The rise of the private police force. If you think traditional police forces are not held sufficiently accountable when it comes to shootings, just consider the shadowy procedures in play when private police agents kill or wound civilians. The problem is particularly significant in a city like Washington, D.C., where 120 private companies employ 4,523 officers who are armed and empowered to make arrests and, evidently, take lives. Just ask the family of Alonzo Smith, shot and killed by private police, and still searching for answers about what happened. ThinkProgress

The new power, and new agenda, of the victims of crime. The law-and-order movement of the 1990s fueled a victims’ rights movement that pressed for harsher sentences and more input into criminal cases. A newer form of this movement emphasizes the damage those harsh sentences have caused to victims of crime and the communities from where they come. Here’s a lengthy interview with Lenore Anderson, a punk drummer turned prosecutor turned reform advocate. Huffington Post

What would Jesus say? An Indiana mother charged with felony child abuse — her 7-year-old son was beaten with a coat hanger and had 36 bruises on him — is defending herself by citing the state’s religious freedom law. She says she should be spared from prosecution because the Bible supports her mode of discipline and that her beliefs are protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She also says that state law allows parents to use corporal punishment on their children. Indianapolis Star

Why aren’t police departments recruiting more women officers? Even as police forces across the country press for more “diversification,” and even though experts believe that increasing the number of female cops would reduce instances of brutality, the percentage of women in police forces is the same as it was two decades ago. Some officials say progress is being made. Others aren’t so sure. “There’s no energy about doing anything to recruit women or show any effort to do your best to recruit women,” says Deborah Friedl, vice president of the International Association of Women Police officers. The Atlantic

Why he killed. Jacob Gonzalez murdered his young girlfriend in 2011, the last act of domestic violence in a relationship that likely was doomed from the start. What the victim’s family was unprepared for were the killer’s expressions of love and loss for the women he had just killed. This dichotomy is not unusual, authorities say, nor are the backgrounds of abuse that animate the lives of the men who kill this way. Here is the result of a one-year investigation. Corpus Christi Caller-Times

The governor of Illinois rejects call to deploy the National Guard to help quell violence on the streets of Chicago. Chicago Tribune Related: New police accountability plan a “recipe for failure,” says expert. Chicago Sun-Times More: City’s shooting deaths already top 2015 figure. Wall Street Journal

As Brock Turner nears his freedom, California lawmakers scramble to close a loophole in the state’s sexual assault law and to increase its penalties. It is unclear whether Gov. Jerry Brown will sign it. The New York Times

An Ohio sheriff is stripped of his badge and gun after he is accused of pilfering pills, and it’s not the first scandal to hit his department. The Daily Beast

In Massachusetts, as in many other states, just because you are exonerated doesn’t mean you are “innocent” and can be compensated. MassLive Related: Nevertheless, the commonwealth has paid $8.34 million to wrongfully convicted since 2004. MassLive

A Florida judge is blasted by the state supreme court for belittling a domestic violence victim who failed to show up to face her attacker. Orlando Sentinel

Another blow to scientific research. DEA warriors are going to place in the most restrictive category, Schedule 1, the drug “kratom,” said to “provide a short-lived peaceful and calm feeling that is described as pleasant.” Forbes

We need to get them out. The nation’s jails are the worst place for our mentally ill. They were never meant to be asylums and guards were never meant to be doctors. By Dave Mahoney, of the National Sheriffs’ Association. The Hill

Ghost justice. The DEA won’t identify the masked agents who violently raided two innocent women nine years ago. And the federal courts are letting the agency get away with it. The Washington Post

Give and take. Can North Carolina now pretend it never enacted the Racial Justice Act, designed to allow death row inmates to show their convictions and sentences were infused with racial bias? NC Policy Watch

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. How inner city St. Louis residents are being fleeced by rural sheriffs thanks to a legislative fund. St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Profile of the Day: Meet Sandra Spagnoli, the first female police chief of Beverly Hills, California. Vogue

Scholarship of the Day: The private employment of police officers raises troubling questions of conflicts and ethics. University of South Carolina School of Law Related: Why don’t police departments change even when they say they want to? Harvard Business Review

Commerce of the Day: Legalized marijuana seems to be headed to California, where it’s already created strange bedfellows and huge business opportunities. Politico

Video of the Day: The family and friends of Philando Castile celebrated his birthday just weeks after his death at the hands of a police officer was live-streamed. The Atlantic

Preview of the Day: The start of the Supreme Court term, only five weeks away now, is filled with criminal law cases. UC Hastings College of Law