10/31/24   Eleven ranking members of the “Lows,” a Minneapolis street gang, have been charged with participating in a racketeering conspiracy and with illegally trafficking in drugs and guns. According to an 18-count Federal indictment, the long-standing gang established its dominion in large swaths of the city through a pattern of violence, including threats, shootings and murders, that “created an atmosphere of terror” and “devastated families and communities in north Minneapolis.”

2/20/24  Louisiana Governor (and ex-cop) Jeff Landry declared a statewide “state of emergency” over a shortage of police officers. Landry campaigned for office on a crime-reduction platform - Louisiana’s murder rate is one of the highest in the U.S. - and his action temporarily removes bars for hiring deputy sheriffs, whose numbers are 1,800 short statewide. According to PERF, it’s not only Louisiana. Officer resignations and retirements surged nationwide after the George Floyd episode and the pandemic. In 2022 resignations were 47% higher than in 2019, while retirements increased by 19%.

1/11/24  Walking back the freeze he imposed in November, NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced that a boost in revenue and less spending on immigrants is letting him hire new cops. Asserting  that “more police officers means safer streets, safer subways and a safer New York City,” the former police captain announced that 600 new recruits will soon join the ranks. But the cost of housing and caring for immigrants remains high, and the city council finance chair complained that the Mayor is “out of step with the math.”

6/29/23  Portland’s population numbers have dropped three percent in three years. One reason, it’s said, is the city’s rising violent crime rate. Murders, which used to average in the low twenties, reached a record 101 last year. Another is the “civil unrest” that began with protests against the killing of George Floyd, which devolved into “nightly clashes” between demonstrators and police. Growing problems with homelessness and hard drug use (it was decriminalized in 2020) are also blamed.

6/15/23  While the decline seems moderate and hasn’t played out evenly, Dallas’ violent crime rates have come down over the past two years. That improvement, according to the Washington Post, is due to the 2019 election of Mayor Eric Johnson. An opponent of the defund movement, he championed hiring more cops. He and his like-minded police chief, Eddie Garcia, adopted a “microgrid” (i.e., hot spots) approach that concentrated policing in places most beset by crime. And that has supposedly worked.

5/5/23  Violence-ridden Minneapolis is beset by three street gangs: the “Lows,” the “Highs”, and the “Bloods”. On May 3 DOJ unsealed indictments charging thirty members of the “Highs” and the “Bloods” with a RICO conspiracy to commit murder and robbery and to traffic in drugs. Fifteen additional members are charged with Federal gun and drug violations. A like indictment naming the “Lows” is anticipated.  DOJ news release

2/11/23  Beset by a sharp spike in crime, violence and homelessness that began during the pandemic, Portland’s normally progressively-minded inhabitants kicked out a city commissioner who favored cutting the police. Problem is, the metro area’s unhoused jumped from 4,000 to “at least 6,600” in three years. And last year’s homicide count - 97 - was nearly three times 2019’s “measly” 36.  But Portlanders are sharply divided over how to return the former boomtown to its treasured status as “a liberal utopia.

2/4/23  Two days ago, following the events in Memphis, a statement by the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 faculty of the California State University system, the nation’s largest, reiterated  demands, originally made in 2020, to “defund campus policing, remove armed police from our campuses,” and shift to alternatives based on “community accountability and transformative justice.” CFA’s website brims with social justice themes that portray racism in American society as “systemic and linked to other structures of oppression.”

12/26/22  Two evenings before Christmas a shooting broke out amidst a swarm of holiday shoppers at  Minnesota's famed “Mall of America.” Bloomington police have charged two eighteen-year olds and three 17-year olds with murder for gunning down and killing a 19-year old during an altercation and “fistfight” between groups. It’s not the mall’s first gunfire-related lockdown. One happened in August, and another took place last New Year’s eve.

12/22/22  Residents of a subsidized apartment complex in Minneapolis’ working-class Cedar-Riverside neighborhood blame an “explosion of Fentanyl” and a profusion of homeless encampments for break-ins and shootings that have made life unpleasant and all-too-often, treacherous. Despite hiring a security guard and adding more cameras, “I'm just not sure we're making up any ground,” says a property manager. “Every night there's something new.”

12/19/22  In an Atlanta apartment complex so riven by violence that it’s described as a “war zone,” two groups of armed teens turned a quarrel into a gunfight. By the time it was done, a 14-year old and a 16-year old were dead, and an 11-year old and two fifteen-year olds were wounded. Coming three weeks after a twelve-year old and a fifteen-year old were shot and killed near a local transit station, it spurred Mayor Andre Dickens to post a message of condolence that also expressed “anger in my soul.”

10/28/22  Portland business owners are vociferously complaining about crime. And that when it happens, “there is no accountability.” Their concerns reflect real numbers: a 7.8 percent rise in violent crime this year on top of a 27 percent increase the year before. It’s become the central issue of the Gubernatorial race in what’s been a “reliably Blue State” for forty years.

9/26/22  As midterms approach and political campaigns ramp up, crime is taking center stage. Concerns that the “defund” movement and less aggressive law enforcement have contributed to the spike in crime and violence have placed the “Blues” in an awkward position. So even progressive candidates like Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes are finding it necessary to reassure voters that, indeed, they really do support the police.

9/23/22  After a contentious debate, a bipartisan majority of the House passed the “Invest to Protect Act.” It allocates $60 million per year for the 2023-2027 fiscal years to small law enforcement agencies (125 or fewer officers) for conducting training in deescalation and handling incidents involving troubled persons, and for signing and retention bonuses to help hire and keep cops. The Senate’s version is reportedly different, and the measure’s chances to be signed into law are uncertain.

8/27/22  Black people account for about 19 percent of Minneapolis residents. Yet 83 percent of shooting victims so far this year have been Black, as have 89 percent of known shooters. “That makes sense,” said City Council member LaTrisha Vetaw, who is Black, as the shootings are taking place in “underserved communities” predominantly inhabited by Black persons.

8/16/22  Oregon is reportedly the only State that relies entirely on law firms and freelancers to act as public defenders and represent indigent defendants. But private attorneys have become reluctant to take on new cases, and the shortage has led to the postponement of numerous trials and the dismissal of “hundreds” of prosecutions. And to the firing of the State panel that oversees the system’s function.

8/5/22  Minneapolis’ “Downtown West,” a busy district with concert venues and official buildings, enjoyed a reprieve from crime as activity decreased during the pandemic. But as things get back to “normal,” crime and violence have returned with a vengeance. So far this year violent crime is 25 percent higher than in 2021, gunfire is up 40 percent, and property crimes have soared 65 percent. Police staffing, though, is way down; the downtown precinct has 49 only cops on patrol versus 81 in 2020.

6/22/22  Portland has seventeen percent fewer cops today than in 2020, when its police budget was cut $26.9 million. Its officer complement of 774 is the smallest in memory. Meanwhile crime’s up, with murders in 2021 reaching a thirty-year high. Police inability to respond except in emergencies has left residents to feel “they are on their own” when dealing with the chronic homelessness, drug use and loutish behavior that pervades the city. That poses a dilemma even for liberal-minded neighborhood activists. As one bemoaned, “if nobody is dying, no police officer is going to show up.”

