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Today In Criminal Justice
Critics Say Facial Recognition Is High-Tech Racial Profiling
IACP Head Apologizes to U.S. Minorities for Police Actions
Obama Executive Order to Ease Inmates’ Child Support Burden
In Reforming Jails, Don’t Leave Women Behind
How Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Differ on Drug Policy
Republican Headquarters in NC Town Firebombed
Police Say CA Isn’t Ready For Pot-Smoking Drivers
Cook County, Il., Accused in Suit Charging Illegal Bail System
New Orleans Homicides Up, Detective Ranks Down
Migrant Tide Across Southern Border Equals 2014 Surge
Federal Judge Chides PA DA on Juvenile Lifer Terms
Two LA Prison Employees Took Money From Recreation Fund
Ex-Gen. Cartwright Admits Lying to FBI About Leaks
Top Story
Critics Say Facial Recognition Is High-Tech Racial ProfilingThe growing use of facial-recognition systems has led to a high-tech form of racial profiling, with African Americans more likely than others to have their images captured, analyzed, and reviewed during computerized searches for crime suspects, says a new report based on records from dozens of police departments, the Washington Post says. The report, released today by the Center for Privacy & Technology at Georgetown University’s law school, found that half of all U.S. adults have their images stored in at least one facial-recognition database that police can search, typically with few restrictions.
The steady expansion of these systems has led to a disproportionate racial impact because African Americans are more likely to be arrested and have mug shots taken, one of the main ways that images end up in police databases. The report found that criminal databases are rarely “scrubbed” to remove the images of innocent people, nor are facial-recognition systems routinely tested for accuracy, even though some struggle to distinguish among darker-skinned faces. The combination of these factors means African Americans are more likely to be singled out as possible suspects in crimes, including ones they did not commit, the report says. “This is a serious problem, and no one is working to fix it,” said Alvaro Bedoya of the Georgetown Law center that produced the report. “Police departments are talking about it as if it’s race-blind, and it’s just not true.” A coalition of civil rights and civil liberties groups plans to ask the Justice Department’s civil rights division today for an investigation into the use and possible abuse of facial-recognition technology. Washington Post IACP Head Apologizes to U.S. Minorities for Police ActionsThe president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police yesterday issued a formal apology to the nation’s minority population “for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color ” the Washington Post reports. Terrence Cunningham, the chief of police in Wellesley, Ma., spoke at the IACP convention in San Diego. His statement came as police executives grapple with tense relationships between officers and minority groups after a number of high-profile civilian deaths in New York City, South Carolina, Minnesota and elsewhere, the sometimes violent protests that have ensued, as well as the ambush killings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
Top police chiefs have long recognized the need to maintain good relations with communities, of all races and not allow an us-versus-them mentality to take root, either in their rank-and-file officer corps or in the neighborhoods where their citizens live. Cunningham’s comments are an acknowledgement of police departments’ role in exacerbating tensions and a way to move forward and improve community relations. “Events over the past several years,” Cunningham said, “have caused many to question the actions of our officers and has tragically undermined the trust that the public must and should have in their police departments…” He said the “dark side” of police history has created a multigenerational — almost inherited — mistrust between many communities of color and their law enforcement agencies.” Jeffery Robinson of the American Civil Liberties Union called Cunningham’s statement “a very significant admission” that is “long overdue.” Washington Post Obama Executive Order to Ease Inmates’ Child Support BurdenThe Obama administration plans in its final weeks to ease the legal obligations on prisoners to pay for child support while they are locked up, targeting practices that critics say can saddle ex-convicts with crippling debts, Reuters reports. The regulatory changes, if put in place, would give President Obama something more to show for his efforts to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. As the first black president of a nation that incarcerates a disproportionately large number of black and Latino men, Obama has made it a priority to address problems that make it difficult for released inmates to reenter society.
