IN THE NEWS:

1. Quality-of-life citations back in Baltimore courts, bringing familiar problems  

MARYLAND: On three mornings this week, judges heard the first set of citation cases since Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates announced that he would resume prosecuting them last month. It was a response, Bates said, to the community’s calls for accountability after his predecessor, Marilyn Mosby, stopped prosecuting low-level offenses in an effort to reduce the jail population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The citation docket is also aimed at connecting defendants with “wrap-around services,” such as drug treatment or housing resources.

July 19, 2023 | The Daily Record

2. Restorative Justice program seeing results in Pine County  

MINNESOTA: The Restorative Justice program in Pine County, known as C-5 (community, collaboration, culture, change, and choices) and implemented to help deter recidivism among youth and keep them out of the prison system, has made some headway since it was created in 2016. Of the 81 participants who have successfully completed the C-5 program since 2016, only eight have reoffended. And out of the 13 additional youth that started the program but did not complete it, only five have reoffended.  

July 19, 2023 | Pine City Pioneer

3. US public defenders could lose hundreds of staff in budget shortfall, officials say 

NATIONAL: The U.S. public defense system could need to cut as many as 500 from its staff charged with protecting the rights of poor criminal defendants because of a budgeting error by Congress that could leave it with a 3–5 percent shortfall, officials said. That would mean a reduction of as many as 12 percent of the roughly 4,100 employees of the Federal Public and Community Defenders, the office that represents indigent federal criminal defendants, who could in turn be left to spend more time in jail awaiting trial. 

July 19, 2023 | Reuters

4. Hochul: New panel will review criminal justice policies  

NEW YORK: Over the last four years, New York officials have made changes to the state's criminal justice policies. Now, a new panel announced Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul will review the policies and make recommendations for potential changes. The Council on Community Justice is being launched after a legislative session in which state lawmakers and the governor once again agreed to changing the controversial bail law that limits cash bail requirements for many criminal charges.  

July 19, 2023 | Spectrum News 1

5. Arkansas stripped parole eligibility from 390 inmates last year; the state is fixing it

ARKANSAS: Arkansas prison officials inched closer last week to restoring parole eligibility for some of the nearly 400 inmates convicted of residential burglary whose chances for early release were revoked last year thanks to a bureaucratic mistake. The confusion stemmed from a 2015 criminal justice reform law that reclassified residential burglary as a violent felony offense. The distinction is important because of the parole implications. Since 2001, offenders who have been convicted of multiple violent felonies must serve their entire prison sentence.

July 18, 2023 | Arkansas Times

6. California’s prison-to-homelessness pipeline    

CALIFORNIA: California, unlike other states with large prison populations, releases inmates without requiring them to have places to live. Since 2019, at least 36,400 inmates have been released from California state prisons without fixed addresses. A quarter of them—roughly 8,900 people—were sent to Los Angeles County, according to an NBC News analysis of data obtained through public records requests. 

July 18, 2023 | NBC News

7. Illinois Supreme Court upholds law eliminating cash bail, sets Sept. 18 as start date for new system 

ILLINOIS: The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the state to become the first in the nation to eliminate cash bail for criminal defendants awaiting trial, rejecting arguments from county prosecutors that the law violates the state constitution. The justices gave trial courts 60 days to prepare for the new rules, with cash bail to be eliminated Sept. 18. Under the new system, defendants will appear for two hearings: an initial hearing, also known as a conditions hearing, and, if prosecutors decide to pursue detention, another hearing designed to provide a more comprehensive look at whether someone should be released or detained pretrial. 

July 18, 2023 | Chicago Tribune

8. Prisoners’ relatives and former inmates plead for help as deaths mount in sweltering Texas prisons   

TEXAS: As a seemingly unending heatwave bears down across Texas, prison rights advocates and several lawmakers demanded the governor call an immediate special legislative session to cool prisons. Though similar measures failed in the Legislature earlier this year, the current heat crisis and a fear for the safety of those inside spurred them to try again. Every summer, thousands of officers and tens of thousands of prisoners work and live inside concrete and steel buildings without ventilation. While temperatures are routinely in the triple digits outside, the thermometer reading often rises even higher inside. 

July 18, 2023 | Texas Tribune

9. Bucks County to break ground on $16M rehabilitation and treatment center 

PENNSYLVANIA: Construction is to begin this summer on a $16 million mental health center for those involved with the criminal justice system who also have a mental illness. The new center’s purpose is to reduce recidivism and divert individuals from incarceration and from further penetration into the criminal justice system. 

July 17, 2023 | The Reporter