NAPO meets with White House regarding FIRST STEP Act
On Aug. 16, NAPO Executive Director Bill Johnson met with White House staff, including Jared Kushner, and other law enforcement leaders to discuss the law enforcement community’ s near-unanimous opposition to the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person( FIRST STEP) Act( H. R. 5682 / S. 2795).
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. There has been great pressure to move this bill through the Senate and for the president to support its passage.
The legislation includes reckless retroactive increases in good time and program participation credits that would cause 4,000 inmates to be released into communities upon enactment. These inmates would not be given access to halfway houses or transition housing, nor would they benefit from any of the reentry programs normally provided by the Bureau of Prisons( BOP) to inmates who serve out their full prison terms, prior to their release.
Not only would thousands of inmates be released due to retroactive time credits, but the new system of time-off-sentence credits would reduce sentences for many criminals, including dangerous drug traffickers, by one-fourth to one-half.
The FIRST STEP Act is modeled after state prison reform programs that have a worse recidivism track record than current BOP programs. A recent report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found the nine-year recidivism rate of state prisoners to be a staggering 83 percent. The study, titled“ 2018 Update on Prisoner Recidivism: A 9-Year Follow-up Period( 2005-2014),” 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.
There is absolutely no doubt that these ill-advised proposals would harm public safety and lead directly to the injury and deaths of law enforcement officers and citizens alike. According to the FBI’ s“ Uniform Crime Reporting, Crime in the U. S. 2016,”( the latest data available) the number of violent crimes, including murder, aggravated assaults and rapes, increased for the second straight year.
By raising our concerns to the White House and the president, we have successfully stalled the FIRST STEP Act. The president announced he would not endorse the prison reform bill until after the midterms, and we continue to work with opponents in the Senate and the administration to ensure that this legislation will not move forward.
NAPO files brief with U. S. Supreme Court in support of enhanced sentences for cop killers
On Aug. 7, NAPO filed a new amicus curiae( or“ friend of the court”) brief with the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of Vernon Madison v. State of Alabama. In this case, Vernon Madison ambushed and murdered Mobile, Alabama Police Corporal Julius Schulte with two gunshots to the back of the officer’ s head, as the officer was trying to protect Madison’ s girlfriend from harm. Madison was convicted
and sentenced to death. The murder happened in April 1985.
Madison now asserts that he cannot be put to death because he claims he can no longer remember the murder.
The State of Alabama reached out to NAPO for assistance in this case, and we filed this brief to assist Alabama and remind the court of the various state and federal laws( including many NAPO has worked on at the federal level) that provide enhanced punishment( including the death penalty) for assaults and murders of law enforcement officers.
NAPO urges inclusion of resources for police in opioid package
The Senate is considering a package of opioid-related legislation to address the significant drug crisis our country is facing and, unfortunately, the measure includes very little to support state and local law enforcement efforts to combat opioids in our communities.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016, and opioids were involved in more than 42,000 of those deaths. NAPO strongly believes that we can only truly mitigate the effects these toxic drugs have on our communities through a comprehensive strategy that includes resources for state and local law enforcement.
Fentanyl, particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs are having deadly consequences on communities across the country, and local law enforcement officers are on the front line in the fight against these drugs. Because illicit fentanyl is so powerful, small amounts go a long way for drug traffickers. These relatively small and potent amounts mean that fentanyl is difficult and hazardous to detect, making it easy to traffic and a danger to those trying to stop its spread into our communities.
To ensure that state and local law enforcement have the resources needed to identify and fight the diffusion of opioids, NAPO is working with the sponsors of the Providing Officers with Electronic Resources( POWER) Act( S. 2763), Senators Sherrod Brown( D-OH) and Rob Portman( R-OH), to push Senate leadership to include the bill in the opioid package.
The POWER Act will help state and local law enforcement detect fentanyl and protect people from accidental overdoses by using the same screening equipment Customs and Border Protection( CBP) agents have successfully used to stop fentanyl at the border. This legislation would support state and local law enforcement efforts to conduct drug investigations and prosecute drug crimes by providing essential funding for agencies to purchase chemical screening devices.
NAPO believes rank-and-file law enforcement officers must be given the training, resources and support necessary to keep themselves and the communities they serve safe in the fight to end the opioid crisis. The inclusion of the POWER Act in the opioid package would go a long way toward supporting law enforcement efforts. The Senate is expected to vote on the package next week, and we will keep our members updated. d
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period to file for arbitration; you should not let the vetting process cause an untimely filing.
If the PBA is in danger of an untimely filing, it can always file for arbitration and withdraw it later. Many grievances implicate broad PBA rights, and the PBA will have a vested interest in advancing the grievance. A group decision will reduce the chance of a personal animosity or nonmembership in the PBA bleeding into a decision-maker’ s thinking. Also, by following a consistent process that applies to all covered officers without regard to union membership, the PBA will greatly reduce the risk of a claim for breach of the duty of fair representation.
Although there is no way to completely prevent a unit member from suing for breach of the duty of fair representation, taking the above precautions and dealing with member concerns in good faith will reduce the likelihood that the PBA will be found liable for a breach of the duty of fair representation. d
James M. Mets, Esq., is a partner and Brian J. Manetta, Esq., is a senior associate at Mets Schiro & McGovern, LLP.
28 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ SEPTEMBER 2018