Kyle C. Barry

Real public safety policies should promote overall health and account for the extraordinary harm that policing and incarceration inflict.

Reporters who parrot corporate claims of out-of-control theft play into a narrative that benefits big business and perpetuates carceral policies.

Progressives are warning that the governor’s appointment of the Nassau County district attorney would intensify the court’s pro-prosecution bent.

A new statewide poll shows that Marylanders support removing the governor from the parole process.

The Fifth Circuit’s decision against James Garfield Broadnax, a Black man on death row in Texas, is the latest example of the deference judges grant prosecutors to craft white juries.

While Governor Gavin Newsom prepares to name California’s next attorney general, a new statewide poll shows overwhelming, bipartisan support for an attorney general who is independent from the police and prioritizes police accountability. 

Introduction Late one night in September 1980, New York City police officers chased Benjamin Quarles to the back of a grocery store. There, officers detained Quarles and frisked him, finding an empty shoulder holster. After securing Quarles with handcuffs, one officer asked him where the gun was. Quarles nodded toward some empty cartons and replied, […]

The race for chief justice, between a former public defender and a former prosecutor, will shape the court’s willingness to advance racial justice.

Executive Summary A Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows a bipartisan majority of Maricopa County voters—including 71% of Democrats and 51% Republicans—are more likely to vote for a county attorney who pledges to not prosecute women for seeking an abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.  These results make clear that Maricopa County […]

The state has not had a justice with experience as a public defender since the mid-1980s.

California just made it harder for prosecutors to exclude Black people from jury trials, amid broader reforms against racial discrimination in courtrooms.

Executive Summary New polling reveals bipartisan support for policies that will build a fairer economy for all workers and level the playing field for service workers who depend heavily on tips and the wider workforce. These results show that New Yorkers support changing the status quo and do not want the economy to simply return […]

Executive Summary The brutal economic fallout of coronavirus has not been felt equally. As is always true in times of economic crisis, it is the lowest-paid, least-protected workers who suffer most. As is especially true now, when the economic downturn is the result of orders to stay at home and close certain businesses, it is […]

What newly-appointed G. Helen Whitener does next will shape whether Washington State moves in a more progressive direction.

Executive Summary In recent weeks, the humanitarian disaster that doctors and public health experts predicted has turned into reality: COVID-19 has reached prisons and jails in California and across the country, sparking outbreaks that threaten the lives of incarcerated people, staff, and surrounding communities. California’s elected prosecutors — the district attorney in each county — […]

Jill Karofsky ousted a conservative Supreme Court Justice in an election marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, poll closures, and missing absentee ballots.

Executive Summary We asked California voters if they support releasing people from California jails and prisons in response to the coronavirus threat, and found broad bipartisan support: 58 percent of Californians, including a majority of Republicans, support releasing anyone charged with an offense that does not involve a serious physical safety risk to the community. […]

But one candidate wants voters to forget the beliefs and career record driving his jurisprudence, with criminal justice at issue.

Delaying trials will mean more people stay in jail while a life-threatening disease spreads throughout the state.

In several states, supreme courts issued direct orders to reduce arrests and release people over the past week.

A new report shows broad bipartisan support for care in response to crisis

Executive Summary We find popular support among likely voters for a package of proposals that will mitigate the effects of coronavirus, including free access to testing and vaccines, access to comprehensive care without premiums, copays, deductibles, or other costs, and paid sick and family leave. Overall, voters overwhelmingly support these policies. Free access to testing, […]

“In some cases we need the Illinois Supreme Court to use its policy making powers to make criminal justice reform real,” said Daniel Epstein, a candidate in Tuesday’s election.

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. For all of the nearly 150 years that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the Constitution prohibits excluding people from juries because of race, prosecutors have […]

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 […]

Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, used jailhouse informants and an unreliable gang expert, and ignored evidence of innocence to send a Black teenager to prison for life.

Three Supreme Court justices and others said competent counsel could have saved his life.

In California, a prison program run by people once sentenced to life shows how even the most serious offenders are more than the worst things they’ve done.

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. In 1997, four Navy sailors in Norfolk, Virginia were arrested for the rape and murder of a young woman. The men were trained to endure stressful situations, […]

A narrow ruling on Brady lists ensures that protecting the police will continue to prevail over due process.

Police and prosecutors framed a father of four in a 2007 murder case with local and national political implications.

California’s expansive registry law forces people to pay for crimes they didn’t personally commit.

Former prosecutor and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro inspires Trump’s rhetoric of dehumanization and incarceration.

Advocates say Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern is an odd fit for the Bay Area, but mounting a challenge has proved daunting.

Legislation in California would provide a direct route to resentencing, and a new tool for activists.

Trump’s pick to replace Justice Kennedy would most likely undermine the rights of criminal defendants and stall progress on solitary confinement, prisoners’ rights, and the death penalty.

On May 23, 2013, Khari Illidge, a 25-year-old Black man in Lee County, Alabama, was face down and hogtied, with a 385-pound police officer kneeling on his back, when he suddenly went limp and a mixture of white froth and blood seeped from his mouth. Sheriff’s deputies had confronted Illidge while he was running in […]