The 11 members of the new Civilian Advisory Review Board of the Pima County Sheriff's Department were named Tuesday. The group will provide input on criminal justice reform, public relations and deputy training.... Read more»
Since George Floyd’s murder in 2020, federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed meaningful federal police reform, but proposed legislation has fallen victim to political polarization, concerns over rising crime, and disagreement over how to address qualified immunity.... Read more»
The use of fines and fees to generate revenue for local justice systems constitutes a “predatory” relationship between law enforcement and citizens that violates the due process protections of the Constitution, according to a Tennessee Law Review paper.... Read more»
A Supreme Court ruling that being deprived of “reasonably adequate medical care violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment,” but with multiple agencies possessing authority over correctional health care, standards of care vary starkly across the U.S.... Read more»
Native Americans are 1.8 times as likely as white Americans to be booked into a Pima County jail, which is why the county in 2016 started to address the drivers of its jail population with such solutions as pretrial behavioral-health diversion programs and warrant resolution. ... Read more»
Justice reform advocates say they are “dissatisfied” with the Biden administration’s progress, arguing that even some of the easier pledges the president made on the campaign trail have gone unfulfilled.... Read more»
A new expungement process could give “hundreds of thousands” of Arizonans a clean slate as they ask judges to clear old marijuana offenses from their records. But the new law is still in a “gray area” that will have to be cleared up in the courts, said volunteers at a clinic offering help in drafting those legal requests.... Read more»
Any plans to implement independent community oversight of Arizona police departments are effectively dead after Republican lawmakers passed laws aimed at excluding police critics and letting cops lead that oversight.... Read more»1
Arizona will continue to have some of the strictest criminal sentencing laws in the country after Senate President Karen Fann refused to let the Senate vote on a bill that would allow some nonviolent inmates to earn early releases.... Read more»
Arizona lawmakers on Wednesday ended the third-longest legislative session in state history after approving the final components of a state spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Thursday and taking final votes on several other outstanding measures. ... Read more»
The new Legislature brings new opportunities for a criminal justice reform movement that’s stalled out at the Capitol over the past couple years — and perhaps some new obstacles, as well.... Read more»
Four years after Arizona voters rejected an attempt to legalize recreational marijuana, they appear to have reversed course and approved a revised measure that will allow anyone older than 21 to legally purchase and use marijuana beginning next year.... Read more»
As COVID-19 began to spread across the Southwest in March, lawyers representing incarcerated Arizonans reported “unsanitary conditions,” “inadequate medical staffing and treatment” and a “failure to take strong and sensible precautionary measures” in state prisons.... Read more»
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