A federal judge in California has found a key part of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) to be unconstitutional. SORNA makes it a federal crime when a sex offender fails to register and then travels outside their state. People convicted...
mass incarceration
Bail measure passes legislature, will become ballot question
Recently, the legislature passed a measure to change how bail is determined in Wisconsin. It has passed twice in consecutive legislative sessions, which means that it will now head to our April ballot as a constitutional amendment. How bail is determined is critically...
Supreme Court to decide if you can be punished after an acquittal
This may come as a shock. Being acquitted of a crime doesn’t mean you can’t be punished for committing it. People can and do get punished for crimes they got acquitted of committing. It happens when a person is charged with more than one crime. If they are acquitted...
10 principles for reducing mass incarceration
In the United States, we incarcerate more of our population than any other country in the world. In fact, while the U.S. makes up less than 5% of the world’s population, it is responsible for locking up almost 25% of all the prisoners in the world. Even if the system...
Bail reform is actually working, but the story isn’t getting through, especially in election season
By now you have almost certainly seen many election ads scaring people about any candidate who advocates bail reform. They are accused of wanting to put killers and rapists on the streets to commit more crime. Paired with sometimes misleading crime statistics, these...
‘Fog Reveal’ tool allows police to know your full location history
Do you want the police to keep a record of everywhere you’ve ever been? It would be awfully convenient for the police to have that information. Law enforcement could simply make a list of places where illegal things are likely to happen or where certain people are not...
People aren’t still getting arrested for weed possession, are they?
According to multiple polls, around 70% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana for adult use. And, marijuana is legal, at least for medical use, in the majority of U.S. states – and the total number of states where it is legal keeps growing. Currently,...
Held pretrial for 4 years, 2 men were exonerated and are now suing
It was a shocking and terrible crime. In 2016, two gunmen acted in concert to drive partygoers to a Pittsburgh-area house’s back porch and then shoot them. Five people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were killed. A sixth person was paralyzed and died...
Does releasing people before trial drive up crime rates?
When deciding who needs to remain in jail as they await trial, courts in most states should consider two things. First, is the person a danger to the community? If they are, pre-trial detention may be justified. Second, is the person a flight risk? In other words, how...
Reports: Feds eager to buy predictive policing, phone-cracking tech
There is good reason to believe that predictive policing software simply reinforces past, biased information to predict crime. It is certainly under heavy scrutiny, as it seeks to predict in advance exactly who will commit crimes. It’s the subject of dystopian...