1. USA – The stocks of two of the world’s biggest private prison companies are outperforming the market amid the current immigration crisis. Both the GEO Group and CoreCivic sup- ported Donald J. Trump’s presidency. The companies donated $250,000 to Trump’s Inaugural Committee, with GEO hav- ing donated $225,000 to a Trump Super PAC during the 2016 election.
2. USA — There were 56 percent fewer criminal convictions of illegal immigrants than of native- born Americans in Texas in 2015, a new report shows. The report by the Cato Institute found that the criminal conviction rate for legal immigrants was about 85 percent below the native-born rate. The data shows comparable patterns for violent crimes such as homicide and property crimes such as larceny. The study did find that immi- grants in the United States illegally were more likely than native-born people to be convicted of “gambling, kidnapping, smuggling, and vagrancy.” But those crimes represented little effect on overall crime rates in Texas that year. Another study, published in March in the journal Criminology, showed that states with larger shares of undocumented immi- grants tended to have lower crime rates than states with smaller shares in the years 1990 through 2014. Among other things, they found that the relationship be- tween high levels of illegal immigration and low levels of crime continue even after controlling for factors such as age, urbanization, labor market conditions and incarceration rates.
2. USA — There were 56 percent fewer criminal convictions of illegal immigrants than of native- born Americans in Texas in 2015, a new report shows. The report by the Cato Institute found that the criminal conviction rate for legal immigrants was about 85 percent below the native-born rate. The data shows comparable patterns for violent crimes such as homicide and property crimes such as larceny. The study did find that immi- grants in the United States illegally were more likely than native-born people to be convicted of “gambling, kidnapping, smuggling, and vagrancy.” But those crimes represented little effect on overall crime rates in Texas that year. Another study, published in March in the journal Criminology, showed that states with larger shares of undocumented immi- grants tended to have lower crime rates than states with smaller shares in the years 1990 through 2014. Among other things, they found that the relationship be- tween high levels of illegal immigration and low levels of crime continue even after controlling for factors such as age, urbanization, labor market conditions and incarceration rates.
The studies conclude that not only does illegal immigration not increase crime, but it may contribute to the drop in overall crime rates seen in the U.S. in recent decades.
3. Texas — Chris Young, 34, was executed by an injection of compounded pentobarbital on July 17 for a 2004 robbery and murder of a San Antonio storeowner.
4. Ohio — Gov. John Kasich commuted the death sentence of Raymond Tibbetts to life in prison with- out possibility of parole, re- ports UPI. Kasich’s office cited “fundamental flaws in sentencing phase of his trial,” as the reason for commuting the death sentence in a statement regard- ing his decision July 20. In particular, “an inaccurate description of Tibbetts’ childhood by the prosecution, essentially prevented the jury from making an informed decision about whether Tibbetts deserved the death penalty,” the office said. On the same day, Kasich also granted a reprieve to delay the execution of Cleveland Jackson, who was scheduled to be executed between Sept. 13 and May 29, 2019.
5. Pennsylvania — Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill that allows Pennsylvanians to seal nonviolent misdemeanor records that carried a sentence of a year or more in jail if they have stayed out of trouble for 10 years and paid all fines and costs, reports Tribune News Service. The law also automatically seals re- cords for second-degree or third-degree misdemeanor convictions that carried sentences of two years or less if the individual has no other convictions for a decade and for arrests that did not result in a coviction. Offenses involving guns, sexual assaults/ rapes, murder, kidnapping, child endangerment and endangering the welfare of children are not subject to the law.
6. Phoenix, Arizona — A judge found the state’s prisons chief to be in civil contempt of court and imposed a $1.4 million fine to the state for not improving, adequately, health care for inmates. The lawsuit said some prisoners complained their cancer went undetected or they were told to pray to be cured after begging for treatment, The Associated Press reports. It also claims the failure of the medical staff at one prison to diagnose the metastasized cancer of an in- mate resulted in his stomach swelling to the size of a pregnant woman at full term.
