Search Results for: recidivism

New Zealand announced a unique new youth justice residence on Sunday. The residence, called Whakatakapokai, has been designed by both the iwi Waikato-Tainui and the government. Whakatakapokai aims to support rangatahi (young persons) and reduce recidivism rates among rangatahi. Minister for Children Kelvin Davis stated that Whakatakapokai will “provide prevention, healing, and rehabilitation services for [...]

California Assembly Member Miguel Santiago and the Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón unveiled Assembly Bill 1127 on Friday, which would exclude juvenile crimes from applying under the California Three Strikes law once the person reaches adulthood. California’s Three Strikes sentencing law mandates that an individual who has been convicted of three serious or [...]

From the tech-hub of Silicon Valley to the pristine beaches of San Diego, California is a cultural and economic icon.  But all is not well in the Golden State. California has the highest poverty rate in the country, with 18.1% of Californians living at or below the federal poverty line. However, the federal census does [...]

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed three bills into law establishing a compassionate release program for certain inmates and also a Corrections Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention Fund. In addition to the compassion release program and crime prevention fund, the bills approved Monday will work together to require a cost-savings study of compassionate release programs and [...]

This year, California suffered its most destructive fire season ever. Over four million acres burned, but the fight to contain the flames is far from over. To meet the extraordinary demand for firefighters, California tapped into its largest pool of able-bodied people—its prisons. Over 1,200 prisoners have been sent to the frontlines this year. The [...]

Virginia’s House advanced HB33 with a 52 to 45 vote on Friday that supports Gov. Ralph Northam’s criminal justice reform initiative.  This particular bill addresses a long debated issue of parole in Virginia.  Parole was abolished in Virginia in 1995, but no jury was informed of this change when deliberating sentences until 2000 after the [...]

The Oakland, California, City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance Tuesday that will prevent landlords from looking into the criminal history of applicants for rental housing. A subsequent vote next month will allow the measure to take effect. The new rental protections for ex-convicts will be the strictest in California to date; previously, San Francisco [...]

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) signed an executive order Thursday restoring the right to vote and the right to run for public office to hundreds of thousands of felons convicted of nonviolent crimes. This order was one of the first signed by the sixty-third governor of Kentucky, who was just sworn into office on Tuesday [...]

In a memo unsealed Saturday Robert Mueller accused former Trump employee Paul Manafort of a series of crimes. The accusations range from commonplace tax fraud and obstruction of justice to federal laws like the Foreign Agents Registration Act and argues that Manafort knowingly broke the law throughout. The memo finds a number of aggravating factors [...]

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced on Tuesday that Baltimore will no longer be prosecuting marijuana possession, regardless of weight or criminal history. The decision to end prosecution was based on a “lack of a demonstrable public safety benefit, the resource drain that resolving marijuana possession cases places on prosecutors, and the racially unjust manner [...]