The one big winner of the Obamacare wars
sighh….
Category: Media and Culture,
Ex-Trump campaign official charged with human trafficking
A former Kentucky campaign official for President Donald Trump is due in court on Friday after being charged with human trafficking in the U.S. southern state.
Timothy Nolan, a retired district court judge, was arrested last month and charged with forcing a minor to engage in commercial sex around August 2016.
He is also charged with inducing a minor to engage in sexual activity and giving alcohol to a minor, according to the complaint.
Ex-Trump campaign official charged with human trafficking | Reuters
Imagine the uproar if another Presidential candidate was connected to someone like this. No uproar here. Just crickets. Enabled by media from left to right on the spectrum. Just crickets.
U.S. border deaths rise on family, child migrants: patrol agency
The number of migrants dying from extreme heat on the U.S.-Mexico border rose 55 percent in the past nine months after an increase in unaccompanied children and families trying to enter the United States illegally, the U.S. government said on Monday.
Heat-related deaths, the main cause of migrant fatalities on the U.S. southwest border, rose to 48, up from 31 over the same period in 2017, said U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora.
…The death toll is expected to rise in the triple-digit heat of summer months as vulnerable, unacclimatized immigrants attempt to cross harsh environments, putting border fatalities on track for a year-on-year increase in 2018, Zamora said.
…Humanitarian groups such as San Diego-based Border Angels say the main cause of rising deaths is tighter border security and law enforcement, such as the recent imposition of a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossers. That has prompted migrants to make long treks through hostile terrain via remote crossing points.
…Until four years ago, the vast majority of migrants arrested at the border were Mexicans. With improved economic conditions in Mexico, their number has fallen, as have overall arrests on the border, which dropped to 303,916 in 2017, down 26 percent from 2016, according to Border Patrol data.
Immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador now top the list of people arrested at the southern border as gun and gang-related violence drives an exodus from those countries, according to U.S. government data.
…“You really know someone is leaving a bad situation if they’re willing to risk their lives and their children’s’ lives for a chance to live,” said Cordero, 36, a water drop leader.
Morones suspects Border Patrol agents of destroying the water supplies left by his group. One such act was caught on video in Arizona by another humanitarian group called No More Deaths.
U.S. border deaths rise on family, child migrants: patrol agency | Reuters
hmmm
India most dangerous country for women, US ranks 10th in survey
Nine of the 10 countries on the list were from Asia, the Middle East or Africa. At number 10 was the United States, the only Western country to be included.
…The Thomson Reuters Foundation released its results Tuesday of a survey of 550 experts on women’s issues, finding India to be the most dangerous nation for sexual violence against women, as well as human trafficking for domestic work, forced labor, forced marriage and sexual slavery, among other reasons.
It was also the most dangerous country in the world for cultural traditions that impact women, the survey found, citing acid attacks, female genital mutilation, child marriage and physical abuse.
…War-torn Afghanistan ranked second, as the worst country for non-sexual violence against women, which includes conflict-related violence and domestic abuse. It also ranked second worst for access to healthcare and access to economic resources and discrimination.
…Syria, where a war has raged for more than seven years, ranked third on the list. The country is considered the second-most dangerous in terms of sexual violence and access to healthcare. Syria also tied for third with the United States in terms of sexual violence and harassment.
…The foundation’s survey was conducted after the #MeToo campaign emerged in October 2017. The large number of women alleging sexual misconduct since then is the reason the US has been included on the list.
“The United States shot up in the rankings after tying joint third with Syria when respondents were asked which was the most dangerous country for women in terms of sexual violence including rape, sexual harassment, coercion into sex and the lack of access to justice in rape cases. It was ranked sixth for non-sexual violence,” according to the foundation.
India most dangerous country for women, US ranks 10th in survey – CNN
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McDonald’s and Starbucks have been caught in a crackdown on plastics in India.
The restaurant chains were among dozens of companies hit with fines in Maharashtra state — India’s second-largest with a population of more than 100 million — at the weekend, a government official said.
The ban on single-use plastic items including shopping bags, food containers and cutlery, was announced in late March but went into force on Saturday.
…[The Indian] government has pledged to eliminate single-use plastic in India by 2022, joining a global campaign that has been given added urgency by research showing there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans by 2050.