3/3/22  Delivered in his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden’s message to the assembled Members of Congress couldn’t be clearer: “We should all agree: the answer is not to defund the police; it’s to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training.” His lines reportedly generated a standing ovation from the “Reds.” But Some “Blues” weren’t impressed. Tweeting that “2021 set a record for fatal police shootings,” Missouri “Blue” Rep. Cori Bush noted that “saving Black lives” wasn’t even mentioned. Her fix? “Defund the police. Invest in our communities.”

2/21/22  In Northeast Portland, one person was shot dead and five were wounded after gunfire erupted during a Saturday night confrontation between an armed homeowner and demonstrators who gathered to protest the killing of Amir Locke by Minneapolis police. Several hours earlier Portland police shot and killed a man while responding to a shots-fired call. Two days earlier officers handled six shootings in nine hours. It’s part of what a local news source calls the city’s unending “wave of violence.”

1/18/22  At the Times Square station, a homeless, mentally-ill man recently pushed a woman to her death in front of an incoming train. Days earlier, a city cop was shot dead as he slept in his personal car, parked by the Harlem precinct between shifts. New York City’s new Mayor, former police captain Eric Adams, promises to make the city safer. But his support for an increased police role, including restoring the disbanded anti-crime plainclothes teams, has drawn scorn from progressives, including those who championed his selection as the second Black person to lead America’s largest city.

1/15/22  In 2018, two years before Floyd-inspired disturbances consumed Portland’s downtown, setting its cops against the city’s mostly White progressives and leading to a lawsuit still in progress, police trainers created a lengthy Power-Point presentation about handling protesters. Problem is, the closing slide features an image of a cop slugging a long-haired citizen. It’s captioned by a colorful, lengthy message that begins with “Woe be unto you, dirty hippy...” Natch, that’s become part of the litigation.

1/12/22  An academic study of Seattle PD’s near-month-long withdrawal from the city’s Capitol Hill area during Floyd-inspired protests revealed that “crime significantly increased in the CHOP [Capitol Hill Occupation Protests] zone, the encompassing two-block area, and the overall East precinct service area.” (As reported in the NY Times, a increase in violence forced police to return. See 8/11/20 update.)

12/29/21  Philadelphia’s surge in violence - it’s had 555 murders this year, compared to 492 in 2020 and 352 in 2019 - has led some Black community leaders, including the former Mayor, to criticize D.A. Larry Krasner’s downplay of the violence that besets poor neighborhoods. Krasner, a White progressive who champions racial equity and an easing of policing, insists he’s been misunderstood. Around the U.S., increased crime and depleted officer ranks slammed the brakes on a Floyd-inspired movement to cut police funding. Cities who did, including L.A. and New York, have restored what was taken, and more.

12/11/21  Ten years in Oregon state prison. That’s the sentence handed down to 51-year old Alan Swinney, an armed Texas “Proud Boy” who seriously injured a man while helping lead violent counter-protests in Portland during August 2020. A jury convicted Swinney, who flaunted a loaded revolver and shot at “agitators” with mace and paintballs, of assault and weapons charges.

11/9/21  Four months after substituting de-escalation-trained “proctors” for police officers, the Pomona (Calif.) school district is bringing back cops. Why the change? A 12-year old was injured in a shooting near one campus. A like situation brought school resource officers back to Fremont schools. But a proposal to return officers to Los Angeles campuses (they are now response-only) was recently rejected.

10/11/21  An “exodus of  officers” and a nationwide spike in violence has slammed the brakes on once-trendy notions to defund police. Instead, agencies across the U.S., including New York and Los Angeles, are augmenting law enforcement budgets. In Dallas, which suffered 252 homicides in 2020, a 25-percent increase and the most in 20 years, Mayor Eric Johnson, a Black Democrat, has endorsed a “hot spots” approach to help “neighborhoods racked by crime.” Two-hundred fifty new cops are also being hired.

9/27/21  “A stunning amount of gun violence.” That’s what a Portland commissioner says. The city, which we reported had 35 murders in 2019, suffered 54 in 2020 and sixty so far this year. There were 94 homicides between June 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. In a city that’s 5.8 percent African-American, thirty-nine of the victims - 41.5 percent - were Black. Portland PD also has a serious shortage of cops: authorized for 916, it has 793 on the job. One-hundred fifty officers left in the last 13 months.

9/11/21  Chicago PD reports that year-to-date 3,043 residents have been shot, and 540 killed. The comparable figures for 2020 were 2,781 and 526. To address the violence Mayor Lightfoot has, among other things, spent $35 million on “violence interruption” groups. But a critic says that de-escalating tensions is far from enough. “You need the jobs. You need the housing. We don’t have that right now.”

8/24/21  Despite pleas for “peace” from Portland’s mayor, opposing groups clashed in Portland, the site last year of George-Floyd inspired riots between “Proud Boys” and leftist protesters. This time police vowed not to get caught between the warring tribes. But their holding back was criticized by business owners who suffered a repeat of looting and vandalism, largely in the city’s working-class eastside.

8/18/21  Amidst a wave of crime and violence, cities across the U.S. that promised to slash police funding are reversing course. New York City is adding $200 million to the police budget; Oakland, $38 million. Facing an unprecedented series of shootings, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who had embraced the defund movement, has forty more cops on the way. Ditto Atlanta. With murder up 58 percent, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom, who once barely managed to prevent a $73 million cut, is looking to bolster the ranks by 250 officers. And as shootings continue, her prospects seem excellent.

7/28/21  William Briggs is a lawyer. And a Black man. And the new President of the Los Angeles City Police Commission. And despite criticism from activists, he opposes “defunding” the police. “Our communities of color that are most impacted by crime, many of which have seen the homicide rate rise above 30% this year, cannot afford to go without law enforcement.” He does want to see more “beat” cops - officers who work the same neighborhoods over time and get to know its inhabitants.

7/6/21  Shootings and killings have soared in Los Angeles and Chicago this year. Los Angeles reported  sixteen deaths by gunfire during the July 4th. weekend. Sixteen also died in Chicago, where a stunning ninety-five were shot. In violence-beset Minneapolis, a lawsuit filed by residents of high-crime areas led a judge to order that police substantially increase staffing to comply with the city Charter.

7/3/21  Pressed by activists, school districts around the U.S. have reduced or eliminated the police presence on high school campuses. Among these are six California districts. Most recently, Pomona terminated a contract with the local police department, which provided two full-time officers for its four campuses. However one California District, Fremont, recently reinstated the police presence after parents complained about their children’s safety.

6/24/21  To address a pronounced racial disparity – Blacks are 6% of the population but comprise 18% of traffic stops – Portland police will no longer stop drivers for “low-level” infractions such as expired license plates and broken headlights unless safety is “immediately” threatened. Resignations have left the department 150 officers short. With violence and gang shootings way up, cops will be pulled from patrol to staff a new team to combat gun violence.

