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A woman incarcerated in Georgia since 1992 says she has endured significant abuse, including forcefully having her head shaved, abrupt stops to her hormone therapy, and sexual assault. She has repeatedly attempted suicide and has been in solitary since 2019.
The Appeal spoke with Robert Saleem Holbrook about the long-standing solidarity among liberation movements for Black Americans and Palestine.
A new report by the Abolitionist Law Center says that, while pitched as a more humane alternative to criminal court, Allegheny County’s Mental Health Court instead humiliates people with mental illness and feeds them back into jail.
The state’s youth incarceration agency entered into a two-year contract with the Jackson Parish Jail to lock up children—some of whom have been incarcerated at Angola, the state’s most notorious prison.
Georgia prosecutors have launched a first-of-its-kind racketeering case against 61 people, ranging from visitors arrested at a music festival to bail fund organizers. The mass-arraignment on November 6 showed just how much of an insane, unconscionable mess the case really is.
Alisa Reznick’s arrest marks the second time police within the United States have detained a reporter at a pro-Palestine protest in recent months.
Advocates say the Cook County Sheriff’s Department’s house-arrest policies trap women in unsafe situations—and often force mothers to choose between their safety or their children.
Georgia police killed Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán on Jan. 18 as Terán was protesting against Cop City, the massive police training facility under construction in Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta. But, now that prosecutors have mass-charged activists in an unprecedented use of racketeering statutes, those close to the case say the state has sunk to new lows by entering Terán’s personal diary into public evidence against defendants.
A study found that in states requiring permits to purchase firearms, fatal and nonfatal police shootings were 28 percent lower.
Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne have spent decades behind bars even after a jury acquitted them of murder. Now, the Virginia Supreme Court is set to decide their fate.
States can now use federal funds to ensure that people leaving prison have access to healthcare. But states first need to apply to join the program.
“There was never a plan to peacefully disperse us,” one protest attendee told The Appeal. “The only plan was to escalate and to treat us with brutal violence.”
Fifteen members of the Los Angeles Police Department showed up to detain two Black men having an argument. The violent incident is the latest escalation against the community of unhoused people on Aetna Street in Van Nuys.
In this excerpt formerly incarcerated writer James Kilgore denounces the growing use of e-carceration technologies like ankle monitors.
The city of Milwaukee lacks a plan to replace JusticePoint’s incarceration alternatives services if it succeeds in canceling its contract.
We cannot punish our way out of gun violence. Instead, we must invest in dismantling the structures that allow this violence to thrive.
Securus Technologies says a “technical glitch” last week caused the deletion of Washington prisoners’ writings. They offered compensation of two e-stamps—a value of less than $1.
In response to systemic abuse, neglect, and secrecy inside New York prisons, state legislators Julia Salazar and Danny O’Donnell have introduced a bill to establish a state Office of the Correctional Ombudsman to investigate and report on correctional facilities.
One boy detained at Louisiana’s Jackson Parish Correctional Center said children were maced and then forced to sit outside for hours.
More than 70 million people in the U.S. have criminal convictions on their records. An expert talks with The Appeal about how they can break barriers.
Police are failing to promptly process expungements and continuing to disclose records that should be sealed, according to a lawsuit filed by the state public defender’s office.
Gavin Newsom’s “California Model” of prison reform isn’t the step away from mass incarceration that it purports to be.
Last year, 57-year-old Anthony Talotta allegedly contracted sepsis and died after a stint in the Allegheny County Jail. His family is now suing—and says his death is part of a systemic culture of medical neglect at the facility.
Lies, damned lies, and crime statistics.
Phoenix Police Department Officer Kristopher Bertz shot and killed 19-year-old Jacob Harris in 2019. Now, community members are rallying as Harris’s father Roland appeals a wrongful death lawsuit.
Police raided Ryan Cortez’s home after he participated in a protest against police harassment. On Oct. 6, a jury acquitted Cortez, but concerns over free speech remain.
An internal review by the Champaign Police Department found a “systematic” pattern of noncompliance with state law.
In multiple cases, documents obtained by The Appeal show the state told ineligible voters they could cast ballots.
In a decision last month that could impact other cases, an appellate court ruled that “the very basis of the theory has never been proven.”
In American Purgatory, Benjamin Weber links the rise of American prisons to the expansion of American power around the globe.
Within months of entering the Security Threat Group Management Unit at SCI Fayette, one man says he smeared, “Kill me, I’m ready to go,” on the cell in his own blood.
By signing the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act into law, Governor Kathy Hochul can set a model of good policy for other progressive states seeking to serve as a bulwark against the conservative Supreme Court.
Placement in a halfway house can significantly improve someone’s chances of reintegrating into society after prison. But numerous people imprisoned in Georgia told The Appeal that they were denied access to the state’s transitional housing programs because of their medical conditions.
A judge sentenced 17-year-old Celeste Burgess to 90 days in jail after she ended her pregnancy at 29 weeks. Further criminalization of abortion and dwindling reproductive healthcare options will only make cases like these more common, experts say.
Legal experts who spoke with The Appeal warned the criminal justice system will continue to target pregnant people in the coming years.
California prison canteens currently sell essential items—such as snacks and medication—at a markup of between 65 and 200 percent.
State officials have appealed a federal judge’s removal order and are continuing their fight to lock up children on the grounds of the maximum security prison.
A horrific death and the high-profile booking of former President Donald Trump propelled Georgia’s Fulton County Jail into the national spotlight. But heightened scrutiny has done nothing to improve conditions.
Jacob Harris’s father is heading to appeals court on Wednesday. Federal judges will decide the fate of his wrongful death suit against the city of Phoenix.
The state argues there would be a “near certainty” of “serious bodily injury” to children, staff, and the public if kids are transferred out of the prison.