Updates | The Week of April 3, 2017
Derek Reinbold // 4/9/17 //
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a nationwide review of consent decrees implemented to curb civil rights abuses (NYT, Washington Post, ABA Journal, Cato at Liberty).
- The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked a federal judge in Baltimore to delay a hearing on a consent decree regarding that city’s police force (NPR). This request was denied.
- On Take Care, Chiraag Bains has explained why denial of DOJ's motion would be the correct holding.
- In a NYT Op-Ed, Vanita Gupta and Corey Stoughton argue that Sessions’ order will undermine police reform.
- Ryan Devereaux also argues that Sessions’ order will roll back decades of police reform.
- German Lopez describes the important work imperiled by the DOJ’s policy shift (Vox).
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has updated U.S. Attorneys and DOJ Component Heads on the Department’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s memorandum outlining task forces on various policies, including federal marijuana policy, has some state governors poised to fight back, writes Erik Altieri (NORML).
Several members of Congress asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to exempt the Bureau of Prisons from President Trump’s federal hiring freeze (The Hill).
Two Democratic Senators have sent a letter asking the Trump Administration to explain its reopening of the federal prison system to private prisons (Vox).
- Here is the letter.
A recent decline in incarceration rates is threatened by the Trump Administration, argues Brandon Garrett (Slate).
- At Sentencing Law and Policy, Douglas A. Berman expresses disappointment that the Slate piece “fails to directly confront the tangible increase in violent crime over the last few years.”