Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

For millions of families, this time of year is yet another reminder of all that is missed when a loved one is incarcerated

Deaths at the Fulton County Jail have quadrupled compared to last year. Despite this, county commissioners are threatening to cut funding to one of the Atlanta area’s main pre-arrest diversion initiatives.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a directive this week that puts police at the center of renewed efforts to remove people exhibiting signs of mental illness from public spaces.

The facility’s medical provider described people with mental illness wasting away in a unit overrun by an outbreak of lice and scabies.

Police gave Alex Mingus an award for saving a shooting victim’s life. Mingus showed up wearing a shirt that said “Smash white supremacy”.

Midterm election results show the bad-faith “crime wave” narrative failed to con a critical mass of voters, who instead want a less draconian police state.

Women told The Appeal they found the routine practice degrading and dehumanizing. Prisons around the country have long humiliated people for menstruating.

Olayemi Olurin spoke with The Appeal about abolition, living in a police state, Rikers Island, and the media.

The medical examiner who helped put Tasha Shelby in prison has since said her son’s death was not a homicide.

After a six-year investigation, the DOJ says Orange County law-enforcement unconstitutionally used jailhouse informants to elicit confessions and incriminating evidence from people for years.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat says the county needs more jail beds to fix the jail’s crisis. But a new ACLU report says that significant numbers of people in the jail can be released.

An upcoming court ruling could decide the fate of a plan to detain “problematic youth” at a facility that previously housed prisoners awaiting execution.

County officials agree that conditions have deteriorated at L.A.’s Inmate Reception Center. But they’re resisting calls for substantive change.

The ban had helped the Broome County Sheriff rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from detainee video and phone call fees.

Politicians are demanding greater oversight over the Virginia Department of Corrections, after women at one state prison said they’re served spoiled food.

A federal monitor says substandard healthcare persists—with horrific consequences—more than a decade after a lawsuit was supposed to compel changes.

Fluvanna Correctional Center patients say they’ve been threatened with disciplinary action for asking about symptoms at medical appointments.

Water at 12 state prisons has tested positive for the bacteria this year.

The horrific experiences of women at a Virginia prison fit a broader pattern of neglect across the country.

Police and prosecutors will now be tasked with enforcing state anti-abortion laws.

Model state legislation proposed by a leading anti-choice group would impose felony charges for a broad new set of activities related to abortion.

More than two years into the pandemic, the Broome County Sheriff’s Office is still prohibiting all jail visits. The policy helped them take in more than a half-million dollars in 2021.

Expert says trauma from childbirth, not shaking, led to the death of Danyel Smith’s two-month-old child.

Accused of faking his symptoms, Joshua Lee Smith was dragged from his hospital bed, called a “junkie,” and thrown in jail, his lawsuit says. Then, he woke up paralyzed.

A Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion could force thousands of incarcerated people to carry pregnancies to term.

In January, a New Jersey judge said Shaken Baby Syndrome is “akin to junk science.”

Legionella bacteria was found in five Illinois prisons in March.

Corrections officials confirmed finding legionella at five facilities over the past 12 months.

Spurred by an Appeal investigation into Michelle Heale’s controversial 2015 case, a law professor is asking New Jersey’s Conviction Review Unit to “correct an injustice” and set Heale free.

But if he loses his appeal and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declines to grant him clemency, he will likely be sent back to prison.

It’s been quite a year for us, to say the least. In May, we unionized. Then our former bosses shut The Appeal down. But we, the workers, resolved to save The Appeal and continue the important work we do covering the criminal legal system.  Since then, we succeeded in becoming a worker-led nonprofit newsroom. We […]

Thank you for all of your support. Your contributions have enabled us to turn The Appeal into a worker-led newsroom dedicated to exposing the harms of the criminal legal system — and to begin publishing again! Check out some of our recent pieces: We uncovered a robbery task force at DC’s Metropolitan Police Department that […]

Reginald Randolph is currently serving a two to four year sentence in state prison for stealing cold medicine

Blind in one eye and at risk of losing vision in the other, 58-year-old Reginald Randolph is now on the verge of being sent to state prison to serve out a maximum of four years in state prison.

Inside New Jersey’s Bayside State Prison, corrections officer John Makos allegedly tortured incarcerated kitchen workers. In one incident, he approximated a “crucifixion” by handcuffing his victim’s outstretched arms to fences and doors, then beat him, according to a criminal complaint issued by the Department of Justice last month.

Sheriffs who run county jails bear responsibility for placing people in torturous isolation.

A man is serving two life sentences for a crime that, according to his legal team, never occurred.

At the same time, state lawmakers are pushing to incarcerate more people pretrial.

The proposal by Mike Elliott, if passed by City Council, would also create a department of unarmed professionals trained to respond to mental health needs.

The candidates—who didn’t support an affordable housing investment that was rejected by voters today—now advance to the November ballot.