This message was sent to ##Email##
|
| April 14, 2020 |
| |  | | |
|
|
|
| |
|
PBUS members are encouraged to submit information from their state about upcoming meetings, important legislation or other news. Click here to submit.
|
The Chronicle Express
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers have scaled back a series of controversial changes to the state's cash bail system that had frustrated law-enforcement since taking effect the first of the year.
Cuomo and legislative leaders reached an agreement last week, returning several misdemeanor and felony crimes that can be subject to bail orders, allowing judges to keep a defendant in jail while awaiting trial unless they can reassure the court of their appearance by putting up cash or signing a secured bond.
READ MORE
PragerU
Activist groups claim a biased criminal justice system has put too many people behind bars. The solution, they say, is to drastically cut the prison population. Even now, some states are using the coronavirus pandemic to double down on granting early release to thousands of prisoners. Rafael Mangual, Deputy Director of Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, urges caution: most people are in prison for a good reason.
READ MORE
JURIST
The cult horror film classic, Zombieland, begins two months after a virus turns people into zombies that overrun the US. The lead character learns how to stay alive by living by a code of rules he has created to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. The rules are practical. For example, Rule No. 1 stresses the importance of cardio because sometimes you have to outrun your zombie attacker, while Rule No. 3 urges extra care while visiting a restroom because it involves a closed room with only one route of escape.
READ MORE
|
|
|
|
|
| |
KEYT-TV
A new order will release some people from prisons and jails across California to prevent the spread of coronavirus among inmates.
Local law enforcement and district attorneys are speaking out against the move.
As a zero bail order releases some inmates from all California prisons and jails, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow believes the order is not only unconstitutional but could also put communities in danger.
READ MORE
Chicago Sun-Times
Several attorneys and civil rights groups have filed a class-action lawsuit against Sheriff Thomas Dart seeking to remove more detainees from Cook County Jail amid the outbreak of COVID-19 inside the Southwest Side campus.
With the jail headcount already hovering at or near record lows following the recent release of mostly non-violent detainees, the federal complaint filed Friday seeks a court order to release possibly hundreds more.
READ MORE
 |
|
US Bail Runners is your professional one-stop information network for people who skip out on bail. We are nationwide—all 50 states—and here 24/7 to service your needs as a bail agent. MORE
|
|
The Crime Report
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators scaled back a series of controversial changes to the state's cash bail system that had frustrated law enforcement since taking effect this year, reports the Chronicle-Express near Rochester. Cuomo and legislative leaders reached an agreement last week, allowing judges to keep many defendants in jail awaiting trial unless they can reassure the court of their appearance by putting up cash or signing a secured bond.
READ MORE
KYMA-DT
The New York City Police Department has reached a critical point. The Covid-19 scourge has eroded the ranks of a noble department that weathered the Civil War, the 1918 influenza pandemic, the stock market crash in 1929, World Wars I and II and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In a department of about 36,000 sworn officers, 7,096 — or 19.6% of the uniformed workforce — were out sick recently, according to data issued by the NYPD.
READ MORE
The Appeal
Amid an unprecedented pandemic that has hit hardest in New York, the state legislature passed a rollback of its landmark bail reform law, a move that will potentially land many more people in jails and put them at increased risk of contracting COVID-19, and took no action on a number of other reform measures.
The original bail reform bill, passed last year, barred New York judges from setting cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.
READ MORE
The New Republic
The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund opened for business in 2015, a heady time for criminal justice reform. The protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore had helped catapult conversations about police violence, mass incarceration, and the myriad injustices of the criminal justice system into a wider public awareness. For the first time in a generation or more, the United States seemed primed to reevaluate its commitment to mass incarceration and the institutions that fed it.
READ MORE
Davis Vanguard
On Apr 2, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo passed a budget bill that included a controversial change to the state's bail law.
Since Jan. 1, 2020, the New York state bail law eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and felonies; only extremely violent crimes were subject to cash bail. The new changes made on Apr. 2, 2020, reverse the previous law changes, allowing over a dozen crimes to again be eligible for cash bail.
READ MORE
Newsday
New York's controversial bail reform — and the resulting decline in the state's jail population — has helped slow the spread of the coronavirus among those behind bars locally, officials said, even as new cases have exploded elsewhere on Long Island.
Bail reform enabled jail officials to segregate new admissions and those who display symptoms in the additional space created by the population decrease, correction officials said, one of several steps they have taken for more than a month to prevent the deadly virus from infecting inmates and staff.
READ MORE
WHCU-FM
Assemblyman Chris Friend says the rollbacks to New York's "No Bail" law haven't gone far enough.
While the newly enacted state budget added a number of crimes eligible for bail, Friend argues the bill still does not allow for judiciary discretion. Judges are not able to make assessments on a defendant's likely risk to the public or individuals.
READ MORE
KMVU-TV
A coronavirus case was confirmed in an Oregon state prison in Coos Bay. With a greater risk to inmates due to their close confinement, NBC5 News wanted to hear what local jails in Jackson and Josephine County were considering.
“We’re considering all things, planning for the worst and hoping for the best,” said Sheriff Nathan Sickler, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
READ MORE
KPRC-TV
Law enforcement officials and victim advocates have repeatedly expressed concerns over what they see as low bonds being granted to violent, repeat offenders. One area of particular concern are personal bonds. The Texas Code of Criminal procedure states defendants can be released on personal bonds “without sureties or other security.”
When Channel 2 Investigates downloaded data from the Harris County District Clerk’s website, we analyzed 8,202 felony cases filed from Jan. 1 through April 5.
READ MORE
The Austin Bulldog
The normally cozy relationship between Travis County Commissioners and Austin City Council members took an icy turn recently when County Judge Sarah Eckhardt transmitted a three-page memo to the Council criticizing a draft resolution by Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza.
At issue are bail hearings conducted by municipal judges on behalf of the county at the jail in central Austin under an interlocal agreement between the two government agencies.
READ MORE
KVII-TV
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is stopping the intake of inmates from county jails. In a letter to county sheriffs, Executive Director Bryan Collier cited COVID-19 prevention and said halting the transfers was "necessary and temporary."
Collier also said the new policy would protect both state and county employees and inmates. He did not give a timeline to when the intake would resume.
READ MORE
|
|
|
|
|
7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
|
