Crime Story Daily

This is a curated selection of highlights from Crime Story Daily this week. On the criminal justice policy front: Pieces from Vox and CNN explore the deeper story behind 2021’s headline-grabbing crime data. Last year, the US saw the biggest increase in its murder rate in decades; so far, the spike has continued into 2021: murders are up nearly 15% compared to the same period last year. We can’t know, with certainty, what’s behind this rise, though experts agree that a range of different factors – the COVID-19 pandemic, protests over police brutality, and America’s “gun problem” – are all...

PM Stories All Crime Is Local David A. Graham, The Atlantic The Murder Spike of 2020: When Police Pull Back Peter Moskos, Wall Street Journal Permitless-Carry Laws Make It Easier to Pack Heat in Red America Neil Weinberg, Bloomberg With Violence Still Surging, These States Want to Make It Even Easier to Carry Guns Chip Brownlee, The Trace Outgunned: Why California’s groundbreaking firearms law is failing Robert Lewis, CalMatters Garland launches gun trafficking strike forces in 5 cities Michael Balsamo, AP News Hospitals Are Trying To Do What Politicians Haven’t: Stop Gun Violence Nick Wing, HuffPost After Two Decades Helping Victims Through Tragedy, a Grocery Store Shooting...

PM Stories The War on Drugs Is 50 Years Old Alfred W. McCoy, The Nation Nixon launched the war on drugs 50 years ago. Who won? NBC News 50-year war on drugs imprisoned millions of Black Americans Aaron Morrison, AP News The ‘war on drugs’ was always about race LZ Granderson, Los Angeles Times How race shaped the South’s punitive approach to justice Noah Robertson and Patrik Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor South Carolina Prepares To Bring Firing Squads To Death Row Catherine Welch, WFAE America’s execution mess Austin Sarat, The Hill US Won’t Seek Death Penalty in 7 Cases, Signaling a Shift Under Biden Benjamin Weiser and...

PM Stories Global Prison Population Up 25 Percent Since 2000 Blake Diaz, The Crime Report Biden Said He’d Cut Incarceration in Half. So Far, the Federal Prison Population Is Growing. Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones Biden administration criticized over report that it is not extending home confinement for prisoners Alex Gangitano, The Hill Captives Behind Plexiglass: How COVID Destroyed Prison Visits Maria DiLorenzo, The Crime Report The Pandemic Rush on Prison Weddings Zara Stone, New York Times Building exits off the highway to mass incarceration: Diversion programs explained Leah Wang and Katie Rose Quandt, Prison Policy Initiative NYC Rikers Closure Called Model for Shrinking Jail Populations Eva...

PM Stories Biden Legal Team Decides Inmates Must Return to Prison After COVID Emergency Charlie Savage and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times ACLU, NAACP among those pressing Biden to grant clemency to inmates sent home during COVID Kristine Phillips, USA Today How the Federal Government Can Incentivize States To Reverse Mass Incarceration Lauren-Brooke Eisen and Hernandez Stroud, Brennan Center for Justice Mass incarceration is bad law enforcement policy. It’s bad for the economy, too. Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post 4 wealthy donors fuel overhaul of California’s criminal justice system Jeremy B. White, Politico Recall, George Gascón and the troubles of progressive DAs Los Angeles Times Criminal justice...

PM Stories The Past, Present, and Future of COVID-19 in California Prisons Heather Harris and Joseph Hayes, Public Policy Institute of California Did Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown Let COVID-19 Hit Jails Hard? Michael Murney, Dallas Observer Inmate Deaths In Hawaii Prisons And Jails Are On The Upswing This Year Kevin Dayton, Honolulu Civil Beat Detroit’s Prison Population Will Soon Be Stuck Living Next to a Toxic Site Adam Mahoney, Truthout Coerced Out of Justice: How Prosecutors Abuse Their Power to Secure Guilty Pleas Somil Trivedi and Jared Keenan, ACLU The Power of Prosecutors Lili Loofbourow, Slate MeToo Doesn’t Seem to Have Changed the Way New...