The rules would require that prisoners be allowed to lower the amount of child support they pay in prison, with the goal of preventing large debts that inmates struggle to repay after release and that can lead to reincarceration. Some Republican critics have said such a change would let parents flout their financial responsibilities. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) last year introduced a bill to block the administration from making such a change. A Republican House aide said the administration’s initiative would amount to a “backdoor effort” to avoid the legislative process. “We are always happy to sit down and talk with Congress, but at some point we have to move forward with what we know we are legally permitted to do and what is right,” a White House official said. Reuters In Reforming Jails, Don’t Leave Women BehindWomen in jail are now the fastest-growing correctional population in the U.S. The number of females held on any given day has grown 14-fold since 1970—from just under 8,000 to almost 110,000 by 2014, write Kristine Riley and Elizabeth Swavola of the Vera Institute of Justice in a commentary published in TCR. Where’s the research and programming that focuses on their needs? The Crime Report How Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Differ on Drug PolicyDonald Trump has called the U.S. opioid and heroin epidemic “a tremendous problem.” Trump has not used the crisis as an opportunity to rethink the war on drugs. Instead, Trump has vowed to double down on the drug war, promising to stop the flow of drugs at the border and crack down even more harshly on drug dealers, reports Vox. Hillary Clinton has a broad public health–oriented plan for the opioid epidemic. She would address not just opioids but other drugs as well, from cocaine all the way to alcohol and marijuana. It adds up to a huge proposal, costing $10 billion.
The opioid epidemic contributed to a record number of drug overdose deaths (more than 47,000 in 2014), killed tens of thousands in the years before, and seems to be getting worse. Trump wants essentially to do more of the same policy that failed to prevent the opioid crisis, while Clinton is taking the approach advocated for by drug policy experts. Clinton’s proposed $10 billion would be on top of the $200 billion to $300 billion the federal government already spends each decade to combat drugs. About $7.5 billion of the federal funds would encourage states to set up their own plans to fight drug abuse and addiction, with the feds promising $4 for every $1 a state commits to a plan. The remaining $2.5 billion would go to drug abuse prevention and treatment programs directly funded by the federal government. Vox Republican Headquarters in NC Town FirebombedThe Republican Party office in Orange County, N.C., was firebombed Sunday and an intimidating message was left on a nearby wall, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. “This is not an act of vandalism,” said Gov. Pat McCrory. “It’s an assault on our democracy.” Democrats decried the incident as well, with Hillary Clinton tweeting that the attack was “horrific and unacceptable.”
A woman who owns a business in the building opposite GOP headquarters said the firebomber sprayed a message on the side of the structure, “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” Hillsborough, N.C., police are working on the case with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the State Bureau of Investigation. Raleigh News & Observer Police Say CA Isn’t Ready For Pot-Smoking DriversAs Californians prepare to vote next month on Proposition 64 to allow recreational use of marijuana, many law enforcement leaders and prosecutors warn that the state is ill-prepared to handle an expected significant increase in people driving under the influence of pot, the Los Angeles Times reports. Doug Villars, president of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, one of several criminal justice groups to oppose Proposition 64, said it’s a big concern. Proposition 64 would allow Californians to possess, transport and use up to an ounce of cannabis for recreational purposes, and would allow individuals to grow as many as six plants. The measure would also impose a 15 percent tax on retail sales of the drug. The tax would generate $1 billion annually, including $15 million during the first five years for the California Highway Patrol to train law enforcement officers in the techniques to detect impaired driving and to establish statewide protocols and standards for identifying impaired drivers.
