Republican Lawmakers Shifting Tough-On-Crime Stance As State Budget Problems...
In no state is the philosophical U-turn more abrupt than in Oklahoma, where last year the Legislature was barreling in the opposite direction. New Republican Speaker of the House Kris Steele is...
View ArticleOklahoma House Passes Corrections Reform Bill
The Oklahoma House of Representatives Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill designed to relieve prison overcrowding. The bill, House Bill 2131, would substantially change the way Oklahoma sentences...
View ArticleCalifornia Corrections "Realignment" Not Nearly Enough [FEATURE]
Faced with a staggering budget deficit and a prison overcrowding crisis, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and the state legislature have approved legislation that would shift responsibility for...
View ArticleUS Prison Population in First Decline Since 1972
In two reports released last week, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced that for the first time since 1972, the US prison population had fallen from the previous year and that for the...
View ArticleOklahoma Governor Signs Prison Reform Bill
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) last Thursday signed into law a bill designed to lower the state's prison population. The state's incarceration rate is first in the nation for female prisoners and third...
View ArticleDid You Know? Drug Offender Numbers in Prison, Jail, Probation and Parole, on...
Did you know that in 2009 there were 1.7 million people in US prisons, jails, or on probation or parole for drug offenses? Since 1990, the number of people in those four categories grew by 78.9 percent...
View ArticleChronicle AM: MJ Policy Keeps Northeast Busy, Major Louisiana Sentencing...
Marijuana policy continues to roil statehouses across the Northeast, a US senator and a congressman file identical medical marijuana protection bills, Louisiana -- the lock 'em up state -- enacts...
View ArticleChronicle AM: Maine Considers Marijuana Social Clubs With No Smoking, More......
Maine considers marijuana social clubs where you can't smoke pot, some Maryland criminal justice reforms passed last year will go into effect on Sunday, and more.[image:1 align:left...
View ArticleChronicle AM: Alaska Towns Reject Marijuana Bans, DEA Names Acting Head,...
The DEA names an in-house acting administrator, the Massachusetts high court takes up the question of whether judges can order addicts to remain drug-free, Canada advances on looming marijuana...
View ArticleChronicle AM: Fed Judge Tired of Jailing Pot People, AI to Vote on New Drug...
There will be no marijuana legalization measure on the Arizona ballot this year, a federal judge is sick of sending probationers to jail for marijuana, Amnesty International is set to vote on a new...
View ArticleChronicle AM: New DOJ Task Force to Target Cartels, CA Pain Summit Next...
The Justice Department creates a new anti-cartel task force, a California summit will address issues around chronic pain and the war on drugs, the New York Assembly holds a hearing on marijuana...
View ArticleChronicle AM: Maine Legal MJ Sales (Finally), House Blocks Forfeiture...
Soon, Mainers will finally be able to buy and sell legal marijuana, the House passes an amendment to block an asset forfeiture end-run for local law enforcement, and more.[image:1 align:left...
View ArticleChronicle AM: Mexico MJ Legalization Vote This Month, MA Governor Pushes High...
Mexico is moving rapidly toward marijuana legalization, Scotland's largest political party is set to embrace drug decriminalization, and more.[image:1 align:left caption:true]Marijuana...
View ArticleDoes This State Have the Worst Drug Policies in America? [FEATURE]
With endless miles of farmland shading into ever higher and drier terrain as one moves west, crossing the Missouri River and then on to the Badlands and the Black Hills, South Dakota has a certain...
View ArticleChronicle AM: NM & NY Govs Call for MJ Legalization, NJ Gov Signs Criminal...
Two Democratic governors push for marijuana legalization, another Democratic governor signs a package of criminal justice reform bills, and more.[image:1 align:right caption:true]Marijuana PolicyNew...
View ArticleFormer Mexican Defense Minister Busted at LAX, MT Legal Pot Initiative Faces...
Missouri and Virginia both saw their first legal medical marijuana sales this past weekend, the US Sentencing Commission reports more than 3,000 federal prisoners have secured sentence reductions under...
View ArticleBook Review: Three Takes on the Opioid Crisis [FEATURE]
RX Appalachia: Stories of Treatment and Survival in Rural Kentucky, by Lesly-Marie Buer (2020, Haymarket Books, 264 pp., $22.95 PB)Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies...
View ArticleWith Sweeping Criminal Justice Reform Bill, Canada Seeks an Off-Ramp from the...
On February 16, Canada's governing Liberal Party finally moved to enact long-promised reforms to criminal justice by introducing a sweeping new bill that would make arrests for drug possession only one...
View ArticleUS Prison, Parole, Probation Population Continues Slow Decline; $26 Billion...
Florida's Republican establishment may not be ready for marijuana legalization but the public is, the Justice Department drops an effort to send some First Step Act releasees back to prison, and...
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Chronicle AM: Maine Legal MJ Sales (Finally), House Blocks Forfeiture...
Chronicle AM: Maine Legal MJ Sales (Finally), House Blocks Forfeiture Loophole, More... (6/24/19)Soon, Mainers will finally be able to buy and sell legal marijuana, the House passes an amendment to...
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