The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/policy-politics/)
Before leaving office, former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a sweeping act restructuring court fines and fees across the state. But critics, including the legislator who sponsored the bill, say it still falls short of lawmakers’ intentions to create a fairer system.
Businessmen with ties to Rudy Giuliani lobbied a U.S. congressman for help ousting the American ambassador to Ukraine around the same time they committed to raising money for the lawmaker, defeated Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Meese started out during the 2016 presidential campaign as a critic of candidate Donald Trump but eventually endorsed him. This week, Meese praised Trump’s appointment of 152 conservative judges.
Two business associates of President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have been charged with a scheme to route foreign money into U.S. elections, according to a newly unsealed indictment. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman helped Giuliani investigate former vice president Joe Biden.
According to a University of Pennsylvania study, more than 47 million Americans are exposed to some form of crime during childhood. A calculation of the “colossal” long-term annual costs, from mental trauma and physical ailments to reduced income, should galvanize politicians into action, the authors argue.
A Senate bill proposes restoring federal funding to help imprisoned individuals further their education. Passing it would correct one of the damaging consequences of the 1994 crime bill, write two R Street researchers.
The federal government is expected to propose a tougher policy against e-cigarettes within the next few weeks. But it may end up further accelerating the use of black-market THC-laced vape pens that are believed to be a factor in the outbreak of illnesses and deaths among users, warns a health writer.
Mauer has written many widely-cited reports on justice issues, including a 1995 study on racial disparity in criminal justice that the New York Times said “should set off alarm bells from the White House to city halls.”
Attorney General William Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
A House committee proposed last spring to de-fund the Justice Department anticrime program. The full House voted to keep funding it, and a Senate committee’s budget proposal suggests that Congress will continue to support it.