- New York — (Press Release) Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of criminal justice reforms Oct. 22 that give formerly incarcerated New Yorkers a second chance. Individuals previously convicted of a felony can serve as fiduciary of an estate or perform bona fide work without violating parole. The reforms also allow certificates of good behavior upon early discharge, and allow workers under supervised release to protest work-related labor conditions.
- North Carolina — (NC Policy Watch) The UNC School of Government’s Criminal Justice Innovation Lab released two reports in October detailing pretrial procedure reform pilots. The reforms standardize pretrial conditions historically determined on a case-by-case basis. The purpose is to ensure that magistrates comply with constitutional and statutory requirements in setting bail and bond. State law requires magistrates to consider an unsecured bond unless defendants are considered unlikely to appear, pose a danger to another person, destroy evidence, commit perjury, or intimidate witnesses.
- Harrisburg, Pa. — (AP) A state Senate Judiciary Committee voted Oct. 19 to overhaul how probation is managed. The bill would limit probation periods and probation violations that can result in jail time. Federal statistics show that Pennsylvania has some of the highest rates of people under community supervision. Under the bill, probation review conferences would be required, within a prescribed time, to adopt a presumption that probation must end unless the defendant poses a threat to public safety, has not completed required treatments, or in some cases, has not paid restitution. Judges also would have discretion to end probation.
- Atmore, Ala. — (AP) An Alabama man who avoided execution in February was put to death in November for the 1991 killing of a woman who was abducted during a robbery and then shot in a cemetery. Willie B. Smith III, 52, received a lethal injection at a prison in southwest Alabama. The execution went forward after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request for a stay. His lawyers argued the execution should be blocked on grounds that Smith had an intellectual disability meriting further scrutiny by the courts. Smith was convicted of kidnapping and murdering 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson in Birmingham.
- Kansas — (The Kansas City Star Editorial Board) A Sentencing Project report said that Black Kansans are six times more likely to be in prison than Whites. One in 60 Black residents is behind prison bars in the Sunf lower State. The incarceration rate for White Kansans wasn’t even close — about one in 377. The report, titled “Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons,” examined incarceration rates for White, Black and Latino people across the country. Kansas’ Black incarceration rate ranked 11th in the nation and its rate of locking up Black residents was higher than the national average, according to the report. Black people comprised a little over 6% of the state’s population in 2019, the year used in the study, but about 27% of Kansas’ prison inmates were Black.
