The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/viewpoints/)
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.
Communities fear and distrust police not because they make mistakes, but because they are rarely held legally accountable for them, writes a 21-year police veteran who heads the Law Enforcement Action Partnership.
The desire for retribution against the former Minneapolis police officer should not overshadow the fact that the death of George Floyd was a failure of the system in which he operated — and the culture which allowed that system to flourish, writes TCR’s legal affairs columnist.
The stories of Ruby Welch, Karen Dickson-Morrison and Pamela Winn demonstrate why criminal justice reform is one of the only truly bipartisan issues in U.S. politics, says the director of Dream Corps Justice.
As the Biden administration looks for wins to deliver before the midterms, criminal justice reform should be at the top of the list, says the former GOP staff director of the House Judiciary Committee. Leveraging bipartisan support for federal drug policy reform might be a good place to start.
A murder in a London neighborhood has unleashed pent-up frustrations and anger by British women over what they charge is a pattern of indifference by police to gender-targeted violence. It may lead to a long-overdue re-examination of police training, says a veteran UK police officer.
The pandemic has increased the number of women, men and children at risk of trafficking. But given the hidden nature of the crime, it is no surprise that anti-trafficking efforts appear to have had little impact on reducing victimization, writes the author of a book used to train law enforcement.
The planned release of seven years of data by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. to illustrate how race and gender influence charging decisions is another step in the emerging national movement to demystify a system that has been opaque too long, write two open-government advocates.
Police agencies have achieved more reforms than they’re given credit for, but “old thinking” still prevails in too many departments, writes the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. Instead of following a checklist of what not to do, he suggests, managers should be telling cops what they should do.