A 2500% Increase in Auto Theft, IL’s Bail Reform Implementation & More

"When we talk about violent crime, it just can’t be sentencing enhancements and punishment. We have to think about prevention. We have to think about healing services for survivors."
 
A new task force on violent crime met for the first time this month in Louisiana, giving a preview of what many advocates and insiders in the state expect to be a tough-on-crime legislative session next year. Created by legislative resolution, the group has taken aim at reforms passed as a part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in 2017, a package of legislative accomplishments advocates point out were focused on diverting nonviolent and low-level drug offenders from prison and not intended to deal with violent crime, which is the task force's main focus. 
 
"Some criminologists believe auto theft is what they call a ‘keystone crime,’ which encourages and facilitates other crimes. Local news reports in pretty much every affected city refer to crashes, robberies, and deaths involving stolen Kias and Hyundais."
 
A wave of auto thefts across the country, specifically Kia and Hyundai vehicles, continues despite software updates manufacturers promised would make high-target vehicles less susceptible to entry level thieves, especially those learning the art of the steal from social media. The trend—which has fueled increases in theft rates of susceptible vehicles as high as 2,500 percent year over year in cities like Milwaukee—is especially concerning as some experts point out that auto theft often leads to other crimes, in some cases dangerous and even fatal ones. 
 
"We are all going to make some interesting law this morning."
 
Illinois’ cash bail reform overhaul passed by the state legislature in 2021, known as the SAFE-T Act, went into effect this week. Local NPR affiliate WVIK went inside the detention hearings in two counties as judges held their first hearings under the new framework. Two suspects—one charged with murder, another with a pair of Class A misdemeanor domestic battery charges—who previously would have been eligible to post bond, were ordered detained under the new framework. Others were ordered to be released with conditions or on recognizance after not being found to be a flight risk or a threat to the public or a specific person. 
 
"Every delay in the criminal justice process prolongs closure for victims and can make it more difficult to prosecute the case."
 
An increase in requests for mental health evaluations related to competency of criminal defendants, combined with a shortage of psychiatric professionals employed by state agencies, is putting numerous criminal cases on hold for months. Advocates in Missouri say the situation is particularly dire. Not only does a months-long wait for mental health assessment to determine a defendant’s competency to stand trial mean those with existing mental health problems are languishing in jails without treatment and being subjected to conditions that worsen their conditions, but the wait is often depriving victims' families of closure in difficult cases.
 
"I'm doing as much as I could to give back to the community. So, at one point, when is the community going to try to open up and give me some mercy?"
 
As many states across the country continue to post historically low unemployment rates, some advocates and formerly incarcerated people are pointing out that occupational licensing requirements lock qualified workers with unrelated criminal histories out of the job market. PBS spoke with directly impacted people in Oregon this week, including an individual who was involved with the justice system as a juvenile and who has aspirations to work in criminal justice himself.