In a significant move to enhance legal representation for individuals unable to afford an attorney, South Dakota is in the process of establishing a new statewide office. The aim is to ensure that those with the right to counsel under state or federal law receive improved legal services.

During its inaugural meeting on May 16, 2024, the Commission on Indigent Legal Services took a crucial step by approving the posting of a job announcement. The announcement is for the position of chief defender, who will lead the newly created Office of Indigent Legal Services. The chief defender will be tasked with overseeing a team of public defense professionals, with the goal of providing comprehensive indigent representation services across South Dakota. This includes handling appeals of criminal cases, habeas corpus petitions, and cases involving the abuse or neglect of children.

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Minnesota has expunged nearly 58,000 misdemeanor cannabis records ahead of schedule, state officials announced Monday.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said it’s completed the process of expunging misdemeanor cannabis records as required by the state’s recreational marijuana law. State officials had previously expected to finish that work by August.

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A year after Congress blocked D.C.’s revised criminal code, complaining it was soft on crime, the House has gone a step further by passing its own D.C. crime bill.

The House passed the D.C. CRIMES Act on Wednesday with 225 votes, garnering support from Republicans as well as 18 Democrats. Proponents said the intention of the bill is to “immediately make everyone safer” in the District of Columbia. 181 no votes were also cast.

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The U.S. Justice Department sued Iowa on Thursday over its new law that would give the state the authority to arrest and deport some migrants, making it the second lawsuit filed in a single day that seeks to block legislation passed earlier this year by state lawmakers.

Both the Justice Department’s lawsuit and another suit filed by civil rights and immigrant rights groups argued the state law was preempted by federal law and should be declared invalid.

Continue reading “Iowa law lets police arrest migrants. The federal government and civil rights groups are suing” →

A criminal conviction, whether for minor offenses like petty theft, DUI, or more severe felonies, can cast a long shadow over an individual’s future. However, avenues are available to seal these records and move forward, as reported by C.J. Keene with SDPB.

In South Dakota, one such pathway is expungement, a legal process that starts at the local clerk of courts office. The process comes with a flat fee of $70, as stipulated by state law.

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Treatment courts across South Dakota will hold special events in May to celebrate National Treatment Court Month.

Rather than continuing the revolving door of addiction and related crime, treatment courts lead people with substance use and mental health disorders out of the justice system and into lives of recovery, stability and health. South Dakota’s 17 treatment courts have planned uplifting events to recognize individuals whose lives have been transformed by the treatment and support provided by these programs.

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, The Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.

The proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.

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Beyond taxes and education spending, the Iowa Legislature passed numerous laws creating new crimes, increasing penalties for others — which were not listed as priorities before the session’s start.

While they were not as high-profile as some education and state government bills during the session, these changes to Iowa’s criminal code and regulatory structure together made up the majority of the 151 bills the Legislature passed this year. Judiciary bills that did make waves during session included criminalizing being an undocumented migrant in the state and authorizing state law enforcement to deport undocumented people they find in Iowa, and creating immunity for people acting based on their religious belief.

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A growing share of Americans say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress to address this year. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) hold that view today, up from 47% at the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021.

With the issue likely to come up in this year’s presidential election, here’s what we know about crime in the United States, based on the latest available data from the federal government and other sources.

How much crime is there in the U.S.?

It’s difficult to say for certain. The two primary sources of government crime statistics – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – paint an incomplete picture.

The FBI publishes annual data on crimes that have been reported to law enforcement, but not crimes that haven’t been reported. Historically, the FBI has also only published statistics about a handful of specific violent and property crimes, but not many other types of crime, such as drug crime. And while the FBI’s data is based on information from thousands of federal, state, county, city and other police departments, not all law enforcement agencies participate every year. In 2022, the most recent full year with available statistics, the FBI received data from 83% of participating agencies.

BJS, for its part, tracks crime by fielding a large annual survey of Americans ages 12 and older and asking them whether they were the victim of certain types of crime in the past six months. One advantage of this approach is that it captures both reported and unreported crimes. But the BJS survey has limitations of its own. Like the FBI, it focuses mainly on a handful of violent and property crimes. And since the BJS data is based on after-the-fact interviews with crime victims, it cannot provide information about one especially high-profile type of offense: murder.

All those caveats aside, looking at the FBI and BJS statistics side-by-side does give researchers a good picture of U.S. violent and property crime rates and how they have changed over time. In addition, the FBI is transitioning to a new data collection system – known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System – that eventually will provide national information on a much larger set of crimes, as well as details such as the time and place they occur and the types of weapons involved, if applicable.

Which kinds of crime are most and least common?

Property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime. In 2022, the FBI reported a total of 1,954.4 property crimes per 100,000 people, compared with 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

By far the most common form of property crime in 2022 was larceny/theft, followed by motor vehicle theft and burglary. Among violent crimes, aggravated assault was the most common offense, followed by robbery, rape, and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter.

BJS tracks a slightly different set of offenses from the FBI, but it finds the same overall patterns, with theft the most common form of property crime in 2022 and assault the most common form of violent crime.

You can read the full article at Pew Research Center.

United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that throughout 2023, federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies seized 368 firearms that were possessed in violation of federal law. In the same year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota charged approximately 93 defendants with illegally owning, possessing, using, or obtaining one or more such firearms.

“Through these firearm seizures, we are confident law enforcement agencies prevented countless violent and drug-related crimes from occurring in communities across South Dakota,” said U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is grateful for the strong law enforcement partnerships in South Dakota, which allow us to combine federal, state, and tribal resources to target some of the most dangerous individuals in our state and remove illegal firearms from our streets.”

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