A woman who brought a raccoon into a North Dakota bar during happy hour faces criminal charges, and the animal was killed by state health authorities.

Erin Christensen, 38, brought the animal she called Rocky to the Maddock Bar & Club around 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 6. According to the account that bartender Cindy Smith gave the Bismarck Tribune, there were about 10 people in the bar. Rocky remained in Christensen’s arms during the five-minute visit, she said, and nobody was bitten.

Continue reading “Woman brings raccoon to North Dakota bar; she’s arrested, he’s put to death” →

The Justice Department is failing to adequately and efficiently collect data about deaths in state prisons and local jails, with at least 990 incidents going uncounted by the federal government in fiscal year 2021 alone, according to a newly released bipartisan Senate report.

The report’s findings were the focus of a hearing Tuesday of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which took the federal Bureau of Prisons and then-Director Michael Carvajal to task this summer over accusations of unsanitary and unsafe conditions at a penitentiary in Atlanta and other allegations of misconduct across the federal prison system.

Continue reading “Hundreds of Prison and Jail Deaths Go Uncounted by the Federal Government, Report Finds” →

Getting to grips with the distinctions that separate civil cases from criminal equivalents, even if you aren’t currently facing charges or have not been victimized in the recent past.

This is arguably an area of the law that everyone needs to understand, and thankfully it is a specific topic once you know the basics, so let’s dive in and settle this once and for all.

Continue reading “The Differences Between Civil and Criminal Cases” →

Over the weekend a Huron police officer narrowly escaped injury when his patrol car was rear-ended on the side of the road.

Law enforcement says this is a good reminder of why South Dakota lawmakers beefed up the state’s “Move Over” law in 2020.

The reason for the move over law became apparent in Huron over the holiday weekend. A city police officer was helping with traffic Saturday morning during the annual Andy’s Road race when he saw a car in his rearview mirror.

Continue reading “A closer look at South Dakota’s Move Over law” →

On Thursday September 8, 2022, federal prisoners across the country eagerly awaited the announcement of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) auto-calculation of First Step Act credits. For many Low and Minimum security inmates, the announcement landed with a thud.

The First Step Act (FSA) was one of the most sweeping pieces of criminal justice reform in decades. Signed into law by President Donald Trump in December 2018, the law allowed eligible inmates, those with an unlikely chance of recidivism and low or minimum security, to earn credits toward an earlier release from prison. Those credits were to be earned by prisoners participating in certain needs-based educational programs and actively participating in productive activities, like a prison job. For every 30 days of successful participation, the prisoner could earn up to 15 days off their sentence up to a maximum of 12 months (365 days). That is what the law states, but the BOP added a new wrinkle stating that those with short sentences, who are also more likely to be minimum or low security, will get no benefit of an earlier release.

A memorandum posted to federal prisoners on Thursday stated:

“Eligible inmates will continue to earn FTC [Federal Time Credits] toward early release until they have accumulate 365 days OR are 18 months from their release date, whichever happens first [emphasis added by BOP]. At this point, the release date becomes fixed, and all additional FTCs are applied toward RRC/HC [Residential Reentry Centers / Home Confinement] placement.”

The effect will be that those prisoners with short sentences will get no reduction in their sentence, something that clearly goes against the BOP’s own experts on FSA.

When a federal prisoner is sentenced, they receive 54 days of Good Conduct Time as soon as they are in federal custody. For someone sentenced to 21 months in prison, that means they would get 94 days of Good Conduct Time (54 days for 12 months then a prorated annual amount of 54 days for the other 9 months) immediately taken off their sentence. So long as the prisoner obeys the rules, their release date would be the 21 months less the 94 days. When FSA came along, the intent was to allow that same prisoner to earn additional days which could be applied to effectively reducing the sentence (a sooner transfer to supervised release, a type of probation). However, the new BOP memorandum takes that away from prisoners by setting what is an arbitrary 18 month, until release, cut-off for receiving FSAs to reduce the sentence. The result is going to be that thousands of federal inmates, many minimum security, will remain in prison for months longer than Congress intended when it passed the law.

Read the full story at Forbes.

In Texas, children and teens in the juvenile justice system are routinely locked in cells for all but 30 minutes a day, and nearly half are on suicide watch.

This week, the director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, the agency in charge of the state’s five juvenile prisons, told lawmakers the system is on the verge of collapse. The hearing came a week after the Texas Tribune revealed just how dire the situation is for the almost 600 young people in custody. Several youth reported having to use water bottles as makeshift toilets on weekends because there is not enough staff to get them to the bathroom.

Continue reading “Confronting America’s ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Juvenile Justice System Crisis” →

Of the more than 11,000 federal inmates who were released to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, 17 were returned to prison for committing new crimes, according to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

In response to a query from Keri Blakinger, a reporter for The Marshall Project, the Bureau of Prisons said that of the 17, 10 committed drug crimes, while the rest of the charges included smuggling non-citizens, nonviolent domestic disturbance, theft, aggravated assault, and DUI.

Continue reading “11,000 Federal Inmates Were Sent Home During the Pandemic. Only 17 Were Arrested for New Crimes.” →

The University of South Dakota athletics department has unveiled its plan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX throughout the 2022-23 academic year.

Title IX, which was signed into law on June 23, 1972, states that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

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On this episode of The Bracewell Sidebar, hosts Matthew Nielsen and Seth DuCharme discuss how one goes about getting a search warrant in light of recent events, including what is required and what inferences can be fairly drawn from the existence of a warrant.

Continue reading “How to get a Search Warrant” →

New Biden administration rules that put homemade firearm kits used to build “ghost guns” in the same legal category as traditional firearms went into effect on Wednesday after federal judges declined requests to pause the change.

The regulations require that the main components used to manufacture ghost guns — the frames and receivers — be assigned serial numbers. They also require that buyers undergo background checks before purchasing the components and that dealers be federally licensed to sell the kits and keep records of sales.

Continue reading “Federal ‘ghost gun’ regulations go into effect after judges reject challenges” →