Together We Rise, Divided We Fall
It’s been a tough week in America. It’s hard to explain what’s been going through my mind as I am a problem solver but it’s apparent that at this point, in order for us in America to truly move forward, we have to start speaking and sharing our truths on race. Here’s my truth: Growing […]
Northam Wrong On Domestic Violence Bill Veto
On a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines across the country according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. That is 20,000 families suffering from violence at the hands of an abuser. The goal of our bipartisan legislation put forward by Democrat Delegate Kathleen Murphy and me […]
Criminal Reform Makes Sense
(Editor’s note: Criminal Justice Reform is an important issue which crosses the red and blue political lines and brings significant parts of the conservative and liberal communities together for the good of our society. The First Step Act highlighted by Governor Huckabee will be voted on in the U.S. Senate before Christmas. It passed the […]
Murders, Arrests and the Politics of Racial Grievance
The Washington Post had what could have been an interesting idea: Map more than 52,000 homicides and arrests in major American cities over the past decade. Sadly, the newspaper floundered with the data, unable to identify any meaningful trends other than the entirely predictable finding that some cities do a significantly better job of clearing […]
Getting Right on Crime
From Richard Nixon to Donald Trump, conservatives have long known how to be “tough on crime.”
But there is an increasing movement by conservatives to be “Right on Crime” — to insist on transparency in the criminal justice system with the goal of protecting the public, lowering crime rates, and conserving taxpayers’ money.
The movement started in 2007 in Texas, when legislators found themselves with a choice between spending more than $3 billion for 17,000 new prison beds or reforming their system by shifting spending for residential and non-residential treatment-oriented programs for non-violent offenders, along with enhancing in-prison treatment programs.
Severe Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that juveniles and people with intellectual disabilities should not be executed due to their diminished culpability. However, it remains legal to execute people who suffered from severe mental illness (SMI) at the time of the offense. While our understanding of mental illness improves every day, it is surprising that […]
Time to Stop Criminalizing Mere Misconduct
Why does Virginia have the highest rate of referring school children to police? A report last April by the Center on Public Integrity, using U.S. Department of Education data, demonstrated that Virginia schools referred students to law enforcement at a rate nearly three times higher than the national average. And the stories attached to the […]
Shutting Down the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Amid growing national concerns about “mass incarceration,” particularly of African-Americans, a Center for Public Integrity study found in August that Virginia schools refer students to law enforcement agencies at a higher rate than schools in any other state in the country — and three times the national average. The report highlighted the case of an autistic, […]
Time for Reform in Juvenile Justice
If the evidence showed that taking a particular medication actually made the disease worse, would you keep on taking it? Of course not. But a recent paper, Juvenile Justice Reform, co-issued by Justice Fellowship, Right On Crime, and the Thomas Jefferson Institute makes the case that, when it comes to Virginia’s juvenile justice system, that’s […]
Human Trafficking Happens Here In Virginia
January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, so it is time to recognize, and bring awareness to, the horrible evil of human trafficking. Human trafficking is when individuals use violence, threats, debt, and other forms of coercion to force women, men and children to engage in sex or acts of labor against their […]