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Warrant
In this 1960s report, Vera staff examined the Cincinnati Police Division's practices for processing and serving criminal and traffic warrants to determine whether or not changes in procedure could result in a more effective and efficient operation.
Prosecution
There has been a rise in the number of reform-minded prosecutors elected into office on promises to change what they see as a broken criminal justice system that overincarcerates and metes out punishments unfairly.[]Sam Reisman, “The Rise of the Progressive Pr...
Youth Justice
From raising the age at which children may be tried in adult court to re-examining the conditions under which they can be held in custody, jurisdictions across the country have considered ways to address the unique needs of children and young adults in the cri...
State Reforms
The country’s deep political divisions played out in the states this year on the criminal justice front. Criminal justice reform—which has enjoyed bipartisan support nationally in recent years—continued in states both red and blue, but in others, “tough on cri...
Mass Shootings
Twenty-two killed in El Paso, Texas.[]Phil Helsel, “Suspected Gunman in El Paso Walmart Shooting Pleads Not Guilty to Attack That Killed 22,” NBC News, October 10, 2019, https://perma.cc/3498-2WW8.[/foonote]Twelve killed in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[] Gary A. ...
Marijuana Laws
More states took steps in 2019 to legalize or decriminalize marijuana and expunge related convictions from people’s criminal records.[]Jack Karp, “Turning Over a New Leaf: The Push to Nix Old Pot Convictions,” Law360, October 20, 2019, https://perma.cc/66PC-G...
Voting Rights
In November 2018, an estimated one in three Black men in Kentucky was unable to vote because of a felony record, the legacy of a “tough on crime” era that disproportionately policed and penalized Black communities.[]Michael Wines, “Why So Many Kentuckians Are ...
Jails
Although the number of people in jail and prison in the United States remains stubbornly entrenched at around 2.2 million, an important trend emerged in 2019—big cities fought back against jail expansion and actively voted to shutter jails and decarcerate.[]Fo...
Bail Reform
Building on a movement that has reached both coasts and middle America, more jurisdictions are taking a serious look at the built-in bias of money bail and its disproportionate impact on people of color and people who are poor. America’s jails are filled with...
Opioids
For the first time in 30 years, drug overdose deaths in America are on the decline—a drop that some have attributed to the wider distribution of naloxone and new restrictions on prescription opioid painkillers. But this news is tempered by concerns about a ri...
Maurice Smith — Program Associate
Maurice Smith works as a program associate with Vera’s Unlocking Potential initiative to help improve and expand access to postsecondary education for people in prison. The initiative promotes access to life-changing education by supporting the scale and quali...