EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in print under the title, "Arrested Development: The Case for Eliminating the Violence Against Women Act's Financial Support for Pro-Arrest Domestic Violence Laws" in the The Criminal Law Practitioner Volume XI, Issue III. I. INTRODUCTION In 1990, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee—chaired by then-Senator Joe Biden—hosted public hearings on violence against women.[1] Seeking to raise public awareness and foster b

“[H]orse trading determines who goes to jail and for how long. That is what plea bargaining is. It is not some adjunct to the criminal justice system; it is the criminal justice system.” Plea bargains are the backbone of the criminal justice system today, but they can make it easier for innocent people to plead guilty rather than fight the charge. When bail can be too expensive and awaiting trial can make it impossible to manage child care and keep a job, pleading guilty can

The criminalization of mental illness has become increasingly common in the United States. A disproportionate number of mentally-ill people are incarcerated; 37% of people in prisons have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Forty-four states hold more mentally-ill individuals in a jail or prison than they do in each state’s largest psychiatric hospital. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, in every U.S. county that has both a county jail and a county psychiatric faci

In early 2019, Front Royal and surrounding Warren County, Virginia were rocked by allegations that the executive director of the Warren County Economic Development Agency (“EDA”), Jennifer McDonald, embezzled $21.3 million from the agency. The case is still unresolved and illustrates how the loss of faith in government institutions due to public corruption is more harmful than the amount of money lost. The disillusionment by local citizens with the lack of resolution in thi

On March 24, 2021, Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., ended a 400-year run of the death penalty in Virginia, making it the first southern state to abolish the death penalty. Northam notably stated “there is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South, or in this nation” as he signed the proposed legislation into law. Meanwhile, by mid-March in South Carolina, the state legislature was already in the throes of extensive legislative debates on “S. 200,” a

Allison Heldreth is a Maryland public defender and alumna of American University Washington College of Law. She received her J.D. in 2013 an

If you are a criminal law practitioner and you would like to be featured in a practitioner profile, please contact the editor-in-chief at cl