Criminal Justice + Policing
As xylazine surges, some lawmakers want jail time for dealers and people who use the drug
Legislators in a handful of states are offering bills to address the rise in the misuse of xylazine, a cheap animal sedative not intended for human consumption. Xylazine, or “tranq,” can induce blackouts and cause lesions that sometimes result in severe infections or amputations, and it can even lead to death. The opioid overdose-reversal drug […]
Trump leans in on immigration, crime during campaign stop in Richmond
Former President Donald Trump made a campaign stop in Richmond Saturday ahead of Super Tuesday, a day of primary voting that is expected to seal his bid to be the Republican nominee for president in November. “With your help, we will win big on Super Tuesday,” Trump told the crowd of a few thousand at […]
Bills to curb human trafficking in Virginia are good. Collective community action is even better.
The young woman who came to the Avalon Center in Williamsburg a few years ago needed help. She’d left her home country and traveled to Virginia at the behest of a man who said he loved her and wanted to create a life with her. Instead, she found herself physically and emotionally trapped in his […]
Supreme Court won’t hear Thomas Jefferson admissions case
An admissions policy adopted by the Fairfax County School Board in 2020 to promote greater diversity at the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology will remain in place after the U.S. Supreme Court opted not to take up a case challenging it brought forward by a coalition of parents. The court did […]
Car thefts and carjackings are up. Unreliable data makes it hard to pinpoint why.
Carjackings and car thefts are up significantly compared with the number of incidents before the pandemic, prompting fear and calls for action in many American cities. Motor vehicle thefts increased by 29% in 2023 compared with the previous year, while carjackings slightly decreased by 5% in nearly 40 American cities, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s most […]
Female workers sue Virginia prison agency, claiming body searches discriminate against women
Three former and current female employees of the Virginia Department of Corrections are pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the agency, saying its policies on body scanners discriminate against women. The inability of the state’s body-scanner technology to distinguish between contraband like drugs and menstrual products such as tampons, menstrual cups and intrauterine devices has led […]
It took Virginia 400 years to end the death penalty. It’s not a switch we can flip on and off.
Of all the things policymakers can be indecisive about, the death penalty shouldn’t be one of them. It is, after all, about the most profound and irreversible thing a government can do. Yet this year, not three years after Virginia banned capital punishment, freshman Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford, submitted a bill to reinstate it. Mercifully, […]
Virginia Democrats press major new gun control measures despite GOP opposition
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s assertion this month that the state’s gun laws are already strong enough for his liking isn’t deterring Democrats from moving forward with major proposals limiting access to firearms. Policymaking committees in both chambers of the General Assembly have started to advance significant gun control bills while defeating Republican efforts to repeal […]
Howard County man sentenced to prison for threats against lawmakers, LGBTQ advocacy group
A Howard County, Maryland man was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty last year to threatening Virginia and Maryland state lawmakers and a group that advocates for LGBTQI+ people. Adam Michael Nettina, 34, of West Friendship, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III. After his release from prison, […]
Va. appeals court says police stop of Black man in Waynesboro invasion case didn’t violate rights
In a reversal of an earlier decision, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that an officer’s stop of two Black men in a Waynesboro neighborhood on suspicion of involvement in a home invasion that had just occurred had not violated one man’s rights against unreasonable seizure. In a majority opinion, Judge Lisa Lorish wrote […]
Virginia to close four prisons, reassume control of sole private prison
The Virginia Department of Corrections will close four prisons and take control of the state’s only privately operated prison this summer, officials said Friday. Augusta Correctional Center, Sussex II State Prison, Haynesville Correctional Unit #17 and Stafford Community Corrections Alternative Program will close July 1, 2024. The department said the closures are intended “to enhance […]
Va. Supreme Court backs fired teacher who refused to use transgender student’s pronouns
The Supreme Court of Virginia on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision by reinstating a lawsuit brought by a former West Point High School teacher after he was fired for refusing to refer to a transgender student by his requested pronouns. Peter Vlaming, a former high school French teacher, refused to use male pronouns to […]