Law enforcement groups that oppose Proposition 64, including the California Police Chiefs Association, the California District Attorneys Association, the California Narcotic Officers Association, the California Peace Officers Association, and the California State Sheriffs’ Association, argue that standards need to be in place before voters consider legalization. The initiative is also supported by some in law enforcement, including Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and the National Latino Officers Association. Opponents point to a study by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area that said marijuana‐related traffic deaths in Colorado rose 48 percent since 2013, when the state legalized recreational marijuana. “In the state of California we are going to start losing folks in astronomical numbers before we finally realize maybe we didn’t look at it thoroughly enough,” Villars said. Los Angeles Times Cook County, Il., Accused in Suit Charging Illegal Bail SystemThousands of impoverished people, especially African Americans, are being illegally locked up before trial in Cook County because they are too poor to be able to post bond, a new lawsuit contends, reports InjusticeWatch.org in Chicago. The complaint, filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of two jail inmates, contends that judges and Sheriff Tom Dart violate the constitution by illegally setting bond that poor people cannot pay and then holding them in jail while they await trial. The suit against Cook County would involve the largest number of people detained of any suit over bail filed so far.
Demanding bonds whether or not defendants are able to pay results in “widespread and systemic racial discrimination,” says the lawsuit filed on behalf of Zachary Robinson, 25, and Michael Lewis, 40. The suit contends Cook County’s imposition of cash bail hurts poor defendants by separating them from their families, keeping them from jobs or school, and hampering their ability to prepare a defense, often forcing them to plead guilty regardless of innocence. “Money bail is one of the most senseless, devastating, and anachronistic features of modern American law, and it is shockingly applied in Cook County to keep thousands of people in jail cells at taxpayer expense every day — not because they are dangerous but because they are poor,” said Alec Karakatanis of Civil Rights Corps in Washington, D.C., who has challenged bail practices in jurisdictions as varied as Alabama, Texas and California. An Injustice Watch investigation showed that the bail-to-jail pipeline keeps poor defendants accused of crimes in jail for days, months, and sometimes years. InjusticeWatch.org New Orleans Homicides Up, Detective Ranks DownA string of departures among detectives and low morale plague the New Orleans Police Department's homicide unit, which has shrunk to its lowest staffing level in years just as murders continue to stack up, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. With two-and-a-half months left in 2016, most homicide detectives have already hit or exceeded their recommended caseload of six homicide investigations a year. Two shooting deaths last night pushed the total number of homicides in 2016 over last year’s 10-month tally. Those fatalities would mark this year’s 135th and 136th murders, compared with 134 murders by the end of last October.
The number of detectives investigating the deaths is down to 18, police spokesman Tyler Gamble said. That’s four fewer than the 22 the unit had in the first quarter of 2015, marking a six-year low. The low staffing worries justice advocates who said it can lead to fewer cases being solved, contributing to more street violence. Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said when caseloads are too high, more homicides go unsolved, and “that’s when street justice kicks in.” Goyeneche said retaliatory homicides mostly occur in response to drug or gang-related crimes. If someone is willing to kill to protect territory or eliminate competition in the drug market and is not apprehended, he said, they are free to kill again. New Orleans Times-Picayune Migrant Tide Across Southern Border Equals 2014 SurgeThe tide of migrant families with minors and children traveling alone to the U.S., mostly from Central America, has equaled the surge of 2014 that nearly overwhelmed Border Patrol resources, reports the Dallas Morning News. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they detained 137,366 migrants in those two categories in the fiscal year that just ended. Slightly fewer, 136,983, were detained in fiscal 2014. That was when White House officials deemed the flow a “surge” and a humanitarian crisis. Experts say violence is spurring more people to flee their homelands in El Salvador and other parts of Central America, especially women and children.
The release of the new migration numbers comes just three weeks before the presidential election, in which immigration issues and border issues with Mexico have played prominently in the campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump. The new apprehensions underscore a dramatic change in migration, said Jeh Johnson, head of the Department of Homeland Security: Mexicans no longer make up the majority of border apprehensions, and the demographics of unauthorized migrants on the southern border have changed significantly over 15 years. “Far fewer Mexicans and single adults are attempting to cross the border without authorization, but more families and unaccompanied children are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America,” he said. Dallas Morning News Federal Judge Chides PA DA on Juvenile Lifer TermsThe Philadelphia District Attorney has conceded that a judge resentencing “juvenile lifers” may impose a minimum sentence lower than the 35 years that the office has been offering in such cases, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The prosecutor’s office agreed to move ahead with resentencing for Kempis Songster, 44, who is serving life without parole for a murder he committed in 1987 at age 15. A frustrated U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage – who ordered a new sentence for Songster four years ago, and again in August with a 120-day deadline – said the office’s policy of offering all inmates the same deal for a new sentence was inconsistent with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that put back into play about 300 murder cases in Philadelphia involving juveniles.
