Under Gov. Dannel Malloy’s leadership, Connecticut has repealed the death penalty, closed prisons, decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, raised the age from 16 to 18 at which defendants are tried as adults for most crimes, streamlined the process for parole and pardons, and reduced penalties for non-violent drug crimes.
Second Chance Society
Posted inJustice
Malloy’s bail reform push makes for strange bedfellows
EAST LYME — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stepped to a microphone in a prison waiting room to talk about bail reform Thursday. He glanced to at two unlikely allies, David McGuire of the American Civil Liberties Union and Suzanne Bates of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank.
Posted inJustice
Malloy’s new pitch for bail and juvenile justice reforms
A year after legislators rebuffed him, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is back with revised versions of proposals that would reform Connecticut’s bail system and expand the jurisdiction of its juvenile courts, issues that have edged closer to the mainstream of criminal-justice thinking in the U.S.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Malloy tells D.C. audience bail reform on his agenda in 2017
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told a criminal justice conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday he intends make another attempt in 2017 at bail reform, one of his “Second Chance Society” initiatives that never came to a vote in 2016.
Posted inJustice
Malloy: Reforms help shrink prison population to a 20-year low
Connecticut’s prison population briefly fell below 15,000 inmates this month for the first time in nearly 20 years, a drop Gov. Dannel P. Malloy attributes to the bipartisan passage last year of lowering penalties for drug possession, a reform aimed at reducing incarceration without compromising public safety.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Malloy signs CT budget but trims town aid to offset prison costs
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy showed legislators Thursday there was a fiscal price to be paid for rejecting his anti-recidivism proposals. The governor signed the legislature’s $19.76 billion budget for 2016-17 into law, but only after using the rarely employed line-item veto to cancel more than $22 million earmarked for municipalities, health clinics and the Connecticut Humanities Council.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Poverty should not be the cause of imprisonment in Connecticut
In 2014, at York Correctional Institution, Amy Rolon fell from her wheelchair. Nearby, correction officers watched her fall. Rolon, who was suffering from heroin withdrawal, writhed on the ground after hitting her head. She tried to climb back into the wheelchair and fell again. For 20 minutes, scores of staff members at York witnessed Rolon struggle. Nobody helped.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Malloy bows to legislature, narrows ‘Second Chance’ to bail
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy publicly acknowledged Tuesday what has been increasingly clear: The only portion of his “Second Chance” criminal justice reforms with a chance of passage in special session this week is a provision eliminating bail for minor crimes. Legislators effectively set a deadline of Thursday for agreeing on the parameters of a bail measure.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Malloy zings GOP on bail reform, gets counter from Fasano
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Connecticut leader of the NAACP pushed back Monday at Republican opposition to Malloy’s proposed bail reforms, casting them as an overdue blow for racial and economic equality. One GOP leader said Malloy was playing the race card, while another made a counter offer.
Posted inJustice
Malloy launches a last try for ‘Second Chance 2.0’ in 2016
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stepped up efforts Monday to promote bail and juvenile justice reforms that the administration is struggling to pass in special session, while House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, warned that Malloy still needs to win over House members.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Like Senate, House defers vote on Malloy’s ‘Second Chance 2.0’
House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, postponed a vote Friday on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to reform the bail and juvenile-justice systems, underscoring the administration’s difficulties in finding sufficient votes for the governor’s signature criminal-justice bill.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Looney says budget deal, ‘Second Chance’ are on for Thursday
The leader of the Connecticut Senate said Wednesday night he has the votes to pass Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s criminal justice reforms and last week’s budget deal when the Senate returns Thursday in special session. The House of Representatives has yet to schedule a vote.
Posted inJustice
A lesson on crime, redemption and trees at Yale
It’s all a bit movie-of-the-weekish, mixing ex-cons, the Ivy League, and a goal of reforesting a city famously hit hard by Dutch elm disease. But it’s been working for a half dozen years now, boasting a high survival rate for the trees and low recidivism for the guys.
Posted inEducation, Justice, Money, Politics
Judiciary says proposed cuts ‘compromise access to justice’
Cutting $64 million from the previously approved funding for the Judicial Branch next fiscal year would result in hundreds of layoffs and force closure of multiple courthouses and a juvenile detention facility, Judge Patrick L. Carroll III, chief court administrator, told the legislature’s Appropriations Committee.
Posted inJustice
A new approach to prepping women to leave prison
EAST LYME — Until three weeks ago, 90 percent of Amy Gully’s daily routine in York Correctional, the state’s only prison for women, was staying in a cell, marking days off a 30-month sentence for embezzlement and waiting her turn to make a phone call home. She told Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that her new routine is dawn-to-dusk activity aimed at preparing her to go home.