At least 25 of India’s 29 states have full or partial bans on single-use plastics, but they’re often not strictly enforced.
Maharashtra is cracking down immediately, forcing companies to change their ways.
…Hardcastle Restaurants, the franchisee which runs McDonald’s (MCD) outlets in Maharashtra, said it has begun using wooden cutlery, paper cups and straws made of corn starch.
But the chain was fined because it has not yet found similar alternatives for delivery items such as plastic lids for drinks, a spokesperson for McDonald’s India told CNNMoney. McDonald’s has joined restaurant associations in the region in asking for exemptions from the ban for delivery and takeaway orders, the spokesperson added.
…So far the government of Maharashtra has only exempted plastic containers used to package medicines, milk and solid waste, as well as plastic items for export.
…Neemit Punamiya, secretary of the Plastic Bags Manufacturers Association of India, estimates that India’s plastic industry could lose over $2.2 billion and 300,000 jobs as a result of the ban, local media reported.
McDonald’s and Starbucks hit by plastic ban in India’s Maharashtra state
hmmm
FDA Approves Marijuana-Based Pharmaceutical Drug : Shots – Health News
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a marijuana-derived drug for the treatment of two rare and serious forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, that begin in childhood but can persist in adulthood.
The drug is made from purified cannabidiol, or CBD, a compound found in the cannabis plant. The drug will be marketed under the brand name Epidiolex.
CBD has medicinal effects, but it does not cause the mind-altering high that comes from THC, the primary psychoactive component of marijuana.
The FDA says this is the first drug approved in the U.S. that contains a purified substance derived from marijuana. The agency has previously approved drugs made from synthetic versions of THC and other marijuana constituents.
…Several researchers are studying the potential of CBD to treat psychiatric conditions. For instance, a clinical trial is underway to test whether CBD can be an effective treatment for people with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder. Another clinical trial will determine whether CBD could help prevent relapse in opioid abusers.
The approval of Epidiolex may help open the door to more CBD research, as it helps to lift one regulatory hurdle. Until now, the Drug Enforcement Administration has classified CBD as a Schedule 1 substance. Like other drugs in this category, which include heroin and LSD, these drugs are considered to have no medical use and a high potential for abuse.
But now, with the approval of a CBD drug, the DEA will change this, according to Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of regulatory programs at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research,
“The DEA will need to make a different scheduling decision for CBD…because it now has an accepted medical use,” he said during a conference call with reporters.
He said the reclassification is underway now.
FDA Approves Marijuana-Based Pharmaceutical Drug : Shots – Health News : NPR
hmmm
De Blasio: Feds have ‘no game plan’ for reuniting 300 immigrant kids in NYC with parents
Because the federal department of Health and Human Services has refused to provide information about how many children have been brought to New York, the city has resorted to reaching out to each provider with a contract with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. In the city, that’s Cayuga Centers, Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Guardian Services. Across the three, there are about 300 children here as a result of the policy, de Blasio said.
Most are at Cayuga — where a worker laid out the challenges involved with reaching their parents last week.
“She said some kids are old enough that they know the names of their relatives and they know the phone numbers. She said some kids have a scrap of paper in their pocket with a phone number for their mother or their grandmother, where they can reach them. She said younger kids a lot of time don’t have that, or they had the scrap of paper and they lost it,” de Blasio said.
…That the federal government has refused to provide information about the children to the city and the state is unprecedented, de Blasio said.
“People should see this as a very dangerous precedent where even senators and congress members can’t go into the centers in Texas and the federal government is refusing to give us a straight answer about how many kids are involved,” de Blasio said.
Aghhhhhhhhhhhh
Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book
“The fact that a cockatoo reached Sicily during the 13th Century shows that merchants plying their trade to the north of Australia were part of a flourishing network that reached west to the Middle East and beyond,” said co-author Dr Heather Dalton, from the University of Melbourne.
…Dr Dalton said she believed that the cockatoo was taken from its original habitat to Sicily via Cairo in a journey lasting several years.
Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book – BBC News
hmmmm
Jared Kushner’s immigrant grandmother complained of America’s ‘closed doors’
Jared Kushner’s paternal grandparents, Holocaust survivors Joseph and Rae Kushner, came to the United States in 1949 as impoverished Eastern European refugees.
