What you’ll read today Spotlight: Police exploit coronavirus fears to make easy arrests High cost of prison diversion programs leave ‘too many people’ imprisoned in Alabama Florida’s HIV criminalization laws target sex workers. A reform bill offers little relief. San Francisco DA plans sweeping changes in sentencing and police stops Political Report: Progressives see Super Tuesday as a chance to transform Los Angeles Pennsylvania county fires […]

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. As the country braces itself for the “all but certain” global pandemic of the coronavirus, some people are stocking up on food and surgical masks, many are […]

The Appeal and Oregon Justice Resource Center announce “Left Behind,” firsthand accounts of growing-up in prison from individuals sentenced as children.

The city is ramping up a cleanup program that activists fear will worsen the criminalization of homelessness.

In Travis County, thousands of people continue to be prosecuted for low-level drug possession charges that reform-minded district attorneys elsewhere have committed to dropping.

Prison-based gerrymandering takes political power away from Black and Latinx communities—power that could be used to push for more funding for schools, social services, infrastructure, and other important reforms.

A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative and VOCAL-NY analyzes residence data for incarcerated people and uses it to look at how incarceration relates to community well-being

As a candidate, Chesa Boudin condemned gang enhancements as racist. Now as DA he plans to significantly limit, if not eliminate, their use.

A survey of roughly 1,000 people found that 1 in 5 had been turned down for a diversion program because they couldn’t afford the costs of drug tests and monitoring devices.

67% of people arrested under state laws that criminalize HIV exposure and transmission are sex workers. But new legislation meant to modernize these laws would retain harsh penalties against them.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: In Texas, prosecution gets privatized In a Florida courtroom, people charged with probation violations face humiliation from judge Justice in America: police accountability Commentary: Missouri attorney general’s lack of courage in Lamar Johnson case is a miscarriage of justice Commentary: My friend spent many of his formative years in prison. He didn’t have to die there Federal judge […]

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. Yesterday, criminal justice advocates protested the Harris County district attorney’s office for using pro bono law firm attorneys to help prosecute misdemeanor cases in the Justice of […]

Deputies in Orange County wrote false reports about their collection and booking of evidence, according to internal audits kept secret for months.

Critics say there may be systemic problems with how the unit is run within the Los Angeles County DA’s office.

With special guest host Leo Beletsky, a professor of Law and Health Sciences at Northeastern University, and criminal justice reform advocate Morgan Godvin.

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. Yesterday in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, hundreds gathered to call on state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to “show mercy” and increase his support for clemency. The state’s clemency process allows even a […]

Advocates, formerly incarcerated people, and lawmakers warned against overhauling the New York law before it has a chance to prove itself.

Probation officers in the state’s 13th Judicial Circuit file thousands of violations, and they’re heard by a judge known for his harsh, punitive style.

Josie Duffy and co-host Darnell Moore discuss police accountability and explain why it’s so hard for the criminal justice system to hold police accountable.

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. This week, Rolling Stone published a harrowing portrait of how one state’s enlightened approach to mental health and criminal behavior came to be threatened by one case that went […]

Eric Schmitt should follow the lead of a Pennsylvania prosecutor who acknowledged that a man deserved a new trial, even when it meant reversing a murder conviction.

Josh Norman was one of the 17 people to die in Mississippi prisons so far this year. His death raises important questions about the state’s failures.

A new survey shows support across political lines for second-look legislation and sentence review by prosecutors

The Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act allows judges to consider shorter sentences, as well as non-prison sentences, if abuse factored significantly in the crime.

At least one error led to a wrongful arrest, according to a Freedom of Information Law request, underscoring the need for better oversight of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, advocates say.

Nathaniel Woods, who was convicted in connection with the deaths of three Birmingham police officers in 2004, is ‘100 percent innocent,’ the man who shot the officers told The Appeal.

The Democratic candidate also pledged to expunge prior criminal convictions for marijuana and invest in the communities most affected by the war on drugs.

The former mayor issued a city resolution honoring officers for their ‘bravery’ in a shooting that paralyzed Tarance Etheredge, who will receive a payout from a civil rights lawsuit.

The authors reported that 29.4 percent of the possession cases involved Black individuals in a county where Black people make up only 8.9 percent of the population.

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. This month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to curb public lewdness, groping, and other unwanted touching on New York City’s public transit: a three-year […]

Advocates say the narrowing field of Democratic candidates did not seize an opportunity to lay out clear visions on criminal justice reform to contrast the former New York City mayor’s record on policing.

Last week, a former clerk of Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt told a congressional committee that the judge sexually harassed her, a reminder of how little law schools and the federal court system do to protect law students.

Prisoners avoid admitting they are sick because they don’t want to be put in solitary, so nurses go cell to cell to take their temperatures.

A culture of violence and resistance to reform in the corrections department set the stage for a recent lockdown

As a Black child in San Francisco, I learned early that mine and others’ bodies meant nothing to those supposedly tasked with our protection.

The court found that a law that critics described as a poll tax violates the Constitution.

Zak Cheney Rice joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting February 26.

Donovan X. Ramsey joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting February 26.

Derecka Purnell joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting February 26.

Darnell L. Moore joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting Feb. 26.