The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/reforming-the-system/)
There may be no “quick fix” for mass shootings in the U.S. But researchers have identified evidence-based approaches that can reduce their frequency, minimize casualties—and even in some cases prevent them from happening, according to a policy brief from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin has put America’s struggle with police misconduct and violent use of force on an international stage, underlining the complex landscape of policing today in our country. Even in the week preceding the Chauvin verdict, TCR found at least seven incidents involving violent police interaction with civilians.
Seeking to end dangerous and potentially deadly interactions between civilians and the police, Oakland moves away from policing and embraces trained civilian responders.
Paying NGOs for each week “they manage to keep formerly imprisoned persons in their charge alive and out of the criminal justice system” could help reduce America’s recidivism rates, says a senior research fellow at the American Institute of Economic Research.
While criminal justice refom has gained momentum in the U.S., with state and federal lawmakers pushing for new legislation that would reduce incarceration, lawmakers and advocates argue that crime victims are being excluded from the conversation.
TCR’s legal affairs columnist proposes a modern version of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps that would recruit ordinary Americans to the task of reforming our criminal justice system.
The evidence shows that excessive sentences do not deter crime, even as they have produced a correctional system bursting at the seams, declared over 60 elected prosecutors and law enforcement leaders, in a joint statement marking Second Chances Month. They called for mechanisms to provide second chances to the individuals behind bars who pose no danger to the community.
Acknowledging that mandatory sentences have had a disproportionate effect on individuals of color, legislators in several states have introduced proposals to end the practice for certain nonviolent offenses. A similar rethink is underway at the federal level.
A national database of decertified officers and new approaches to civilian oversight were among the recommendations contained in the latest report of the Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Policing.
Minneapolis experiments with a new approach to public safety through groups of former felons and gang members who can intervene when violence seems imminent and avoid the dangers of involving the police.