In New York City, rising violence has led to a drastic shift in perspective. Democrats have dropped all notions of “defunding” the police. Their leading candidate for Mayor, ex-cop Eric Adams, characterizes defund advocates as well-to-do Whites who don’t live in neighborhoods heavily impacted by crime.

6/18/21  Portland PD’s “Rapid Response Team,” volunteer cops who came together to handle protests, is no more. Its fifty officers left the unit after the D.A. indicted a colleague, officer Corey Budsworth, for misdemeanor assault of a journalist during an August 2020 protest. They remain on patrol. Their chief and the mayor nonetheless thanked the officers for working “long hours under difficult conditions.”

5/24/21  Two days ago an angry man opened fire outside a Minneapolis tavern, killing two and wounding eight. That brings the murder toll to 32 so far this year, compared with fifteen during the same period in 2020. Mayor Jacob Frey has issued an urgent request for State and Federal agencies to come in and help his beleaguered, badly depleted police force - nearly 200 officers left during the past year - stem a ceaseless wave of shootings and killings that has left citizens reeling.

5/21/21  After taking a $150 million hit last year, LAPD’s funding was increased by three percent. With many more officers leaving than expected, its force has shrunk to 9,457, three-hundred below what city fathers intended. A surge in murder and violence, though, has worked against activist demands that large chunks of the police budget be redirected to alternatives to policing and social services. Meanwhile, cops in Chicago, facing a surge in violence and shootings, exhausted by twelve-hour shifts and angry at the elimination of specialized units and demands for intrusive reforms, voted a resounding “no confidence” in their mayor and police chief.

2/3/21  A University of California symposium on “reimagining” campus safety brought calls from the system-wide academic council and from student leaders to “disarm” and “substantially” defund university police departments and use the money to support “marginalized” students and to develop other ways to provide safety. But advocates of that approach complained that they were purposely underrepresented at the forum. Still, the UC president pledged there would be “real” change.

To avoid laying off as many as 355 officers at a time of increasing violence, LAPD’s officer union has agreed - subject to officer approval - to delay a combined 4.5 percent pay raise for two years. A $150 million cut  propelled by the George Floyd riots has already taken effect.

11/6/20  Despite Joe Biden’s apparent victory, the Dem’s lost seats in the House. Why? Some moderate Dem’s “who lost, or nearly did,” blamed progressives for championing “defunding the police” and “banning fracking.” Abigail Spanberger, a Viginia Dem who barely squeaked through, warned that if “defunding police” and socialism weren’t dumped, the Blues “would be ‘crushed’ in future elections.”

9/26/20  In Portland, five-hundred state police officers stood watch as competing protest groups - the Proud Boys, on the right, and “Rose City Antifa” and Black Lives Matter, on the left - held large, mostly peaceful rallies several miles apart. Some of the Proud Boys, who hold themselves out as pro-police and have criticized Portland’s supposedly lackluster response to left-themed disorder, wore tactical gear and carried firearms. But few arrests were made and the demonstrations ended peacefully.

9/24/20  Students from low-income families struggle with on-line schooling. Computers and Internet access may be lacking. Other challenges include food, health and housing issues, no quiet place to study, and a lack of assistance and supervision. “In the last three weeks of school, I just stopped doing Zoom” said a high-school teacher in South Los Angeles. “Because no one was doing the work.”

9/22/20  In a sharply worded memorandum, the Department of Justice threatened to withhold funds from New York City and Portland, which severely cut their police budgets despite sharp increases in violence, and Seattle, which established a month-long police-free “safe zone.” Each city was also criticized for rejecting assistance from Federal law enforcement agencies.

8/24/20  Elected on “a progressive platform,” Mike Schmidt, Portland’s new D.A., announced that he will not prosecute minor cases against hundreds of protesters arrested on minor charges. “What we’re doing is recognizing that the right to speak and have your voice heard is extremely important.” That doesn’t mean, he insists, that violence and causing damage will be tolerated. But police aren’t pleased.

8/23/20  Portland police officers observed and issued warnings but didn’t step in as right-leaning pro-police “Back the Blue” demonstrators clashed, occasionally violently, with supporters of Black Lives Matter. But police declared an unlawful assembly and moved in to disperse rowdy crowds who threatened a police precinct house and threw objects at officers.

8/12/20  A UC Berkeley poll of 8,328 California voters reports that about equal proportions (70 and 72 percent, respectively) are satisfied with police but favor redirecting some funds to better deal with the homeless, substance abusers and the mentally ill. Large margins also favor making it easier to sue police, prosecute officers for excessive force, ban chokeholds, and limit the power of police unions.

8/11/20  Seattle police chief Carmen Best “abruptly” announced her retirement. Her decision, she said, was influenced by the City Council’s move, without her input, to promptly cut 100 officers from the agency. Staff salaries are also being slashed, and a fifty-percent reduction in funding is being considered. AG William Barr issued a statement regretting her departure: “In the face of mob violence, she drew the line in the sand and said, "Enough!", working tirelessly to save lives, protect her officers, and restore stability to Seattle.” He was apparently referring to the resumption of policing in the Capitol Hill area, where police coverage was discontinued at the Mayor’s direction until violence forced cops to return.

8/7/20  Small business owners who endured a city-ordered police withdrawal from their six-block stretch of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood during the height of the George Floyd protests are suing the city, claiming “enormous property damage and lost revenue.”  What they and others experienced as armed, self-anointed posses took over is described in a New York Times piece that questions police defunding.

8/6/20  After a deal was reached to protect Portland’s Federal courthouse complex with State troopers instead of Federal agents, the violence downtown has subsided. But demonstrators have moved their attention elsewhere, leading to repeated clashes with police. Police chief Chuck Lovell, who criticized the violence as a distraction from needed social reforms in a New York Times op-ed, bemoaned its effects on his “beautiful, vibrant city”: “This movement is very powerful, and I feel like the violence has taken away from it in a really kind of concerning way.”

8/5/20  Although some Black residents of Minneapolis’ violence-impacted areas agree that officers mistreat Blacks, they oppose defunding. “What are they suggesting would be the answer if we didn’t have police?” asks a woman whose mother fell to a criminal’s bullets. Another, who lost her brother to gunplay, suggests that a  “community council” could provide oversight. But both want cops around.

7/25/20  After nearly two months of rowdy protests by mostly “white faces” pumping fists under Black Lives Matter banners, a Black transplant from the East jokes about the imbalance: “There are more Black Lives Matter signs in Portland than Black people.” But the local NAACP leader called actions such as the vandalism of the Federal courthouse a “spectacle” that hurts the prospects for true reform.

6/27/20  As hooliganism, violence and gunplay worsen in Minneapolis, residents complain they’re seeing a far less robust police response. A local activist faults the city council’s move to dismantle the agency for discouraging citizens from reporting crime and for emboldening lawlessness.

