Sarah Lustbader

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. When Jeffrey Epstein died in a federal jail, the attorney general was, as he tells it, “appalled” and “frankly angry to learn of the MCC’s failure to adequately […]

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. No aspect of the Trump presidency has prompted the level of outrage, ire, frustration, devastation, and desperation as his treatment of people who did not happen to […]

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. Last week, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan reported that a 57-year-old man has become the first person freed under a new law that lets prosecutors review […]

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 2011, Anders Breivik killed 77 people, many of them teenagers attending a Labor Party meeting. He said the murders were justified because his victims embraced multiculturalism, […]

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. Americans might be forgiven for overlooking immigration news of late. Some have been busy trying to ease their disappointment over the Mueller hearings, and many, apparently, have […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: The First Step Act freed people. Now prosecutors are trying to lock some of them up again. When cops lie, should prosecutors rely on their testimony at trial?  A night in jail over $2.75 Should public defenders be the ones to investigate police misconduct? ‘Feel good copaganda’ in Tempe sparks […]

Prosecutors are pushing back against First Step Act reforms.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: The federal government offered four arguments for reinstating the death penalty. They all fail.  Pennsylvania Democrats had a chance to reject law limiting Philly DA’s authority  Florida sheriffs arrest hundreds in ‘trafficking’ stings Secret documents show that Amazon’s Ring is ‘using local police as a de facto advertising firm’ Virginians […]

The death penalty in the U.S. is dying, and yet Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal government would begin executing people for the first time since 2003.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Risk assessment tools are flawed—should we throw them away?  In Alabama, decades-delayed injustice in a double homicide—or a brand new injustice?  AG Barr says federal government will start executing people Federal court ruling could overturn hundreds of immigrant convictions Meek Mill gets a new trial In the Spotlight Risk assessment […]

This month, two research scientists and an attorney published an op-ed about risk assessment tools, which are presented as ways to reduce personal bias in the criminal legal system.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: The allocution will not be televised Decarceration activist Janos Marton launches run for Manhattan DA Media Frame: Stop quoting Bill Bratton Prosecutors are trying to lock up people recently freed by the First Step Act Mark Kleiman, towering figure in drug policy, dies Bail reform in North Carolina results in no […]

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. Last week, court watchers from the Philadelphia Bail Fund and a journalist filed a federal lawsuit to challenge a ban on audio recording during bail hearings, arguing that […]

Special Edition Stevens’s views evolved over time. Scalia called it ‘arrogance,’ but it was the opposite. Just about every year while they were on the bench, the Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia would take each other on. “These contests reflect the temperaments of the two men—Stevens’s cautious balancings against Scalia’s caustic certainties,” wrote […]

Just about every year while they were on the bench, the Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia would take each other on. “These contests reflect the temperaments of the two men—Stevens’s cautious balancings against Scalia’s caustic certainties,” wrote Jeffrey Toobin for the New Yorker in 2010. Two years prior, in Baze v. Rees, the justices […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Blue Bell listeria outbreak killed three people, but only the teenage prankster accused of licking a carton will face charges Philadelphia DA asks court to declare death penalty system unconstitutional The struggle to be trans in Minnesota’s sex offender program No charges for killing Eric Garner WNYC uncovers direct link […]

Blue Bell listeria outbreak killed three people, but only the teenage prankster accused of licking a carton will face charges.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Biden’s tough-on-crime past: Were all Dems really like that?  ‘A town without pity’: Lawsuits allege police cover-up of sex abuse by officers in Maine New York’s highest court takes a big step backward The secret Facebook group where border patrol agents joke about children dying Groups sue to block Florida […]

Editor’s Note: The Daily Appeal is occasionally examining the 2020 presidential contenders’ records, platforms, and rhetoric on issues relating to criminal justice. You can find past installments here. The most memorable moment of the Democratic primary debates last week came when Senator Kamala Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden about his record on racial […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: What if Justice Roberts gave criminal defendants do-overs like he did for the Trump administration?  New Orleans youth crime: the epidemic that wasn’t Pennsylvania police department accused of sexism Bank of America will no longer fund private prisons (but Wayfair apparently will do business with them) Pennsylvania becomes the first […]

What if Justice Roberts gave criminal defendants do-overs like he did for the Trump administration?

