The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/policy-politics/)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is seeking changes that weren’t included in the latest version of the bill. Opponents will try to exclude some inmates from qualifying for reduced sentences. Democrats may abandon the bill if that amendment prevails.
The House followed the Senate in approving a five-year reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), handing a win to youth advocates who have fought to update the legislation for 16 years. “It’s huge,” says Marcy Mistrett of the Campaign for Youth Justice.
The former AG, whom President Trump has nominated to return to his old job, is likely to continue the hardline policies of his official predecessor Jeff Sessions. Americans hoping for justice reform deserve better, writes one of the nation’s leading criminologists.
“We shouldn’t release serious and repeat-violence felons, which is what the bill will do. It will be bad for anyone who votes for it,” says Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) disagrees, saying, “Taking [the argument] to its logical conclusion, you never let anybody out for anything.”
In a breakthrough for criminal justice reform advocates, the Senate will vote on a federal sentencing and prison reform bill that has proved deeply controversial within the Senate Republican ranks. Debate could begin this week.
Barr, 68, a hardliner who served as attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration, is considered to have widespread bipartisan support, but he will still likely face tough nomination hearings. The president said Barr was his “first choice from day one,” though he acknowledged he didn’t know him until recently.
The official shutdown of the Justice Department’s Science Advisory Board was announced in a terse message to members this week. One member says it’s a step backwards from an ambitious attempt to apply scientific and evidence-based thinking to the federal justice structure.
In a blunt talk to students and faculty at John Jay College, Gurbir Grewal said state attorneys-general have been critical to the struggle against “harebrained” federal efforts to criminalize immigrants over the past two years. But conservative federal court appointments will make things tougher, he warned.
Bush’s 1988 campaign strategy to portray opponent Michael Dukakis as soft on crime included a televised ad featuring William Horton, a murderer who was granted a weekend furlough from prison and committed a violent crime.
Former FBI Director James Comey asked a judge to reject a subpoena he received from House Republicans for closed-door testimony, arguing that leaks would harm both his credibility and the public perception of investigations by the Justice Department.