Another NAACP Victory ! CT NAACP News: Late last night, on Wednesday, December 10, 2014, the United States Senate passed, with strong bipartisan unanimous support, NAACP-supported H.R. 1447, the Death in Custody Reporting Act. This important bill passed through the U.S. House of Representative in December of 2013 on a bi-partisan voice vote. The legislation, which now must be signed into law by President Obama, is strongly supported by the axiom, “in order to manage a problem, you must first be able to measure it.” It will require states to report to the U.S. Department of Justice information on every instance in which a person dies while in the custody of a law enforcement official, including: (1) the name, gender, race, ethnicity, and age of the deceased; (2) the date, time, and location of death; (3) the law enforcement agency that detained, arrested, or was in the process of arresting the deceased; and (4) a brief description of the circumstances surrounding the death. Having this information in one central location will enable us to study trends and compare the records of jurisdictions, so that we may begin to see where there is and is not a problem. It will go a long way to not only understanding the phenomenon of the deaths of Americans while in custody, but also may also begin to alleviate the environment of suspicion, concern and mistrust that currently exists in many racial and ethnic minority communities across America today by providing much-needed transparency in our Nation’s criminal justice system. Big Shout Out to Connecticut US Senator Richard Blumenthal - he introduced the Bill on the US Senate Floor!!!!
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:21:49 +0000
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