The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/author/ted-gest/page/2/)
A national panel headed by former Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Loretta Lynch issued a blueprint for how the criminal justice system should adapt and improve during the COVID-19 crisis. It urged authorities to avoid “simplistic cuts.”
A new report by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice shows violent crime up this year in major U.S. cities. The FBI meanwhile reported a slight violent crime drop last year nationwide.
An FBI compilation from about two-thirds of the nation’s police departments found both murders and aggravated assault reports up in the first six months of 2020, while robberies and rapes declined.
The annual crime victimization survey found a notable decline last year after several years of rising crime. This year’s results may differ markedly under changed conditions during the pandemic.
One study found that defendants whose bail hearings were conducted remotely had much higher bond amounts set by judges. Meanwhile, some federal and state courts are allowing in-person proceedings to resume under COVID-19 guidelines.
The number of Americans behind bars or on probation and parole peaked in 2007 but has declined every year since, says the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. The numbers incarcerated have dropped further during this year’s pandemic.
Courts have received little federal aid amidst the COVID-19 recession and national shutdown. Judiciary leaders are hoping Congress will fix that in the latest crisis aid package now being negotiated.
Police agencies receive more than 240 million 911 calls a year — many having little do with crime, an online forum heard Thursday. Reducing police budgets without addressing the changing demands on U.S. law enforcement will make it harder to respond to the community problems those calls represent, speakers said.
The increase parallels a national rise in homicides involving all age groups in 2014 and 2015. Still, one expert calls it a “disconcerting” exception to a sharp drop in delinquency cases to a level lower than in 1969.
A group of academics has criticized the Pulitzer Prize awarded the Louisville Courier-Journal for its examination of pardons issued by departing Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, calling it an example of how the media’s portrayal “has helped create our mass incarceration crisis.” The letter displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the news media’s role, says TCR’s Washington bureau chief.