…In a 1982 interview given to a Holocaust research center, Jared’s grandmother talks about how wrong she felt it was for the United States to let people like her and her husband languish in those camps for years awaiting permission to enter the country.
…”This was our honeymoon. In Italy, we sat in a displaced persons camp. It was like being in the ghetto again. . . . Nobody wanted to take us in. So for three and a half years, we waited until we finally got a visa to come to the United States.”
Later on, she says: “For the Jews, the doors were closed. We never understood that. Even President [Franklin] Roosevelt kept the doors closed. Why?”
The answer, of course, can be found by looking at some less-than-inspiring U.S. history. The Immigration Act of 1924 set stringent limits on the number of people the country would admit from Poland (where Joseph and Rae Kushner were from) and other Eastern European countries.
Roosevelt didn’t seek to make exceptions to those rules — perhaps because, in addition to the immigration quotas, there was a nasty outfit called the America First Committee. Its prominent members included the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and its supporters included Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semite who gained huge popularity as “the Radio Priest from Royal Oak, Michigan.”
The committee tried to keep the United States out of World War II and blamed American Jews for supposedly pushing Roosevelt to have our country enter the hostilities.
Jared Kushner’s immigrant grandmother complained of America’s ‘closed doors’ | NJ.com
hmmmm
Migrants reportedly told they could reunite with children if they agree to deportation.
Detained migrants who have been split up from their children are reportedly being told they will be able to get their kids back if they agree to be deported. The Texas Tribune cites a 24-year-old Honduran man who is being detained in Texas and claims to have abandoned his asylum case out of “desperation” to see his six-year-old daughter. Two immigration attorneys also confirmed that they had heard about similar offers to other detained migrants.
…. In a fact sheet released Saturday night, the Department of Homeland Security says parents can request whether they want their children to be deported with them. In the past many have chosen to be deported without their children.
Even with a process supposedly in place, the Department of Homeland Security statement doesn’t detail how long it will take to reunite the 2,053 children currently in the government’s custody with their families.
…For now, the Port Isabel detention center in Texas has been set up as “the primary family reunification and removal center,” the statement said. For many, reunification likely won’t be simple to coordinate considering dozens were “being funneled from Texas shelters to foster homes across the country, including in South Carolina and Michigan,” according to the Houston Chronicle. It is also unclear how reunification would happen for migrants claiming asylum protections.
Migrants reportedly told they could reunite with children if they agree to deportation.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Black Firefighter Questioned, Videotaped and Reported to Police While Conducting Official Inspections
What the hell is up with all the Bay Area Beckys calling the cops on people for existing while black???!
NOAA’s Research Just Shifted from Climate Change to “Empowering the Economy” and “National Security” –
One of the country’s major federal science agencies seems to have been forced to abandon climate change research as a key organizational focus, the New York Times revealed this week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization is responsible for managing the National Weather Service and using its network of satellites to forecast the effects of climate change. Rather than concentrate on resiliency efforts, NOAA is now charged with prioritizing “a safe, secure and growing economy.”
…The presentation also included a new emphasis: “To protect lives and property, empower the economy, and support homeland and national security.”
NOAA, whose mandate includes forecasting for hurricanes and cyclical storms like El Niño, had remained relatively immune so far from the influence of climate change skeptics within the Trump administration. Just last month, NOAA researchers recorded the highest-ever levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a historic result that an agency scientist called “a whole lot of bad news.”
….Previous government interventions into NOAA affairs suggest the White House would be unlikely not to intervene with an agency under its watch that continues to publicly discuss the potentially devastating effects of climate change.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Here’s how hard it is to trace a migrant kid who has been separated from his mom
An unknown number of parents have already been deported without their children. Wherever they are living or being held, it can be difficult for parents and families to connect with a caseworker on the federal hotline set up to reunify families. Parents will have to work with consulates and family members back home to produce identification documents that can prove they are the parents of a child.
…El Paso County Commissioner Vince Perez, whose precinct includes Tornillo, the so-called tent city where more than 300 children are being held, has been sharply critical of the use of the jail to hold immigrant detainees. “Depriving refugees of their children as a matter of policy is vile and we should not condone or facilitate this practice,” Perez said.