Savage had urged resentencings in which a judge would have discretion to impose “individualized, proportionate sentences,” take into consideration an inmate’s rehabilitation, and impose a maximum of life only in “the rarest of permanently incorrigible” cases. Yesterday, Savage told a prosecutor, “It seems you’re treating all of these folks the same way – 35 years to life. I don’t get that. That to me appears to show a lack of due diligence, of looking at each case individually. I understand you want to do this for policy reasons. Maybe because it looks good.” Songster’s case and others are back in the courts as a consequence of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in January that made retroactive the court’s ban on automatic life-without-parole sentences for juveniles. The ruling affects about 2,300 cases nationwide, about 500 of which are in Pennsylvania – including about 300 in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Inquirer Two LA Prison Employees Took Money From Recreation FundAn internal audit by the Louisiana correctional department concludes that two high-ranking officials at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola diverted at least $160,000 from a fund meant to provide recreation for the prison’s employees, reports The Advocate. The audit says one of the officials used the Angola Employee Recreation Committee’s money for nearly $70,000 in personal purchases over nine years, including more than $27,000 in items from Amazon and Paypal. The same official, former Col. Shirley Whittington, also routinely withdrew hundreds of dollars in cash using an ATM card billed to the committee, taking out more than $17,000 over the past four years.
Auditors said that Whittington and alleged co-conspirator Lt. Col. Deborah Leonard routinely shorted the deposits of cash raised from sales of concession items at the prison’s annual rodeo, to the tune of $73,307. Whittington also signed off on the use of approximately $5,000 in cash to buy a Kawasaki four-wheeler from Leonard’s husband. Whittington and Leonard resigned last month. The committee’s problems have also attracted the attention of the FBI, which has begun investigating the matter. The money missing from the recreational fund is the latest in a series of embarrassing revelations at the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, most of them involving alleged self-dealing by high-ranking officials. The bad news began a year ago, when longtime Angola warden Burl Cain was forced to resign after The Advocate reported he had done business with a relative and an associate of two Angola inmates who were seeking special treatment. The Advocate
Ex-Gen. Cartwright Admits Lying to FBI About LeaksJames Cartwright, a retired Marine Corps general who as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff served as a key member of President Obama’s national security team, admitted yesterday that he lied to the FBI about his discussions with reporters about Iran’s nuclear program, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed that under sentencing guidelines, the punishment could range from a $500 fine to six months in prison. His lawyer, Gregory Craig, said Cartwright had spoken to journalists after they had already reported their stories and that his motive was to prevent publication of information that might have harmed national security. The investigation focused on leaks to reporters for The New York Times and Newsweek.
The case grew out of a period of political furor over leaks in 2012, when books and articles appeared about Obama’s national security record during his first term. Republicans in Congress accused the White House of deliberately leaking government secrets, endangering national security to make Obama look tough in an election year. The Times said it was “disappointed that the Justice Department has gone forward with the leak investigation that led to today’s guilty plea by General Cartwright. These investigations send a chilling message to all government employees that they should not speak to reporters. The inevitable result is that the American public is deprived of information that it needs to know.” New York Times | |
| | On every business day, The Crime Report (TCR) and Criminal Justice Journalists (CJJ) provide a summary of the nation's top crime and justice news stories with Internet links commentary, and New & Notable research in the field. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Langeloth Foundation and the Urban Institute. Today's report was prepared by Ted Gest and Alice Popovici. Please send comments or questions to alice@thecrimereport.org. | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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