Lou Penrose Show with Special Guest Josh Crawford

by Josh Crawford | Apr 4, 2024

Georgia news, in the news, current events, Georgia happenings, GA happenings

Lou Penrose Show with Special Guest Josh Crawford

Josh Crawford, an expert in criminal justice reform from the Georgia Center for Opportunity, appeared as a guest on the Lou Penrose Show. He discussed the need for comprehensive changes to the justice system to reduce recidivism rates and provide better support for formerly incarcerated individuals. Crawford shared insights from his work advocating for policies like improving education and job training opportunities for those with criminal records.

Listen to the full show.

Policy and election-year politics mixed into new Georgia laws

by Kimberly Sawatka | Mar 30, 2024

Policy and election-year politics mixed into new Georgia laws

Flush with cash and facing an election year, Georgia lawmakers prioritized bills that cut taxes, stoke political emotions and touch voters’ lives in some way.

Legislators left the Capitol early Friday morning after making their mark on the state over the past three months, with the Republican majority pushing both practical spending bills and sparking debates over partisan issues including immigration and transgender people.

“I think they were looking for things to show their constituents that they’re doing something,” said Buzz Brockway, a former Republican state representative who now works at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing poverty. “I would call it a ‘medium session.’ Some things got done that are important and move the ball forward, but nobody got everything they wanted.”

Read the full article in The Herald

Read the full article in Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Shackled by Freedom: How Workplace Licensing Holds Back Ex-Convicts

by Kimberly Sawatka | Mar 25, 2024

Shackled by Freedom: How Workplace Licensing Holds Back Ex-Convicts

After years of drug abuse and crime, Rudolph H. Carey III began to get his life back on track in 2007 when he checked himself into rehab and eventually drew on his experience to become a substance abuse counselor in Virginia.

Then it was all taken away from him. After his company was taken over, his new employer fired him in 2018 due to his 2004 conviction for assaulting an officer while trying to run away from a traffic stop. State law prohibits former offenders like him from working as substance abuse counselors.

Joshua Crawford, Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives for the Georgia Center for Opportunity, acknowledged that the formerly incarcerated are often an unsympathetic group. But he said growing evidence shows that occupational licensing laws fail to improve public safety and sometimes even make communities less safe and less prosperous. “It’s not about benefiting that person as much as leveling the playing field and the benefits to public safety and more productive members of society,” he said.

Read the full article in Real Clear Investigations

Read the full article in The Epoch Times

Is the tide turning on Larry Krasner?

by Kimberly Sawatka | Mar 22, 2024

Is the tide turning on Larry Krasner?

Hate to say I told you so, but real is real. Back in 2018, three months into Larry Krasner’s revolution in ultra-lenient prosecution, I wrote these prophetic words:

I’ve written before that many of Krasner’s reforms — as with those of many of the other Soros DAs — are long overdue. Cash bail does criminalize poverty; mass incarceration, thanks to an ill-conceived war on drugs, has decimated communities of color; the death penalty is disproportionately applied based on race and class. All true. But one has to wonder if Krasner — even more than the other Soros-funded reformers — has over-corrected, and laid the groundwork for an existential assault on law enforcement from within that, by extension, could amount to a jihad on public safety itself.

The piece, like others that have followed through his tenure, diagnosed what was already apparent: Krasner’s inexperience and incompetence as a manager, his unwillingness to work with others, and his tone deafness (like when he showed up for his first meeting with the then-Council president with a documentary camera crew in tow) — all of it jeopardized even then the most righteous aspects of his cause. You know what happened next. His “best and brightest” ADA recruits came and promptly fled in droves, fed up with the mismanagement and ideology. They wanted to be reformers, yes, but most didn’t sign up to be refuseniks when it came to, say, actually prosecuting gun crimes.

“Consider how Philadelphia has fared in the years since progressive prosecutor Larry Krasner was elected in 2017,” Penn Law’s Paul Robinson and Joshua Crawford, Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity wrote last year in Newsweek. “Krasner has filed the fewest cases in his city’s modern history and reduced sentencings by an astounding 70 percent. Meanwhile, homicides are skyrocketing.”

Read the full article here

The Alan Nathan Show

by Josh Crawford | Mar 14, 2024

The Alan Nathan Show

Josh Crawford, as a guest on The Alan Nathan Show, engaged in a thoughtful discussion about pragmatic approaches to reforming policies that negatively affect the criminal justice system. His expertise in criminal justice reform was evident as he highlighted key issues such as overcriminalization, sentencing disparities, and the need for better rehabilitation programs. Crawford emphasized the importance of evidence-based policies that ensure public safety while also offering second chances to those who have served their time. He argued for a balanced approach that respects the rights of victims and communities, yet also addresses the root causes of criminal behavior to reduce recidivism. Through his dialogue with Alan Nathan, Crawford shed light on the complexities of the criminal justice system and presented realistic solutions aimed at fostering a more just and equitable society.

Listen to the full conversation

Want to reduce crime in DC? Ramp up enforcement and sentences

by Josh Crawford | Mar 8, 2024

Want to reduce crime in DC? Ramp up enforcement and sentences

By Joshua Crawford, Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives

What a difference a year makes.

Around this time last year, the Council of the District of Columbia overrode Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto of a criminal code reform bill that, among other things, lowered penalties for carjacking, robbery, and burglary.

At the time of the bill’s passage, Washington was already in the midst of a dramatic increase in carjackings that began in June 2020. From January 2018 until May 2020, the city averaged 12.3 carjackings a month. That number increased to 39.7 carjackings a month between June 2020 and January 2023, when the council overrode the mayor’s veto.

And, for the record, carjackings in the district have not been restricted to “that” part of town. In August 2022, Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot in the leg during an attempted carjacking in broad daylight.

When she vetoed the criminal code reform bill, Bowser, a Democrat, said, “This bill does not make us safer. … Any time there’s a policy that reduces penalties, I think it sends the wrong message.” No one would doubt the mayor’s progressive credentials, but the D.C. Council had her sounding like former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, who served during the Reagan administration.

Read the full article here