NAPO participates in DOJ law enforcement briefing
On June 21, NAPO attended a law enforcement briefing at the Department of Justice( DOJ), led by Associate Deputy Attorney General Steve Cook and featuring opening remarks by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio, head of the DOJ’ s Civil Division, updated the group on the department’ s work to crack down on sanctuary cities, including the current lawsuits regarding the withholding of Byrne JAG and COPS funding from sanctuary cities. Panuccio also spoke on the new direction of the Civil Rights Division and its focus on ensuring that state and local governments and agencies maintain control and decision-making ability in any interaction with the division.
Beth Williams, assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy, spoke on the department’ s efforts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons( BOP) to test cellphone jamming technologies. Members of her staff addressed the department’ s position on prison reform, specifically the FIRST STEP Act, which NAPO and much of the law enforcement community oppose. Office of Legal Policy staff highlighted the recent Bureau of Justice Statistics report on the nine-year recidivism rate of state prisoners, which is a staggering 83 percent. The study also found that 77 percent of released drug offenders were arrested for a non-drug crime within nine years, and 34 percent were arrested for a violent crime. Many of the reforms included in the FIRST STEP Act are modeled after state prison reform programs and would similarly make states and localities the dumping ground for federal criminals without providing the safeguards, support and resources that communities need to handle this influx of newly released inmates or deal with recidivism.
Lastly, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services( COPS) Director Phil Keith updated the group on the National Blue Alert
Network and the plan to have Blue Alert plans in all 50 states by July 2019. Keith will address this issue during his presentation at our annual convention in San Diego in July and will be asking our members to play an active role in ensuring Blue Alert’ s success.
NAPO opposes new prison reform legislation
NAPO has come out in opposition to H. R. 5682, the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person( FIRST STEP) Act. This prison reform legislation was introduced on May 7 and moved quickly through the House, passing by an overwhelming vote on May 22 without slowing down to get the input of the law enforcement community or to consider our serious concerns with the legislation. As the bill is currently written, every single major national law enforcement organization has come out against it.
The FIRST STEP Act tries to do too much at once and, consequently, would negatively impact public safety. States and localities would become the dumping ground for federal criminals due to the retroactive increases in good time credits and program participation credits. Further, the bill does not contain the safeguards, support and resources that states and localities need to handle the influx of parolees. As we have seen in California, while prison reforms have led to lower state prison populations and some savings for the state, they have resulted in increased stresses on local and county budgets and resources, as prisoners who were once wards of the state fill county jails and flood community services.
Major cities across the country are facing an increase in violent crime for the first time in years. According to the FBI’ s latest Uniform Crime Report, the number of violent crimes increased for the second straight year. d
22 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JULY 2018