Paywalled Courts, Record Pardons in MO & More
"I still believe in law and order. I believe criminals need to be treated as such, and they’ve got accountability, [but] it doesn’t mean they’re a criminal all their life."
For a dozen years, Missouri Governor Mike Parson was a rural sheriff whose job was catching and locking up citizens who broke the law. Now, Governor Parsons is the face of a slightly different sort of justice and an example for a nation grappling with a fine line between cracking down on crime and offering second chances through redemption and restoration for victims and offenders alike. During his time in office, he's issued more pardons than any Missouri governor since 1940, over 600 and counting.
"Motorists caught speeding in Peninsula, Ohio, have options: They can pay with Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or PayPal. But if they want to dispute a ticket, the flexibility ends.”
The small village of Peninsula, Ohio has only 536 residents, yet its new traffic ticket program is issuing more than 1,800 tickets and $110,000 in revenue per month. This lucrative program has effectively created a paywall for access to the court by requiring a $100 "filing fee" for anyone contesting a speeding ticket because of a photo radar violation, raising questions about due process violations that reach well beyond the tiny town. If revenue from the program continues at this rate, Peninsula could meet nearly its entire $1 million annual budget from traffic enforcement alone.
"School resource officers arrested and detained the student for a minor instance of misconduct that was already being addressed—the upset student had poked another child with a pencil, but was calming down with the school psychologist when he was arrested. "
As school districts wrestle with the challenge of bolstering safety, a recent Colorado case involving the arrest of an 11-year-old student with autism for minor misconduct is underscoring the urgent need to focus school resource and safety officers on mentorship, support, and care rather than arrest and punishment as a first response. Promising models exist in districts as geographically and demographically diverse as Philadelphia and Round Rock, Texas, but advocates say a concerted effort will be needed to ensure those models succeed and spread.
"Backtracking after nearly three years of success would be an emotional response to fear of nonviolent offenders, not a rational response to reality. And, in the long-run, it will likely make our streets less safe."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board has added to the chorus of voices now opposing Senator Marsha Blackburn's effort to end the successful federal COVID-era program that allowed some 13,000 individuals to serve the remainder of their federal prison sentences at home, which would require the majority to return to federal prison. This population has remained home for three years while boasting a remarkably low recidivism rate of 0.17%.
"An unsolved crime cuts twice: It erodes people’s trust in law enforcement and could encourage others to commit similar offenses. It should be in the interest of all Americans for as many crimes as possible — especially heinous violent crimes — to be solved."
Recent FBI data reveals a stark reality: crime clearance rates in the U.S. have plummeted to their lowest levels since the 1960s, with police departments solving only 37% of violent crimes in 2022. This decline is not limited to specific political affiliations, affecting both liberal and conservative-led cities and counties nationwide, and the reasons for the reduced efficacy are complicated, but addressable. Among recent findings that could point lawmakers in the right direction is a study clearly linking what many in the criminal justice profession have known all along: resources matter, and the amount of time and resources dedicated to investigation directly impact whether or not most crimes result in an arrest and conviction.