by Jo Ellen Nott
The First Step Act (“FSA”), enacted in 2018, aimed to reduce recidivism and reform federal sentencing practices.
A recent report by the Council on Criminal Justice (“CCJ”) showed modest reductions in time served by individuals released under the FSA compared to those released …
by Jo Ellen Nott
The Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) has sidestepped both legal and constitutional mandates of the last 10 years by shifting its focus from pedestrian to traffic stops, a practice which allows the agency to continue racial profiling and commit civil rights violations. This maneuvering came …
by Jo Ellen Nott
To no one’s surprise, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) documents about use of force incidents over the six years from 2015 to 2021 were not readily available to the public. ICE leans heavily on the nine exemptions provided by the Freedom of Information Act …
by Jo Ellen Knott
Forensic laboratories screen for drugs using a combination of presumptive and confirmatory tests. The presumptive test indicates the presence or absence of a drug and is usually done in the field by law enforcement using colorimetric tests. The confirmatory testing is usually done in …
by Jo Ellen Nott
A new study, “On the Robustness of Black Americans’ Support for the Police: Evidence from a National Experiment” published in the May-June 2024 issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice, challenges the dominant narrative that Black Americans want less policing.
The research done …
by Jo Ellen Nott
In a controversial move among its “get tough on crime” measures advanced in the February special legislative session, Louisiana became the first state to permit surgical castration as a punishment for sex crimes under a new law signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry on …
by Jo Ellen Nott
Axon announced the launch of Draft One, a technology that the company calls its newest public safety product, on April 23, 2024. This AI system generates police reports from the audio of body-worn cameras and has raised concerns that the technology could worsen existing …
by Jo Ellen Nott
On June 17, 2024, Democratic Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order in Annapolis to issue more than 175,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions, seeking to rectify “historical wrongs” tied to marijuana enforcement. The pardons cover all simple marijuana possession charges and possession of …
by Jo Ellen Nott
A ProPublica investigation published in May 2024 has uncovered significant reliability issues with the New York Police Department’s (“NYPD”) public database for tracking officer discipline. The investigation looked at over 1,000 daily snapshots of the database since 2021 and found 88 percent of the …
by Jo Ellen Nott
20th Judicial District Court Judge Patrick Butler unsealed a troubling internal affairs report from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) in June 2024 that revealed a decade of missed opportunities to address misconduct by Yvonne “Missy” Woods, a veteran DNA scientist.
For almost …
