State
- In budget amendments this week, Governor Cuomo increased the power of his prison-closure task force; now, its recommendations will be binding on the commissioner of the state's prison system.
- A controversial bill introduced last week proposed changing the criteria used in laying off teachers and administrators, and included a provision that would have unfairly targeted people with criminal histories. Amid days of haggling in Albany, however, the bill passed in the Senate this week but later stalled in the Assembly. After publicly clashing on the issue, the governor and Mayor Bloomberg now say they will work together to find a solution.
- A report just released by the Correctional Association of New York highlights deficiencies and waste in the state's prison-based substance abuse treatment programs.
- A week after the Medicaid redesign team voted on cost-cutting measures, the state's top health officials faced questions from lawmakers on the details of the new plan.
- Congratulations to new OASAS Commissioner Arlene Gonzalez-Sanchez, who was confirmed this week after being appointed in December.
National
- A Florida judge has stayed his January ruling against the Obama healthcare law, allowing it to be carried out as the case progresses through the appeals process. Meanwhile, President Obama said he was willing to amend the law to let states opt out of some requirements right from the start -- under the current law, they must wait until 2017 -- as long as they could find another way to expand coverage without driving up health care costs.
- Legislators in at least ten states are considering bills that would require recipients of public assistance to submit to drug testing.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a new analysis of the potential costs and savings for states under the new heathcare reform law.
- The Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People Movement held a historic three-day gathering this week in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, to meet with local leaders and call for prison reform.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of second chances for an Iowa man formerly incarcerated on drug charges, paving the way for more consideration of good conduct and rehabilitation during resentencing on appeal.
- The Sentencing Project has released a report detailing the ways that 23 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new criminal justice policies aimed at reducing prison populations and facilitating reentry.
- Criminal justice officials in Ohio are reporting that the rate of recidivism among formerly incarcerated people has dropped to an 11-year low of 34 percent.
|
Search
RSS