Nationwide, people with disabilities are overrepresented both as victims of crime and those who are accused of crimes, and advocates believe the justice system could do much more to improve accessibility.

The system is not always fair to people with autism, cognitive disabilities and learning disorders, and visual and hearing disabilities.

Ariel Simms, president and CEO of the nonprofit group RespectAbility, said there are ways to better ensure disabled individuals are treated fairly, such as expanding access to hearing and visual aids or American Sign Language interpreters.

"When somebody is reaching out for legal support or assistance, we can really think through almost every process/environment ahead of time," Simms pointed out. "And really think through how we're going to make it more accessible."

Last year, West Virginia lawmakers passed Senate Bill 232, which aims to improve data collection on disabilities in state correctional facilities and make recommendations for alternative placements for people with severe disabilities, rather than prisons or state psychiatric hospitals.

Simms noted there are resources in every state to help people working in the criminal justice system assist individuals with disabilities.

"Always the number one recommendation: Work with disability groups," Simms emphasized. "There are also groups that work at the state and the local level that can also be really incredible resources."

Health care access and safety for people with disabilities in West Virginia prisons continues to be a major issue. In an analysis of federal data by the West Virginia Center for Budget Policy and Priorities, from 2001 to 2018, West Virginia had the second-highest prison mortality rate in the nation.

Ten years ago today, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by Cleveland police while holding a toy gun, sparking national protests for police reform.

Today, a Detroit man who spent nine years wrongfully imprisoned has turned his own experience into a force for change.

Eric Anderson, wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 2010 at age 20, was exonerated in 2019. He's now cofounder of the Organization of Exonerees, a nonprofit supporting those who are wrongfully convicted. Anderson said his own testimony helps train police officers.

"With the hope that them hearing our stories, they can approach their job cautiously," Anderson explained. "We also let them know, 'If y'all do nefarious things, it's going to come back and bite y'all.' Keep it clean across the board. Don't plant evidence, don't lie, don't try to take away stuff in order to get a conviction."

At the time of the crime he was accused of, evidence revealed Anderson was more than 10 miles away at a restaurant, where he'd been shot in the foot as a bystander to an altercation. Experts believe 1% to 3% of people in prison nationwide could be innocent, which may mean up to 1,000 people in Michigan are wrongfully incarcerated.

After a four-year effort, Anderson and other advocates for safer policing are making a final push in Michigan's lame-duck legislative session, for the Police Improvement and Community Relations Bill Package, which includes guidelines for police use of force, would boost transparency in investigations and improve training on de-escalation and bias.

Anderson loves the proposals, mainly for their focus on officer training and de-escalation.

"Being an officer of the law and a person that's here to serve and protect us, you're supposed to be fluent in the skills of de-escalation," Anderson contended. "Trying to calm somebody down so you can come to the conclusion about what's really going on and the next course of action."

As of 2023, Michigan's compensation fund has given more than $50 million to exonerees, although delays persist for some in getting support.

Cities and states are struggling with mounting homelessness, and West Virginia is no exception.

A recent report points to potential solutions and immediate actions local governments can take to reduce the number of people on the streets.

A different report, released this year by the state's Department of Human Services, found homelessness is up by 24% compared to 2021.

Providing jobs such as trash cleanup for homeless individuals, and managing public spaces, are effective - said Lisel Petis, senior fellow at the R Street Institute.

She said in several states local organizations are working with businesses to create safe designated places for people living in cars to go at night.

"One that I've spoken with where they have seen success in working with businesses and using parking lots and giving people some privacy," said Petis, "so that they can transition from their car back into houses."

According to the state report, nearly 60% of individuals experiencing homelessness were male, and nearly half were between the ages of 25 and 44.

Thirteen percent identified themselves as Black or African American.

Petis added that while encampment sweeps reduce the spread of disease and reduce pollution, they can also displace people without offering viable alternatives and destroy personal belongings and important documents - increasing barriers to long-term stability for unhoused people.

She said she believes the surge of anti-camping laws popping up across the nation is a knee-jerk reaction to a complex and long-simmering problem.

"Homelessness across the nation has been growing year over year since about 2016," said Petis, "so we know that just by kind of slapping a band aid on isn't going to stop this growing issue."

According to a 2019 report from the National Homelessness Law Center, 72% of the 187 cities surveyed had at least one law enforcing public camping bans, a 92% increase from 2006.




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New federal data show aggravated assaults are up in Kentucky by 7.2%, but other types of violent crime have gone down.

Overall, violent crime in Kentucky remains much lower compared to the nation as a whole, said Ashley Spalding, research director at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

"When you compare 2023 to that 2021 peak for violent crime," she said, "we see it's come down significantly since then."

A 2022 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey found younger people and people with lower incomes are far more likely to report being the victim of a violent crime than are higher-income people.

Spalding said laws such as House Bill 5, which lawmakers passed earlier this year, will drive up the number of people in the state's prisons and jails without addressing the root cause of crime.

"High rates of incarceration in communities are associated with higher rates of overdose deaths," she said. "The more that states make harsher criminal penalties for opioids like fentanyl, can put communities more at risk."

She said the policies in the bill are expected to cost the state an estimated $1 billion over the next decade. That money, she contended, could go toward health care, shelters and other resources that help communities.

"It would be the wrong direction for Kentucky to pass more harmful, harsh, regressive criminal legal system policies in 2025," she said.

According to the Pew Research Center, at least 60% of U.S. adults have said they believe there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite an ongoing downward trend in crime rates.