The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/policy-politics/)
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman asked NY state legislators to close a double jeopardy loophole that could allow associates of President Trump to avoid state prosecution if granted a presidential pardon.
Promoting his new book, former FBI director James Comey says President Trump should not have suggested that he be jailed. Comey said, “This is not some tin pot dictatorship where the leader of the country gets to say ‘the people I don’t like go to jail.’”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has named David Muhlhausen to head the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry (FIRC), established last month as part of the administration’s efforts to bring down recidivism rates. Muhlhausen was appointed director of the National Institute of Justice last year.
Fifty years after the Kerner Commission set in motion a national effort to fix racial inequities in the justice system, a draft strategic plan crafted by the Attorney General threatens to reopen all our old wounds—and perhaps create new ones, say two reform advocates.
Privacy advocates say California’s Supreme Court justices put citizens’ most personal info at risk when they rejected an appeal last Monday to strike down a law requiring all arrested individuals to provide DNA samples. Supporters of the ruling say concerns about the law, similar to statutes now in effect in 30 states, are overblown.
Putting inmates to work has long been regarded as a rehabilitation strategy. But an economics law professor argues that the growing production of “made in-USA-prison” goods also enables private industries to profit from popular hostility to foreign outsourcing, with little oversight.
Under an initiative inspired by the Trump Administration’s crime crackdown, the U.S. attorney in Jackson, Ms., plans to expel convicted gun offenders outside the state. But criminologists say “Project EJECT” will complicate efforts to help returning prisoners rebuild their lives.
Americans’ fascination with the justice system has made shows like “Orange is the New Black” popular. But two new podcasts provide a powerful platform for the voices of those who’ve actually experienced life behind bars.
Some 28 states require individuals to disclose HIV status to their sexual partners or face criminal penalties. Author Trevor Hoppe tells TCR that such laws are largely the result of fear and discrimination towards victims of diseases considered socially unacceptable–a punitive approach that he says continues today in the face of public health crises such as the opioid epidemic.
Grants to help crime victims and to support programs that assist them will get a 78 percent increase in the current fiscal year, estimates one expert. The measure was signed last Friday by President Trump.