Taylor Levy, legal coordinator for Annunciation House, said staff would try as hard as they could to help the parents find their children.
“We know that’s going to be the first question that all these parents are going to have,” Levy said. “They’re all really worried about their children.”
Here’s how hard it is to trace a migrant kid who has been separated from his mom
sigh…
How Comey intervened to kill WikiLeaks’ immunity deal
“Subject to adequate and binding protections, including but not limited to an acceptable immunity and safe passage agreement, Mr. Assange welcomes the opportunity to discuss with the U.S. government risk mitigation approaches relating to CIA documents in WikiLeaks’ possession or control, such as the redaction of agency personnel in hostile jurisdictions and foreign espionage risks to WikiLeaks staff,” Waldman wrote Laufman on March 28, 2017.
Not included in the written proffer was an additional offer from Assange: He was willing to discuss technical evidence ruling out certain parties in the controversial leak of Democratic Party emails to WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. The U.S. government believes those emails were hacked by Russia; Assange insists they did not come from Moscow.
“Mr. Assange offered to provide technical evidence and discussion regarding who did not engage in the DNC releases,” Waldman told me. “Finally, he offered his technical expertise to the U.S. government to help address what he perceived as clear flaws in security systems that led to the loss of the U.S. cyber weapons program.”
…Waldman couldn’t believe a U.S. senator and the FBI chief were sending a different signal, so he went back to Laufman, who assured him the negotiations were still on. “What Laufman said to me after he heard I was told to ‘stand down’ by Warner and Comey was, ‘That’s bullshit. You are not standing down and neither am I,’” Waldman recalled.
…Multiple sources tell me the FBI’s counterintelligence team was aware and engaged in the Justice Department’s strategy but could not explain what motivated Comey to send a different message around the negotiations through Warner. A lawyer for Comey did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
…Soon, the rare opportunity to engage Assange in a dialogue over redactions, a more responsible way to release information, and how the infamous DNC hacks occurred was lost — likely forever.
How Comey intervened to kill WikiLeaks’ immunity deal | TheHill
More Comey interference in things related to the outcome of the 2016 election. Huh.
White House reasserts zero tolerance policy as Border Patrol suspends it
“We’re not prosecuting those parents,” McAleenan said. He cited as the reason President Donald Trump’s executive order last week requiring parents to be detained with their children, after an earlier policy of separating parents and children prompted a national uproar.
McAleenan said the suspension was temporary, but he didn’t say when prosecutions would resume.
Several DHS officials have said privately that the president’s order made it impossible to continue zero tolerance, but McAleenan was the first to say so publicly.
…But the Justice Department can’t prosecute parents who cross the southern border with children if Border Patrol doesn’t refer them for prosecution.
Border Patrol’s suspension of those referrals reinstates what Trump has publicly criticized as a “catch and release“ policy for migrant families.
Trump’s executive order barring the separation of parents and children rendered the zero-tolerance policy unenforceable almost immediately because there wasn’t sufficient detention space to house the thousands of family members who arrive at the border each month.
…The decision to suspend zero tolerance may ease a growing housing crunch for unaccompanied minors.
Under the policy, adults were referred for federal prosecution under illegal entry and re-entry statutes. Children traveling with them were then placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The separated children flooded the shelter system, which held nearly 12,000 children last week.
To create additional shelter capacity, the administration opened a “tent city” earlier this month near a port of entry in Tornillo, Texas.
But the contract for that facility will end July 13, an HHS spokesperson told a local ABC affiliate. The federal government has not made a decision on whether to extend the contract, according to an ACF spokesman.
White House reasserts zero tolerance policy as Border Patrol suspends it – POLITICO
hmmm
Donald Trump Calls for Deporting Immigrants Without Judges | Time
The Supreme Court has long held that even non-citizens have the right to due process, the constitutional rule that every person should get a fair hearing in court before facing any punishment.
…In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled on the very issue Trump was describing. In a 1953 case, Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding, the Supreme Court found in an 8-1 decision that a permanent resident of the United States could not be deported without a hearing under the constitutional right to due process.
“Although Congress may prescribe conditions for his expulsion and deportation, not even Congress may expel him without allowing him a fair opportunity to be heard,” the court wrote.
