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Latest Fact-Checks In Criminal Justice

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Barack Obama
stated on June 20, 2015 a tweet:

"Here are the stats: Per population, we kill each other with guns at a rate 297x more than Japan, 49x more than France, 33x more than Israel."

Mostly True

By Louis Jacobson • June 22, 2015

Barack Obama
stated on June 18, 2015 remarks at the White House:

"This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."

Mostly False

By Keely Herring, Louis Jacobson • June 22, 2015

Michael Skolnik
stated on June 16, 2015 comments on CNN:

"For most black people in the history of this country … it was illegal to pass as a white person. You were actually put in jail if you tried to pass."

Half-True

By Anna Bruzgulis • June 18, 2015

Bernie Sanders
stated on June 11, 2015 an interview on PBS:

"A black male baby born today, if we do not change the system, stands a one-in-three chance (of) ending up in jail."

Mostly True

By Louis Jacobson • June 15, 2015

John Oliver
stated on June 7, 2015 a segment about bail on "Last Week Tonight":

Says "Florida is a model" for successful pretrial release programs.

Half-True

By Katie Sanders • June 12, 2015

Kathleen Sullivan
stated on April 29, 2015 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee:

"The proportion of Rhode Islanders entering substance abuse treatment primarily due to marijuana use has reached its highest point in 20 years."

False

By Mark Reynolds • May 17, 2015

Thomas Perez
stated on May 7, 2015 an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe":

Due to "over-incarceration … in 1950, two out of three young black men were in the workforce. Today, it's one out of three black men are in the workforce."

Half-True

By Louis Jacobson • May 15, 2015

Garnet Coleman
stated on May 6, 2015 a committee hearing:

"Transgender individuals in the U.S. have a 1-in-12 chance of being murdered."

Pants on Fire!

By W. Gardner Selby • May 13, 2015

Ben Carson
stated on April 22, 2015 a speech:

"There are more young black males involved in the criminal justice system than there are in higher education."

False

By Tom Kertscher • May 5, 2015

Represent.us
stated on April 30, 2015 a meme on social media:

"The U.S. representatives that voted to keep militarizing the police received 73 percent more campaign money from the defense industry" than the representatives who voted to stop it.

Mostly True

By Louis Jacobson • April 30, 2015

David A. Clarke Jr.
stated on April 26, 2015 an interview:

The man who killed a motorist who fatally struck a 2-year-old was "back on the street" because he had received a 13-year sentence for bank robbery but only "served two years."

Mostly False

By Tom Kertscher • April 30, 2015

Barack Obama
stated on April 17, 2015 a press conference:

Says Loretta Lynch’s nomination "has been now sitting there longer than the previous seven attorney general nominees combined."

Mostly True

By Louis Jacobson • April 20, 2015

Edward Flynn
stated on April 14, 2015 a news conference:

In Wisconsin, a "second arrest for carrying pot is a felony," but a second or subsequent arrest "for carrying a gun illegally is a misdemeanor."

Mostly True

By Tom Kertscher • April 15, 2015

Young, Gifted and Black Coalition
stated on January 9, 2015 an open letter:

"Black people are eight times more likely to be arrested than white people" in Madison.

Half-True

By Tom Kertscher • March 9, 2015

Ben Carson
stated on March 4, 2015 an interview on CNN:

"A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay."

False

By Lauren Carroll • March 4, 2015

Greg Abbott
stated on February 22, 2015 an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation":

"Already this calendar year, since January 1, we have had more than 20,000 people come across the border, apprehended, unauthorized."

True

By W. Gardner Selby • March 3, 2015

John Legend
stated on February 22, 2015 a speech at the Oscars:

"We live in the most incarcerated country in the world."

Mostly True

By Katie Sanders • February 23, 2015

Eric Holder
stated on February 17, 2015 remarks at the National Press Club:

Last year, "we saw the first reduction in the federal prison population in 32 years."

True

By Lauren Carroll • February 23, 2015

Barack Obama
stated on February 8, 2015 a public-service video during the Grammys:

"Nearly one in five women in America has been a victim of rape or attempted rape."

Mostly True

By Louis Jacobson • February 16, 2015

Rick Perry
stated on January 15, 2015 valedictory speech as governor to the Texas Legislature:

Texas has "the lowest crime rate in this state since 1968" because of changes in law regarding nonviolent drug offenders.

Half-True

By W. Gardner Selby • February 3, 2015

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