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By WEIHUA LI, BETH SCHWARTZAPFEL and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press
It wasn’t long after Matthew Reed shoplifted a $63 set of sheets from a Target in upstate New York that the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a standstill.
Instead of serving a jail sentence, he stayed at home, his case deferred more than a year, as courts closed and jails nationwide dramatically reduced their populations to stop the spread of COVID-19.
But the numbers have begun creeping up again as courts are back in session and the world begins returning to a modified version of normal. It’s worrying criminal justice reformers who argue that the past year proved there is no need to keep so many people locked up in the U.S.
(AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
(CN) Drug reform is seeing some wins after an otherwise conservative Texas legislative session. The Republican-controlled statehouse this year passed a range of modest reform measures, proving that even in right-wing states, some politicians are moving beyond the war on drugs.
Unless Republican Governor Greg Abbott vetoes the bills and observers don’t expect he will Texas will soon expand its medical cannabis program, allowing for new conditions and raising the caps on THC, the main active component in marijuana. Lawmakers also agreed to study several federally controlled drugs including psilocybin, ketamine and MDMA and their effects on veterans with post-traumatic stress.
Over 100 volunteers read the names of nearly 3,000 child abuse victims Thursday, driving home the magnitude of the darkness in their lives against the backdrop of a bright spring day in Wichita Falls.
The first ever Save Jane event held by Patsy s House Children s Advocacy Center recognized children reported to have been abused in 2020 in the eight area counties the center serves.
Denise Roberts, Patsy s House executive director, estimated reading the children s pseudonyms would continue from about noon until as late as, perhaps, 7 p.m. Thursday.
“We really just want to shine a light on the gravity of abuse, and the things that are happening within the counties that we serve, Roberts said after opening of Save Jane.