Derek Cohen, Ph.D., is Vice President of Policy and Right on Crime Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Dr. Cohen was instrumental in the passage of the First Step Act, federal legislation that borrowed from successful changes to prisons and sentencing that he had helped pass in conservative states. In previous legislative sessions, Dr. Cohen has successfully worked on issues of occupational licensure, truancy reform, and orders of nondisclosure. In addition to leading the Foundation’s work on criminal justice, he is also the lead researcher of firearms policy.
On May 24, as a murderous gunman wrought terror and death through two adjoining classrooms full of children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, 19 municipal police officers stood in the hallway outside, waiting. A total of 47 more minutes would elapse before the officers, led by the officers from the Border Patrol Tactical Unit...
A CBSDFW.com tweet went viral on Tuesday, but for precisely the wrong reason. Instead of getting the dog lovers to heart the photo of K9 Officer Ballentine at Dallas Love Field Airport, twitizens instead focused on the mounds of cash surrounding the pooch. It had been seized from a woman who is not even charged...
It can be tough to pin down the shapeless blob of current leftwing activism. In a world where the ACLU has thrown in on gun control, the abortion lobby has sounded off on immigration, and environmental activists are apoplectic about redistricting, there is no coherent through-line that does not include arch-progressive fantasy. It’s shocking when...
It’s one thing to hear the gun-grabbing rhetoric coming out of Washington. But Texas? We knew that President Biden’s administration would be far less Second Amendment-friendly than the previous administration. At one point, Biden even promised to put Beto “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15” O’Rourke in charge of his administration’s gun policies....
It comes as no surprise former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are campaigning on promises “to end our gun-violence epidemic.” The leftward drift of the Democratic Party on most policy questions, including lawful firearm ownership, has been made explicit in its 2020 party platform. The presidential nominee’s campaign “issues page” takes it several...
Our desperate lack of civic literacy and understanding of the principles of our U.S. Constitution is never greater than when the Second Amendment is involved. That brings us to the current U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Liberals, if taken at their word in desiring a more just and equitable body of law, should embrace Judge Amy Coney...
Texans are incredibly resilient in the face of a crisis. We can beat COVID-19, and we can recover from the blow the virus has dealt to our economy. Government can help with thoughtful, carefully considered policies — which mostly involve getting out of the way. California has shown us how not to do it. It...
With high-profile gun violence incidents such as those in Odessa, El Paso, Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs fresh in the minds of Texans, the call for policymakers to “do something” has steadily grown louder. From the expansion of background checks to the regulation of magazines or outright confiscation, everyone seems to have an idea of...
When President Trump signed the First Step Act into law in December 2018, he was flanked by conservative senators and law enforcement officials. They were on hand to see him enact a carefully cultivated collection of criminal justice reforms, emulating on the federal level smart policy changes already successfully passed in red states such as...
You shouldn’t have to get government’s permission to pursue your dreams. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently noted in his State of the State speech that people move to Texas because they’re “fed up with big government policies increasingly running their lives and imposing burdensome regulations.” Texas’ entrepreneur-friendly economic environment supports almost limitless opportunities to flourish. But...
Today, the U.S. House just fully enrolled the First Step Act, which is now en route to the Resolute Desk as we speak. Congratulations are in order. First and foremost, Texas’s own John Cornyn deserves recognition for his dogged work on this issue, extending all the way back to 2013. Senator Cruz also cosponsored the...
Right on Crime Director Derek Cohen walked through the history of Texas’ criminal justice overhaul with Judy Maggio of KLRU. The Lone Star State has been called the birthplace of criminal justice reform, but it wasn’t too long ago that it was known for its “lock em’ up” approach. In 2015, Texas “got to the point...