Five Things This Week: Bill Bratton in Conversation with Reason, The Bipartisanship of Voting Rights for People Convicted of Felonies & More

“Too many veterans are ending up in our criminal justice system, and while they must be held accountable for their behavior, our nation has a responsibility to honor their service and help them address the factors that often drive them to break the law.”

The Veterans Justice Commission, which is led by former defense secretary Chuck Hagel and includes former defense secretary Leon Panetta, is calling on Congress to find ways to encourage local law enforcement agencies to better identify veterans who are involved with the justice system following service in the nation’s military branches, and advance best practices for diverting them from punitive measures to rehabilitative and supportive services whenever possible. According to the Commission, only 9 of 18,000 law enforcement agencies are using available methods to identify veterans, 36 out of 2,300 district attorneys’ offices have veteran-specific diversion programs, and as many as 1 in 3 veterans has been arrested at least once in their lifetime.

“The practice of using acquitted crimes as a basis for imposing longer jail terms has elicited visceral public outrage, intermittently, for decades.”

The U.S. Justice Department is opposing a bipartisan proposal to restrict judges’ ability to impose longer sentences based on “acquitted conduct,” or alleged crimes that they have not been found guilty of committing. Many argue that Constitutional rights are infringed when a judge supplants a jury's decision, and this reasoning underlies the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s proposal to curtail judges’ ability to consider acquitted conduct during the sentencing phase. The DOJ is opposing the reform proposal, having previously argued it would be a significant departure from longstanding practice and precedent.

“[Voting gives] a little bit of your strength back and a little bit of your voice back. Being able to vote, being able to have a say in what happens in your society, in your state, is extremely important.”

After Florida drew national attention for arresting 20 people previously convicted of felonies for voting, legislation to restore voting rights for people with criminal records is gaining bipartisan support across the country this year. At least 14 states have introduced legislation to return voting rights to people who have been convicted of felony offenses, and state lawmakers from both parties are joining the effort to re-enfranchise the estimated 4.6 million people currently unable to vote. 

“When people get out of our system, they’ve got to feel engaged in their community, and the number one way for a person to feel engaged in their community is to be able to vote for the leadership of that community,” says Nebraska state Sen. Justin Wayne. He is sponsoring a bill that would eliminate the two-year waiting period for restoring voting rights to Nebraskans who have completed their probation, parole, and incarceration sentences.

“There are no magic bullets that can solve the problems that many young Black men face, but there are some clear initiatives that could be implemented.”

Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn College, Robert Cherry, argues in Newsweek that preventing crime – particularly in urban and majority-Black neighborhoods—requires a comprehensive approach. Using supporting evidence from three cities who are approaching crime with a more holistic view than the current “lock-‘em-up” narrative that permeates so much of our national dialogue, Cherry says that initiatives like community partnerships, educational opportunities, and supportive services can turn the tide on violence once and for all.

“We’re in this strange period where we need more cops, we want more cops, but to get them we’re going to start lowering the standards. And what’s the going to result in?”

Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller sat down with former NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, known for implementing a “broken windows” philosophy at the NYPD, to discuss how the Big Apple shed its late 80’s reputation of being overridden by crime. The nearly hour-and-a-half long conversation comes in advance of the March 21 release of the documentary Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York, and spans topics from the consistency of policing presence in high-crime neighborhoods, to attracting and retaining high-quality officers, to underlying contributors to criminality.