3/28/24  An analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive reveals that gun violence besets the South. According to The Trace, thirteen of the twenty towns and cities with the highest rate of shootings between 2014-2023 are in that region. Selma, Alabama, for example, had a higher rate than infamous Chicago. Comparing States produced similar findings. While Illinois was one of the four States with the highest rate of fatal and injury-producing shootings, the other three were Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

10/21/24  A new study published by the Delaware Academy of Public Health examined the views of 374 African American men ages 15-24 who have guns and live in four crime & violence beset cities: Baltimore, Jackson, Houston TX, and Wilmington DE. More than two-thirds felt that their cities were dangerous places with few opportunities, and that survival required having a gun. They blamed their community’s problems to negative influences from music, social media and peers, and to poor socialization, with absentee parents and no suitable role models. “Mothers aren't raising kids; fathers aren't around. Not enough money for food. Children aren't being taken care of.”

9/23/24  Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin blames a “Glock switch,” an auto-sear that essentially turns the pistol into a machinegun, for enabling the shooters who opened fire in an entertainment district last Saturday night. At least four were shot dead and seventeen others were wounded in what police describe as a targeted shooting, with bystanders caught in crossfire. Birmingham’s murder count is up substantially this year, inflated by mass shootings that killed four persons in February and four in July.

11/7/22  Concerns about gun violence and gang activity led the Greenville County, S.C. sheriff’s office to deploy a task force. Its members focused their attention on nightclubs and other public places with high “high call volume” and known gang activity. During a one-month period its members arrested ninety persons, fifty-two on warrants, and issued 111 citations. Two stolen cars, eleven guns and substantial quantities of marijuana, meth, cocaine and fentanyl were also seized.

3/5/22  In Chicago’s violence-beset Lawndale neighborhood, a man in line at a hot-dog stand apparently reached in his pockets to pay. A handgun dropped to the ground. He picked it up and fired at a police officer standing behind him, grazing him in the head. He then repeatedly fired at a parked police car, striking an officer in the leg. Other officers pursued and arrested the gunman. Both wounded officers are expected to fully recover. So far the gunman has not been identified.

11/22/21  The recent slaying of an international student, and the robbery “at gunpoint” of a university worker, finds one of the nation’s premier places of learning, the University of Chicago, at the mercy of the violence and gunplay that besets its surroundings. Officials and campus staff want a larger police presence, outside and within. Chicago’s police chief agrees. “Having a large presence will not only add to safety but also the perception of being safe.” But others disagree. “The proof is literally in the existence of University of Chicago and the fact that it can sit inside one of the most terrorized neighborhoods when it comes to gun violence and think that epidemic shouldn’t touch their campus.”

10/11/21  In Philadelphia, up to 29-percent reductions in violence were experienced in the poverty-stricken blocks surrounding vacant parcels that got either a thorough cleanup or a major “clean and green” intervention. In a second study, a “full remediation” of abandoned homes led to “a clear reduction in weapons violations, gun assaults and shootings” in nearby areas. According to the authors, such findings suggest that high-need locations “may benefit the most from place-based investment.”

7/29/21  Data from the University of Chicago Crime Lab suggests that “historical structural racism and economic deprivation” have contributed to a widening gap in rates of homicide and deaths from disease between Chicago neighborhoods. Differences in murder rates between the safest districts (Lincoln, Rogers Park, Jefferson Park and Town Hall) and most violent (Harrison, Englewood, Austin and Gresham) increased from 13 times in 1991 to twenty-six times in 2020. According to the Census, the most dangerous districts are predominantly Black.

6/29/21  With 800 persons shot in New York City this year, the most since 2002, even vaunted Times Square is getting dangerous. One day after a tourist was shot, Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that officers will “flood” the landmark with officers so that visitors keep returning. “They have to be safe and they have to feel safe.” Meanwhile seventy-seven persons were shot in Chicago over the weekend; so far, seven have died. Six were shot in one incident; eleven were shot in another two hours later.

9/24/20  Students from low-income families struggle with on-line schooling. Computers and Internet access may be lacking. Other challenges include food, health and housing issues, no quiet place to study, and a lack of assistance and supervision. “In the last three weeks of school, I just stopped doing Zoom” said a high-school teacher in South Los Angeles. “Because no one was doing the work.”

9/9/20  An academic study found that lower-income persons and Black and Latino residents of Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Chicago reported far higher levels of financial and health risks from the Covid-19 pandemic than higher-income persons and Whites. Their infection and death rates have also been substantially higher. Many reside in densely populated neighborhoods and are employed in close-contact work such as warehousing and food service where protection measures may be lacking.

7/6/20  Last year Chicago’s gun violence toll over the Fourth of July weekend was six dead and 63 wounded. This year “at least 80” were shot, of whom “at least” 17 died. One of the fatalities was a 7-year old girl who was celebrating the holiday with her family in the Austin neighborhood. Other victims include a 14-year old shot dead and an 11-year old and a 15-year old wounded, all in the Englewood area.

6/29/20  Through June 21 there have been 295 murders and 1,250 shootings in Chicago, compared with 235 and 902 in 2019. These incidents are mostly happening in the city’s crime-scarred districts, including Harrison, Austin, Ogden and Lawndale. A recent weekend’s toll was at least 106 shot and 14 killed. On “a bloody Saturday,” June 27, eight were shot and killed including three children. One, twenty months old, was struck by a bullet as his mother drove in the Englewood neighborhood.

10/30/24  Six States - Alabama, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, and Washington - have joined “Reentry 2030”, an initiative led by the Council of State Governments and partly funded by DOJ. Focused on persons being released from incarceration, it seeks to promote their successful transition into society by providing a host of services, including physical and mental health care, educational opportunities, job training, and access to housing. It’s hoped that in time every State will join in. (See 8/12/21 and 5/7/22 updates)

10/21/24  Ninety-three million bucks. That’s what California’s paid a vendor since 2003 to have it house and monitor 56 “sexually violent predators” after their conditional release from prison. Good news is that only two of the 56 recidivated. In contrast, of the 125 “predators” whom courts unconditionally released, twenty-four were reconvicted of 42 felonies and 13 misdemeanors within 10 years. But the program’s excellent outcome was likely facilitated by the recommitment of releasees who evidenced dodgy behavior.

7/23/24  L.A. County D.A. George Gascon’s progressive policies - among other things, he forbid sentence enhancements and trying juveniles as adults - caused major clashes with his assistant D.A.’s, who openly criticize him in the media. Several, claiming retaliation, have even sued. Come election time Gascon will face Nathan Hochman, a former Federal prosecutor who’s certain that his “hard middle” crime-fighting approach will win the day. And he’s got a victim of violent crime, Mary Klein, openly rooting for his success.

5/20/24  In a bristling editorial, the Chicago Tribune condemned a move by progressive D.A. Kim Foxx, who is not standing for reelection, to reject drug and gun cases generated through traffic stops. After all, most of those stopped are persons of color, and few arrests are made. But the Tribune’s editors emphasize that it’s precisely the residents of neighborhoods of color who are most impacted by guns on the street. “If officers are effectively prohibited from looking for these weapons, more people will die.”

