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Dec 30, 2024 | 
thehill.com | Marc Levin
Skip to content President-elect Donald Trump has been accused of countless things, but never of being predictable. Criminal justice policy is a case in point.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
houstonchronicle.com | Marc Levin
Earlier this year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared at Harris County Criminal Courts at Law for a pretrial hearing in his securities fraud case. Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographerTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Eric Gay/Associated PressIt’s ironic that many Texans may not have heard of pretrial diversion until it was used to resolve the securities fraud case against state Attorney General Ken Paxton. The irony is palpable because most scenarios bear little resemblance to Paxton’s case.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
route-fifty.com | Marc Levin
Skip to Content Sign up for Route Fifty Today Your daily read on state and local government emailConnect with state & local government leaders ByMarc Levin Connecting state and local government leaders Headlines have declared that criminal justice reform fell apart in 2022, was no longer in vogue in 2023 and is being reversed in 2024.
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Jun 18, 2024 | 
thehill.com | Marc Levin |Timothy Head
As a recent eruption between members of the House Oversight Committee demonstrated, Congress doesn’t always model good behavior. But beyond the theatrics and gridlock that make headlines, many Americans might be pleasantly surprised to find encouraging examples of serious lawmakers working together. The bipartisan Safer Supervision Act is just that.
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Jun 17, 2024 | 
governing.com | Marc Levin |Carl Smith |Girard Miller
When it comes to putting public safety points on the board, Boston takes a back seat to no one. The city had 37 murders in 2023 — a stunning 82 percent decline from 2022. Even better, through May of 2024 the city suffered just three homicides. While one murder is still too many, that represents another sharp decline and a figure to which other large cities can aspire. Dallas differs in many ways. Still, it is also on a public safety winning streak.
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May 29, 2024 | 
newsweek.com | Marc Levin
As President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump prepare for their first debate, one commonality is that each has in some contexts backed criminal justice "reform." Biden is enumerating his executive actions on policing and touting billions made available for violence prevention.
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Apr 26, 2024 | 
thehill.com | Marc Levin
Many court decisions are snoozers, but not the recent appellate court ruling in favor of a man in a Texas prison claiming that the way he and others are deprived of sleep constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. After all, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is widely known as the “nation’s most conservative,” going farther in some recent cases than the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems prepared to do.
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Apr 15, 2024 | 
metacritic.com | Marc Levin
April Movie Preview (2024) Keith Kimbell The month ahead will bring new films from Alex Garland, Luca Guadagnino, Dev Patel, and more. To help you plan your moviegoing options, our editors have selected the most notable films releasing in April 2024, listed in alphabetical order.
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Apr 12, 2024 | 
expressnews.com | Marc Levin
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's plan to unearth thousands of individual case files in local prosecutors’ offices is unreasonable and unnecessarily injects politics into any analysis. Tony Gutierrez/Associated PressTexans have heard a lot about the case against state Attorney General Ken Paxton that was resolved last month through a pretrial diversion agreement, but they deserve to know more about similar decisions made in cases involving Texas' 30 million other residents.
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Jan 24, 2024 | 
governing.com | Marc Levin |Carl Smith |Jared Brey |Alan Greenblatt
It’s a familiar adage: You can’t outrun the long arm of the law. That doesn’t stop some people from trying, and often the result is a high-speed police chase that puts not only officers and suspects but also innocent bystanders in jeopardy. With reports of such chases on the rise, law enforcement agencies should think carefully before initiating a pursuit and take measures to ensure that the risks do not exceed the public safety benefits.
