between October 2016 and March 2017, with firearms offenses a distant second at 11.8%.
The decline in marijuana seizures between 2010 and 2015 roughly tracks the period when U.S. states began enacting measures to legalize or decriminalize pot, according to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime. Meanwhile, marijuana use among adults has risen.
A study released June 22 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) revealed that 14 percent of state and federal prisoners and 26 percent of jail inmates reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD).
An Urban Institute study released June 21 says body cameras have a “civilizing effect” on police encounters even when a civilian is unaware that an officer is wearing a camera– suggesting that the cameras may be changing the way officers behave.
A report issued last week by the American Civil Liberties Union implores the business community to put people with criminal records– that’s one-third of adults in the U.S.– back to work, for the good of the economy.
To mark Father’s Day on Sunday, The Beat Within, a San Francisco-based prison writing workshop, asked inmates of juvenile detention facilities to “write the letter you always wanted (or maybe never wanted) to write” to their Dads. Here’s a first sampling of the letters they produced.
Keir Bradford-Grey, chief defender of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, believes it will. In a conversation with The Crime Report, she argues that the work of local jurisdictions and community groups in developing problem-solving courts, diversion programs and other reforms will be hard to reverse.
Crime rates in California have plummeted—especially among youth—over the last 35 years. At the same time, nonwhites have become the majority in the state. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice says the parallel trends refute arguments that immigration threatens public safety.
Black homicide defendants in Louisiana are more likely than whites to face charges making them eligible for the death sentence in cases in which their victims are white, according to a Northeastern University study.