2/9/24  In September 2018 Illinois man Torrey Lewis was arrested and charged with the July 2017 shooting death of a disabled man. Lewis was held on a high bond, but in 2020 he was released on electronic monitoring because of the pandemic. Since then, provisions of Illinois’ 2021 SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail, granted Lewis unmonitored “free time” each week. And on January 31 he took advantage, driving a stolen car at “over 100” MPH and getting involved in a car-to-car shootout in which he and three others were wounded. Prosecutors want him detained when released from the hospital.

11/3/23  In its third year, Chicago’s “restorative justice court” program uses peer “circles” and education and job services to help reform youths convicted of non-violent crimes (so far, eighty percent faced gun possession charges.) A review revealed that participants have exhibited far less recidivism than conventionally punished peers. Successful outcomes lead to expungement of all records. Originally limited to several poor, highly crime-impacted neighborhoods, it’s being expanded to suburban areas. (See 11/14/20 update)

9/20/23  As Illinois began its first day without cash bail, judges across the State were required to release accused persons unless prosecutors presented convincing evidence that they posed a substantial risk to others or were a serious flight risk. Faced with making decisions about two defendants who committed crimes while armed, a judge released one on home monitoring but remanded the other, as to whom there was substantial proof that they pointed a gun. “I do find that he does (pose a threat)”. (See 7/2/23 update)

8/18/23  To reduce recidivism, SWIFT, a Tarrant County, Texas program, provides selected high-risk felony probationers, including gang members, with intensive supervision. An academic study that compared the outcomes of gang members in the program with gang members who were on conventional probation determined that revocations were less likely for participants. But members of both groups were equally likely to be re-arrested.

8/16/23  Elected to office in 2020 during the post-George Floyd wave, progressive L.A.D.A. George Gascon formed a special unit to seek re-sentencing of prisoners convicted under his disfavored punitive model. But so far only 95 of 400 candidates have directly benefited. Frustrated defense lawyers blame opposition from within by assistant D.A.’s. And to two (albeit, unsuccessful) recall campaigns. But a spokesperson insists that the program is functional, and that many defendants have benefited through other means, including the application of California’s 2019 resentencing law.

7/21/23  New Los Angeles Superior Court policies eliminate cash bail for most misdemeanants and nonviolent felons. Most persons will presumably be cited and released. However, some arrestees, including all parolees and persons already under supervision, may be required to  appear before a judge - one will be available around the clock - who can impose conditions such as electronic tracking and home monitoring. Bail will still be imposed on domestic assailants.

7/19/23  On September 18 Illinois will become the first State to do away with cash bail.  On July 18 its Supreme Court ruled 5-2, with conservative Justices on the losing side, in favor of a hotly challenged provision of the reform-minded “SAFE-T Act”. To detain someone pre-trial, prosecutors will have to demonstrate by “clear and convincing evidence” that an accused “poses a real and present threat to the safety of a specific, identifiable person or persons.” Governor J.B. Pritzker said he’s open to making changes should they prove necessary. (See 9/20/23 update)

6/5/23  In 1982 Texas man Raul Meza was on parole for a robbery and shooting when he pled guilty to the rape/murder of an 8-year old girl. He got 30 years and was released in 1993 after serving one-third of his term. Meza was then “run  out” of a string of cities. He’s now back in custody, charged with two murders in the Austin area (he turned himself in and admitted to one). Meza is also being looked at in ten “cold cases”. Austin’s City Manager complains that “somebody made a bad decision 41 years ago and let this guy for whatever reason manipulate the system and justice was not served.”

4/10/23  In 2021, after serving seven years in a Texas prison for murder, Lydell Grant was a free man. Although six eyewitnesses said they saw him stab the victim, new DNA evidence and a confession by another man led to Grant’s exoneration. But he’s now back in jail, accused of shooting the driver of another car dead after a minor collision.

12/15/22  Oregon Governor Kate Brown commuted the death sentences of all 17 inmates slated for execution to life without parole. She did so, she said, because death sentences are immoral. Governor Brown has drawn criticism for issuing nearly 1,000 grants of clemency during the pandemic, including to 73 persons under eighteen who committed violent crimes ranging to murder.

12/5/22  Adding to the discord in the L.A. D.A.’s office brought on by the election of George Gascon, a decades-long prosecutor is suing him after she was removed from a high-ranking position. Victoria Adams claims the move came as retaliation for objecting to a series of progressively-minded measures, including prohibitions on seeking sentence enhancements and trying juveniles as adults. Other assistant D.A.’s have also sued, and they and their colleagues have been openly criticizing their boss in the media.

11/30/22  NIJ assigned a “promising” rating to a Minnesota program that places selected high-risk prison releasees under intense supervision. Agents make frequent visits and assure that participants complete required activities, including work, job training, education and treatment of psychological disorders. A one-year followup revealed significant reductions in rearrest and reconviction for ordinary and violent offending. But there was also a significant increase in revocations for technical violations.

10/27/22   Darrell Brooks, who by all appearances purposely drove his SUV into a Waukesha, Wis. Christmas parade last year, killing six and injuring “dozens,” was quickly convicted at his murder trial.  Brooks, a convicted felon and registered sex offender, turned away an insanity plea and represented himself. During the trial he very much acted the madman, declaring himself a “sovereign citizen” and repeatedly tangling with the judge. (See 11/22/21 update)

9/13/22 On Sept. 2 Memphis resident Eliza Fletcher, 34, disappeared during a Friday morning jog. Video depicted a man forcing her into a truck, where a struggle apparently ensued. Cleotha Abston, 38, was arrested the next day. His DNA was matched to the victim’s sandals, which were located near the crime scene. Fletcher’s body was found two days later in a vacant apartment. Abston’s criminal record dates back to the mid-90’s. He was released in 2020 after serving two decades for armed kidnapping.

9/8/22  Violent recidivists aren’t just a problem in the U.S. Myles Sanderson, 32, whose knife-armed rampage in an indigenous Canadian reserve killed ten and wounded eighteen, was paroled in February from a term for assault and robbery. His 59 past convictions include the stabbing, seven years ago, of one of his new victims. Sanderson’s parole was revoked in May. He remained at large, and authorities say they will investigate the decision to free him. Sanderson apparently committed suicide yesterday as police closed in. His brother Damien’s body was found two days earlier.

8/19/22   A recent National Academies of Science workshop, “The Impact of Juvenile Justice System Involvement on the Health and Well-Being of Communities of Color,” addressed the disproportionate involvement of minority youths in the criminal justice system. It recommended alternatives to detention and punishment “that promote health and positive development” while taking culture and gender identity into account.

8/3/22  Rebelling against progressively-minded D.A. Kim Foxx, Chicago prosecutors continue to resign. Most recently that includes James Murphy, who headed the prosecution of murder and other serious crimes. He called his boss’s excuse, that the shift away from prosecuting lower-level crimes was a way to concentrate on serious matters, a lie. “This administration is more concerned with political narratives and agendas than with victims and prosecuting violent crime. That is why I can’t stay any longer.”

7/23/22  In 2019 New York State eliminated cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. On July 21, during his campaign for New York Governor, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) was assaulted by a man wielding a pointed plastic object. David G. Jakubonis, 43, was tackled by bystanders and arrested for attempted assault. It’s considered a non-violent felony, and he was released without bail. This episode is now being cited as evidence that the “Blues” have gone unreasonably soft on crime. A day later Feds arrested Jakubonis for assaulting a Member of Congress, and he is being held without bail.