…Trump has also complained about proposals to add more federal immigration judges. A bill from a group of Senate Republicans including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio would add another 225, while a proposal from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz would add 375, but in both cases the total number of judges would still be in the hundreds, not, as Trump has said, in the thousands.
Donald Trump Calls for Deporting Immigrants Without Judges | Time
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Illegal Immigrant Families: Prosecution Suspended at Border
U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan has temporarily stopped referring for prosecution adults who attempt to cross the border illegally with children, he told reporters Monday.
…McAleenan’s admission comes as Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in Reno, Nev. that federal prosecution of adults who cross the border illegally would continue despite Trump’s executive order. Those prosecutions cannot occur without referrals from CBP agents.
Trump’s executive order, which prohibits the separation of children from parents awaiting prosecution for crossing the border illegally, reportedly sparked widespread confusion among Department of Homeland Security officials about how exactly to enforce it. The officials were not told about the order in advance and were unsure how to proceed with criminal prosecutions without separating families because of a 1997 consent decree which established that minors cannot be held in federal custody for longer than 20 days. In addition to the legal obstacle preventing prolonged detention of children, there are not enough shelters equipped to house families, exacerbating confusion about how exactly to comply with the order.
Illegal Immigrant Families: Prosecution Suspended at Border | National Review
hmmmm
Commander of Texas tent city blasts “dumb, stupid” zero tolerance immigration policy
The commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Monday the agency has stopped referring immigrant parents for criminal prosecution until federal agencies can agree on a plan to keep parents and children together. More than 500 children have been reunited with their families since the president ordered agencies to stop separating them, but more than 2,300 remain separated.
CBS News met five migrant parents. …The group was released from detention on Sunday after criminal charges were dismissed — the most recent evidence of the U.S. CBP’s policy not to turn over people who cross illegally for prosecution.
…During the tour, the commander in charge said the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy was “a dumb, stupid decision” and one that “should never have happened.”
“We are working as fast as we possibly can to reunify children with sponsors here in the U.S.,” said Mark Weber, with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the facility.
Commander of Texas tent city blasts “dumb, stupid” zero tolerance immigration policy – CBS News
hmmmm
A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher
“I think that this exquisite piece of art could be evidence for the papal artistic patronage in the church,” Re’em says. “It is proof that Crusader art was highly developed” and reflects the direct influence of Rome on the distant Jerusalem shrine. Most of the Crusader knights were French and German, and there are few contemporary reports detailing the 12th-century reconstruction of the church. The stone panel, he added, suggests that papal craftsmen may have been directly involved in the work.
…One European archaeologist, who requested anonymity because of religious sensitivities, explained that the altar’s disappearance reflects ancient tensions. Greek Orthodox clergy, he explained, are more interested in remains of the original Constantinian church than recovering those of the early 12th century, when the triumphant Crusaders for a brief time banished them as heretics from the complex they had long overseen.
One art historian, who likewise requested anonymity, is unconvinced by Re’em’s analysis, noting that some Byzantine craftsmen used similar designs that influenced Cosmati work in Rome. More research needs to be done to determine with precision the maker and precise placement of the stone. Since part of the panel is broken off, Re’em hopes to find the location of the remaining section.
In the meantime, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenians, Copts, and Syrians jealously guard their respective territories within the Holy Sepulcher, with Ethopians relegated to the roof. Scuffles among clergy of the different sects is not uncommon, and occasional bloodshed is recorded. Two Muslim families hold the keys to the great Crusader doors to ensure everyone access.
A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher | History | Smithsonian
Wild.
How The Loss Of U.S. Psychiatric Hospitals Contributes To A Mental Health Crisis
A severe shortage of inpatient care for people with mental illness is amounting to a public health crisis, as the number of individuals struggling with a range of psychiatric problems continues to rise.
…A study published in the journal Psychiatric Services estimates 3.4 percent of Americans — more than 8 million people — suffer from serious psychological problems.
The disappearance of long-term-care facilities and psychiatric beds has escalated over the past decade.
…A 2012 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization that works to remove treatment barriers for people with mental illness, found the number of psychiatric beds decreased by 14 percent from 2005 to 2010. That year, there were 50,509 state psychiatric beds, meaning there were only 14 beds available per 100,000 people.
…”Many times individuals who really do require intensive psychiatric care find themselves homeless or more and more in prison,” Sisti says. “Much of our mental health care now for individuals with serious mental illness has been shifted to correctional facilities.”