After serving six years of a 50-life term for robbery-murder, Andrew Cachu, 25, was released last year under the provisions of Prop. 57. Enacted in 2016, it requires that prosecutors who wish to apply adult sentencing to persons such as Cachu, who was 17 when he committed the crime,  justify it in a hearing. But progressive L.A. District Attorney George Gascon forbid it, and Cachu was freed. He is now charged with having a gun, possessing drugs for sale and fleeing from police.

7/16/22  When progressive Los Angeles D.A. George Gascon took office in 2020 he forbid prosecutors from seeking sentence enhancements based on prior convictions. His staff revolted, their union sued, and a State appeals court ordered him to rescind the directive, as State law trumped his policies. He did, but his lawyers have appealed to the California Supreme Court.

6/30/22  Justin Flores, a 35-year old Southern California man, had a long criminal record. But thanks to the D.A.’s intercession, his conviction last year for felon with a gun resulted in probation. And even as Flores continued misbehaving - a warrant was recently issued for domestic violence - probation officers failed to follow up in person. So they’re also catching blame for the violent deaths of two El Monte police officers earlier this month, shot dead by Flores when they responded to reports of an assault at a motel.

6/17/22  According to a deputy L.A. county prosecutor, Justin Flores, who murdered two El Monte police officers on June 14, had a prior felony conviction that should have counted as a “strike” when he was arrested for drug and gun offenses in 2020. But new, progressive D.A. George Gascon forbid using enhancements. In 2021 Flores pled no contest, and the lack of a “strike” enabled him to get probation instead of prison time. Flores was under probation supervision when he gunned down the officers. Judges later ruled that State sentencing laws overruled Gascon’s lenient policy, and he withdrew it.

6/7/22  Far fewer teens under eighteen are being sent to adult courts, even for serious crimes. That “historic” shift - referrals dropped from about 250,000 (8% of youths) to about 53,000 (2%) between 2010 and 2019 - is meant to prevent the harms of imprisonment. Community treatment options including counseling and peer mediation show considerable promise. But there have been some notable failures, and skeptics abound. One police chief called the new approach “arrest, release, repeat.”

5/7/22  “Have a safe trip to Danville.” That’s how Cook County (Chicago) Judge Stanley Stacks disposed of prosecutors’ motion to lop off a year from serial burglar Charles Miles’ sentence so he could get the special supports and participate in re-entry programs offered to convicts who are granted early release under Illinois’ new resentencing law. Judge Stacks called Miles a “congenital burglar” and unlikely to take advantage of or benefit from the new offerings. So he sent him back to finish his term (see 3/19/22 and 10/20/24 updates).

4/18/22  In 2017 Garden Grove (Calif.) resident Ike Nicholas Souzer was thirteen and on home detection when he stabbed his mother to death. Prosecutors charged the “autistic” and “volatile” youth with murder, but in 2019 he was convicted of manslaughter as a juvenile. A few days ago he was released early to home monitoring. His grandmother warned the D.A. that “with that ankle bracelet, he’s not going to make it through the day.” Sure enough, the “extremely dangerous and violent” youth, who once escaped while awaiting trial, promptly cut it off and fled. He was arrested one day later.

4/13/22  LAPD attributes a sharp increase in “follow-off” robberies to teams of South-L.A. gang members who assail persons they observe leaving luxury stores and steal jewelry and other valuables for resale to entrepreneurs. There were 165 such robberies in 2021 and 56 so far this year. A special task force has served nearly 300 search warrants and made dozens of arrests for robbery, gun possession and attempted murder. But officers are frustrated that arrestees are quickly released without bail. It took four arrests - most recently, for seven robberies - before one suspect was finally held without bond.

3/30/22  An overall rise in gun crime, and reports that persons released without bail often reoffend, have led New York Governor Kathy Hochul to propose rolling back some of the bail reforms enacted in 2020. Among other things, she would narrow the list of crimes for which release without bail is required and once again let judges consider a defendant’s threat to society when setting bail. (New York is reportedly the only State that prohibits it.) But reformers staunchly oppose any changes.

3/19/22  Illinois’ resentencing law took effect January 1. It lets local prosecutors petition courts to resentence persons to lesser terms “if the original sentence no longer advances the interests of justice.” Victims have an opportunity for input. Cook County (Chicago) D.A. Kim Foxx said she will soon “begin addressing the fact that many Black and brown people are still incarcerated today under failed policies of the past, even though they have been rehabilitated and pose little threat to public safety.” Elderly inmates and those who served ten or more years come first; sex crimes and homicide seem to be out.

2/22/22  George Gascon, L.A.’s progressive D.A., conceded it was wrong to let Hannah Tubbs, a 26-year old transgender woman plead as a juvenile to a vicious sexual assault on a 10-year old girl when Tubbs was 17 and still identified as male. It turns out that FOX News got jailhouse recordings of Tubbs’ boasts about the misdeed and its lack of consequences. Some of Gascon’s deputies have openly despaired about their boss’s go-easy policies, and another recall campaign (the first ran out of steam) is brewing.

2/17/22  After facing threats of recall over his progressive policies, George Gascon, L.A.’s liberally-minded D.A. tweaked his much-criticized decision to forbid prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults. Instead, he now requires that such moves be approved by a supervisor. That change, he says, is in response to a looming judicial decision on Proposition 57, whose provisions could be interpreted to force the mass release of juveniles who were convicted as adults, and even for the most serious crimes. Gascon subsequently announced he would again allow prosecutors, with his approval, to seek life  sentences, whose imposition he forbid when taking office. And on 2/21/22

2/11/22  On December 8th. 2021 a 16-year old Chicago boy was arrested for armed robbery. He was carrying a loaded Glock. This was his second armed robbery arrest within months, but he was released and fit with an ankle bracelet. That enabled authorities to retrospectively track his movements a few days ago, when he hijacked a car at gunpoint, then shot a 15-year old boy as he walked to school. And to insure that his victim was dead, shot him nine more times as he lay on the ground.

1/14/22  New, more permissive guidelines have made “thousands” of additional Federal inmates eligible for early release to supervision or home confinement. More than three-thousand were already released under the 2018 First Step Act, which confers 54 days of good-time credit for each year of a sentence imposed for a non-violent, non-gun related offense.

1/13/22  As violence soars, even some “Blue” legislators are “reexamining” a provision of Illinois’ massive 2021 criminal justice reform bill that eliminates cash bail as of January 1, 2023 to insure that persons charged with attempted murder and other violent crimes aren’t simply let go. (Click here for the bill text and here for a summary.) After all, a Democratic legislator’s husband recently traded gunfire with suspects who carjacked the pair in a Chicago suburb. Under pressure from the “Reds,” legislators have also been tweaking other parts of the law, including provisions on officer decertification.

12/30/21  An L.A. Times editorial ridicules the notion that Prop. 47 and bail reform may have increased crime. Instead, it points out that according to LAPD data, robbery and burglary have declined since 2019. That’s true for robbery, but only when compared to 2020 (it increased 5.3% this year.) Burglaries have come down somewhat, but Prop. 47 narrowed its application. Vehicle thefts are up 53.6% since 2019, and  other forms of theft increased this year. And the Times itself recently published a story about a murder allegedly committed by two persons who had been released after their arrest for serious crimes.

12/27/21  A Los Angeles man, Jose Ruiz Gutierrez, 23, was shot dead when he tried to intervene in the robbery of his companion. Three men were arrested for his murder. Two had been released and were awaiting court dates on recent cases: Jayon Sanders, 21, for felon with a gun, robbery, assault on an officer, and other charges; and Abraham Castillo, 20, for carrying a concealed weapon. A fourth man, Joshua Saulsberry, 21, who was charged only with robbery, recently pled not guilty to felon with a gun.

12/7/21  In the Illinois Governor’s race, one political party (the “Reds”) is citing the sharp increase in violent crime as proof that the “Blues,” led by Governor J.B. Pritzker, have ignored the real threat to life and limb that voters face. But the “Blues” complain that the “Reds” are “racializing” things to appeal to suburban Whites. Pritzker may have become more vulnerable because earlier this year he signed a progressive criminal justice bill that, among other things, ends cash bail in 2023 (see 2/23/21 entry).

12/3/21  Beverly Hills police arrested Aaeriel Maynor, 29, for the murder of a noted Beverly Hills philanthropist who was gunned down in her own home. Maynor, a convicted armed robber on parole, was captured after accidentally wounding himself with an AR-15 rifle while committing a burglary. On the same day, in Chicago, a man out on bail for carjacking and a second suspect were arrested after an officer was shot and wounded during a traffic stop. Blake Williams, 22, is being held on $250,000 bond. Meanwhile, LAPD chief Michel Moore attributed the persistence of high-end retail thefts on a permissive pandemic-era policy that recently led to the release of fourteen smash-and-grabbers on low or no bail.

11/22/21  On November 21 a speeding SUV plowed into a Waukesha (WI) Christmas parade, killing five and injuring 48. A police officer fired on the vehicle, but without apparent effect. Its driver, Darrell E. Brooks Jr., 39, was fleeing from a domestic dispute. A registered sex offender, his felony convictions include a 1999 aggravated robbery and a 2010 strangulation. On November 5 Brooks was released on $1,000 bond for “reckless endangerment” and other charges for allegedly “running over” a woman after a dispute. Prosecutors have criticized that bail amount as being far too low.

10/8/21  Struggling to find help because of the pandemic, some major employers are taking on promising ex-cons. Their success is encouraging others. Major industries including Koch and Amazon have partnered with “Honest Jobs,” an Ohio-based service that seeks out and screens qualified felons to fill vacancies in various fields. But there are serious challenges. Felons often lack skills and education. Rising violence may also be leading potential employers to harbor second thoughts.

10/5/21  On parole for the aggravated kidnapping of “a teen relative of his ex-girlfriend,” whom he had held a knifepoint, Chicago man Donald Williams, 38 did it again. This time he imprisoned his roommate and her eleven-year old daughter in their apartment for days, repeatedly pummeling them and cutting them with a knife, and all because their landlord wanted him to move out. Once police showed up he barricaded himself, set a fire and eventually jumped out. And yes, his parole has been revoked.

9/17/21  With time and money running out and only 200,000 of the required 580,000 voter signatures on hand, recall backers suspended their effort against George Gascon, L.A.’s progressively-minded new D.A. But they vow to be back. Gascon’s moves to end cash bail and prohibit assistant D.A.’s from seeking death penalties and sentence enhancements angered crime victims and many of his own deputies.

5/22/21  Elected under a progressive platform, L.A. District Attorney George Gascon faces a recall campaign.  Efforts are underway to gather nearly 600,000 voter signatures by the deadline, October 27.

8/12/21  A 2018 NIJ-funded randomized controlled trial of 988 adult offenders who had been released from confinement found that after thirty months those who were assigned to a specially-funded “second-chance” re-entry program offering enhanced supervision, job training, help with substance abuse and cognitive therapy fared no better than the control group in terms of re-arrest and re-conviction. (See 10/30/24 update)

7/29/21  A five-year follow-up study of prisoners released in 2012 by 34 states revealed that within five years 71 percent were re-arrested and 46 percent were re-imprisoned for probation/parole violation or a new crime. Yearly arrest percentages ranged from 37 percent during the first year of freedom to 26 percent during the fifth.

7/9/21  A Loyola University study of a 2017 Chicago judicial initiative to increase pretrial release and insure that bail is affordable revealed that those who benefited were significantly more likely to fail to appear but not significantly more likely to commit a crime. (See 2/13/20 and 3/11/20 updates.)

5/25/21  In 2020 murders in L.A. surged 36 percent, reaching a decade-high 305. Police Chief Michel Moore attributes the spike to gang violence, the “despair and dislocation” of COVID, and the elimination of cash bail, which quickly put violent persons back on the streets: “When those gun arrests are not going to court...zero bail, court trials being deferred...there’s a sense [of] a lack of consequences.” Defunding the police has been replaced by a drive to replenish the ranks. Stop-and-frisk, once abandoned, is back in South L.A., where an elite unit is waging a targeted campaign.

5/23/21  Cook County (Chicago) has 1,544 persons awaiting trial for serious felonies at home. They’re wearing ankle bracelets. Ninety four face murder charges; 33, carjacking; 569, “aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.” And so forth. These numbers are vastly larger than pre-pandemic. According to Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who advocates criminal justice reforms, COVID forced an emptying of the jails. In any event, those released are not a threat and must be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

3/26/21  In a potentially far-reaching decision, the California Supreme Court ruled that defendants must not be denied release simply because they cannot afford bail, and that if an amount within their means cannot be set measures that are “less restrictive” than confinement (such as wearing an ankle monitor) must be considered. (In re Kenneth Humphrey, no. S247278)

3/10/21  BJS reports that the local jail population decreased about twenty-five percent during the twelve months ending June 30, 2020. Inmates being held on misdemeanors declined about 45 percent; those held for felonies, about 18 percent. At mid-year 2020 the jail incarceration rate was 167/100K, the lowest in three decades. COVID-imposed restrictions are considered the primary cause. Report

3/1/21 Lawrence Anderson, an Oklahoma parolee with a string of prison sentences, savagely killed three persons two weeks after the state parole board commuted his most recent term. Their move, which has been severely criticized by the D.A., came during a three-day meeting in which the board reviewed six-hundred clemency requests. Anderson had reportedly cooked a victim’s heart and served it as food.

Complaints that moves by George Gascon, L.A.’s newly-elected D.A., to implement a progressive agenda that prohibits his staff from seeking cash bail, sentence enhancements and the death penalty has led deputy D.A.’s, victim’s rights advocates and law enforcement and political figures to mount a campaign for his recall.