…Many of the private mental health hospitals still in operation do not accept insurance and can cost upwards of $30,000 per month, Sisti says. For many low-income patients, Medicaid is the only path to mental health care, but a provision in the law prevents the federal government from paying for long-term care in an institution.
As a result, many people who experience a serious mental health crisis end up in the emergency room. According to data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, between 2001 and 2011, 6 percent of all emergency department patients had a psychiatric condition. Nearly 11 percent of those patients require transfer to another facility, but there are often no beds available.
…Most hospitals are unable to take care of people for more than 72 hours, Sisti explains, so patients are sent back out into the world without adequate access to treatment.
How The Loss Of U.S. Psychiatric Hospitals Led To A Mental Health Crisis : NPR
hmmmm
Philly’s new top prosecutor is rolling out wild, unprecedented criminal justice reforms.
In the church, queries and complaints from constituents that might have made his predecessors cringe were softballs for Krasner: a loved one has been wrongfully incarcerated? Send the case to the revamped Conviction Review Unit, a sort of in-house innocence project. How can lying officers be kept off the stand? He has staff working to verify and expand a formerly secret “do not call” list of 29 suspect officers. Late in the meeting, one elderly woman asked a question that cuts to the core of concerns for those who doubt Krasner’s reforms: What would he do about the drug dealers and users on her street that make her feel unsafe? He didn’t miss a beat: “The past solution was to lock [corner drug dealers] all up and that didn’t work. We have to go after root cause,” he says. This came after an extended riff promising “to go after doctors, and pharmaceutical corporations” for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis. Notably, his office had already initiated legal proceedings against some of those pharmaceutical companies.
…Krasner issued a memo to his staff making official a wave of new policies he had announced his attorneys last month. The memo starts: “These policies are an effort to end mass incarceration and bring balance back to sentencing.”
Over 90 percent of criminal cases nationwide are decided in plea bargains. …In an about-face from how these transactions typically work, Krasner’s 300 lawyers are to start many plea offers at the low end of sentencing guidelines. For most nonviolent and nonsexual crimes, or economic crimes below a $50,000 threshold, Krasner’s lawyers are now to offer defendants sentences below the bottom end of the state’s guidelines. So, for example, if a person with no prior convictions is accused of breaking into a store at night and emptying the cash register, he would normally face up to 14 months in jail. Under Krasner’s paradigm, he’ll be offered probation. If prosecutors want to use their discretion to deviate from these guidelines, say if a person has a particularly troubling rap sheet, Krasner must personally sign off.
…Krasner’s lawyers are also now to decline charges for marijuana possession, no matter the weight, effectively decriminalizing possession of the drug in the city for all nonfederal cases. Sex workers will not be charged with prostitution unless they have more than two priors, in which case they’ll be diverted to a specialized court. Retail theft under $500 is no longer a misdemeanor in the eyes of Philly prosecutors, but a summary offense—the lowest possible criminal charge.
…When a person does break the rules of probation, minor infractions such as missing a PO meeting are not to be punished with jail time or probation revocation, and more serious infractions are to be disciplined with no more than two years in jail.
In a move that may have less impact on the lives of defendants, but is very on-brand for Kranser, prosecutors must now calculate the amount of money a sentence would cost before recommending it to a judge, and argue why the cost is justified. He estimates that it costs $115 a day, or $42,000 a year, to incarcerate one person. So, if a prosecutor seeks a three-year sentence, she must state, on the record, that it would cost taxpayers $126,000 and explain why she thinks this cost is justified. Krasner reminds his attorneys that the cost of one year of unnecessary incarceration “is in the range of the cost of one year’s salary for a beginning teacher, police officer, fire fighter, social worker, Assistant District Attorney, or addiction counselor.”
…Krasner’s election was consistent with Philadelphia’s recent mood around criminal justice. Two years ago, the city elected Mayor Jim Kenney, who Philadelphia Magazine labeled “Mr. Criminal Justice Reform.” Under his leadership and with the help of a multimillion-dollar grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the city has brought the jail population down by 26 percent since July 2015.
Philly’s new top prosecutor is rolling out wild, unprecedented criminal justice reforms.
Wild.
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