2/23/21  Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that eliminates cash bail in 2023. Civil libertarians enthusiastically backed the measure, which was reportedly inspired by the death of George Floyd. Some worry, though, that judges might overuse the right to detain offenders they consider dangerous. The Chicago Tribune announced its opposition because it fears that dangerous persons will be released into the community. Police and prosecutors have consistently opposed the bill as it mandates release of pre-trial arrestees for a broad range of crimes, “irrespective of their likelihood of re-offending, the danger they pose generally to the public, or their willingness to comply with conditions of their release.”

2/9/21  A judge ruled that plans by George Gascon, Los Angeles County’s new, progressive D.A., to end the use of sentencing enhancements for categories such as felons, gang members and use of a weapon violates state law. With violence in L.A. way up, that promise drew flack from victims, judges and his own staff. Gascon has directed that his prosecutors ask judges to release arrestees without bail except for violent felonies, and has prohibited seeking the death penalty, trying juveniles as adults, and prosecuting first-time violators for minor, “nuisance” crimes such as trespass and loitering, He has also promised more emphasis on prosecuting officers who use excessive force.

1/29/21  Cook County (Chicago) prosecutors charged Daniel Regalado, 27 with reckless homicide after a Jan. 20 head-on crash that killed a 12-year old girl. Regalado’s blood-alcohol was six times over the limit. Regalado has been out on bond on three felony cases, including ex-con with a gun in 2019 and reckless discharge of a firearm in 2018. Citizens, community leaders and the Mayor of Oak Lawn accuse D.A. Kim Foxx “of being more concerned about criminals than innocent victims” and demand she resign.

1/13/21  On January 12 the 3rd. Circuit Court of Appeal overruled a District Court decision that allowed “Safehouse,” a Philadelphia non-profit, to open a “supervised injection site” where users inject illegal drugs under medical supervision. According to the Court, such sites, which are open and regulated in portions of Canada and Europe, and have been proposed in the U.S., violate Federal drug laws.

12/16/20  LAPD is blaming COVID-inspired early releases from jail and prison of gang members and repeat offenders for the dramatic increase in violence being experienced in poverty-stricken South Los Angeles, with forty killings in a recent week alone. According to a deputy chief, “information is getting out to the street that if you carry a firearm and you get arrested, you aren’t going to stay in jail.”

11/22/20  In Sept. 2017 Chicago courts facilitated pre-trial release by eliminating or reducing bail. In six months 500 additional defendants were released (9,200 instead of 8,700). A study revealed that those released after the change were slightly more likely to FTA but equally likely to reoffend (17 percent) as those released under the old guidelines. Overall Chicago crime rates did not change.

11/14/20  Young non-violent arrestees who reside In Chicago’s poor, violence-stricken North Lawndale neighborhood can opt out of the criminal justice system and be processed, instead, by a “restorative justice” court comprised of area residents. “Repair of harm agreements” include assignment to job training, drug treatment and counseling. Since 2017, none of the 63 who successfully completed the full program have been rearrested. (See 11/3/23 update)

7/14/20  NIJ’s assessment of HOPE, a stern version of probation with close monitoring and consequences for even minor infractions, found that it did not reduce “number of arrests, revocations and time to first arrest.” However, HOPE participants were more likely to be reconvicted.

4/23/20 Released without bail because of the pandemic, some California jail inmates who were being held pending trial have been quickly rearrested on new crimes. Rocky Lee Music, 32, an ex-con, allegedly committed a carjacking twenty minutes after his release from a jail where he was being held for car theft. Owen Aguilar, 27, who was being held for criminal threats, was arrested on multiple counts of arson a few days after his release. Kristopher Sylvester, 34, was let go twice. Two weeks after his release from jail, where he was being held on multiple counts of burglary, he and three buds were arrested for a string of car thefts. All four had substantial records, and all were let go.

4/17/20  To lessen the COVID-19 strain on its jails, on March 19 Hillsborough County, Fla. released 164 inmates who were booked on non-violent offenses. Among them was Joseph Edward Williams, a 26-year old ex-con arrested six days earlier for heroin possession. Williams has an extensive arrest record and convictions on burglary and gun charges. One day after his release he allegedly shot and killed a man. Williams is now back in jail. He faces charges of murder, resisting arrest and ex-con with a gun.

4/15/20  Two days ago Maryland’s chief appellate judge issued an “administrative order” directing juvenile court judges to avoid detaining juveniles, and to consider others for release, when consistent with public safety. Arguing against any mass release, the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center pointed out that what public defenders call “technical violations” may actually reflect dangerous behavior.

4/3/20  Ohio prisons hold 39,000 inmates. Pressed to grant early releases because of COVID-19, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recommends that courts let thirty-eight non-violent offenders go. Of these, 23 are pregnant or delivered babies while serving time, and each of the others is over age sixty and within sixty days of release. “What we’re doing is trying to be very careful, very respectful of the local courts, very respectful of the victims, very respectful of public safety. That’s why we set a pretty strict — or very strict — criteria about who we would even think about.” Additional releases would be “methodically” considered, and public safety would come first.

3/27/20  An NIJ-funded meta-analysis concludes that “focused intervention” programs that go beyond what’s usually offered to ex-offenders can significantly reduce recidivism. Among these are cognitive-behavioral therapy, structured group counseling and drug court. NIJ practices page

3/11/20  A new academic study contradicts earlier findings by Chicago’s court system that bail reforms which increased the number of persons released before trial did not lead to more crime. Researchers instead found that after the 2017 loosening, the proportion of releasees charged with new crimes increased by 45 percent, and with new violent crimes by 33 percent. They also confirmed the Tribune findings reported below (see 2/13/20 update).

2/14/20  Fearful that official opposition to the State’s recent bail reforms may cause them to be dumped altogether, New York’s “progressives” are backing changes that would do away with cash bail but allow judges to keep dangerous accused in jail. Factors that would be considered for remand would include risk of non-appearance, criminal record and whether a crime resulted in death.

2/13/20  An extensive Chicago Tribune analysis of the effects of bail reforms implemented by the county’s chief judge, including the reduction and elimination of cash bail, concludes that claims it reduced violent crime are based on flawed data and a purposely narrow definition of a crime of violence. Twelve homicides were allegedly committed in Chicago during the first nine months of 2019 by persons released under the new rules.

2/11/20  In a speech to the Major Counties Sheriffs of America, AG William Barr warned that lax prosecution of repeat offenders by “progressive” D.A.’s who engage in “catch-and-release and revolving-door policies” (he mentioned San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Chicago, and Baltimore) imperiled public safety and was causing increased crime and violence.

2/10/20  In 2017 Robert Williams, 43, was paroled for a 2002 attempted murder in which he shot a civilian during a carjacking then fired at police. Yesterday he ambushed two NYPD officers sitting in a van, then opened fire in a precinct house. Two officers were wounded. Williams, who was due to appear in court in connection with a recent arrest for obstructing police, was taken into custody.

2/10/20  A string of fatal vehicle-pedestrian accidents involving drivers with a history of moving violations is leading New York City authorities to consider get-tough measures against drivers who repeatedly rack up speeding and red-light camera tickets. Instead of simply being fined, recidivists could face mandatory driver education or have their vehicles impounded.