What you’ll read today Spotlight: On Curtis Flowers, the Supreme Court got it right—for the wrong reasons In Oklahoma, private companies run pretrial services, driving people into debt Wisconsin on track to fund more prosecutors Study finds releasing prisoners in California reduced recidivism rate The NYPD has received thousands of bias complaints and substantiated none […]

Last week, the Supreme Court surprised many liberals when it overturned the conviction of a Black man on death row, Curtis Flowers, for racial bias in jury selection.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Free phone calls from San Francisco and NY jails demonstrate ‘status quo bias’ In a North Florida county, prosecutors drop nearly 50% of sexual battery cases  Media Frame: Time to ban ride-along police TV Women of color have been elected as prosecutors, but often fight to maintain their positions Public […]

Beginning next week, people locked up in San Francisco will be able to call their loved ones for free. Last year, people in the city’s jails spent $1.7 million on phone calls and commissary, of which half a million went to GTL, a major corrections telecommunication company. For Mayor London Breed, who introduced the provision in the San Francisco […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Corrupt cops, lazy lawyers, and cowardly politicians: Kevin Cooper’s case exemplifies three and a half decades of systemic failures Orange County’s ‘standard operating procedure’ Jackie Lacey’s legacy is ‘unfair and discriminatory,’ advocates say New York State strikes three blows against private prisons Protesters shut down North Carolina jail, say bail […]

Corrupt cops, lazy lawyers, and cowardly politicians: Kevin Cooper’s case exemplifies three and a half decades of systemic failures

What you’ll read today Spotlight: In Alabama, departing sheriffs destroy property, deplete funds, and (usually) face no consequences Floridians are suing a cop fired for planting drugs in their vehicles California and Iowa police ask for access to security doorbells and neighborhood crime apps Federal court says Michael Brown’s shooter did not illegally detain Brown […]

In January, when Phil Sims became the sheriff of Marshall County, Alabama, he found a cardboard box in a storage closet containing five government-issued smartphones, each with multiple holes drilled clear through them. His predecessor had destroyed them. The hard drives had been removed from his computers. Records were missing. The jail’s refrigerators and shelves […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Linda Fairstein is canceled. Is ‘Law & Order’ culture next? Media Frame: Using gun fears to demagogue bail reform The Appeal Podcast: What’s changed since the 2018 prison strike? Kentucky Supreme Court strikes down ‘Marsy’s Law’ because voters were not told what it would do New York advocates go on […]

“I had stared at death before. I was way too familiar with the vagaries of murder.” So begins “Deadfall,” a novel written by celebrity prosecutor Linda Fairstein. She continues: “I had seen it flex its muscles on the cracked pavement of New York City sidewalks and behind grimy stairwells in housing projects. I knew that […]

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was interviewed this week on a local news network, he was asked about Layleen Polanco, the 27-year-old transgender woman who was recently found dead in her cell at Rikers Island. The specific cause of her death is not known, but why was she held for two months […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Bill de Blasio seems perplexed about circumstances that led to a trans woman’s death at Rikers Island. He shouldn’t be. How a D.C. Lawmaker is challenging the racist roots of prison voting restrictions Arrested for shoplifting and dead 2 days later New York lawmakers propose decriminalizing sex work Federal government withdraws […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: When saving lives is illegal, something is wrong with the law. When humanitarians are prosecuted, something is wrong with law enforcement. Data raises questions about Harris County DA’s push for more lawyers Commentary: Body cameras and Tasers rake in billions for Axon, but they’re no panacea for police violence Utah […]

Four women leave water and food in a place where desperately hungry and thirsty people are likely to find them. The hope is to save lives. Others come along and, sneering, pour out the water. One, laughing, calls it “trash.” Another kicks the jugs, violently. A video capturing these acts on several occasions between 2010 and […]

What you’ll read today Spotlight: ‘A new wave of prosecutorial transparency’ Introducing Media Frame: A column that critiques coverage of criminal justice issues Pleading guilty to get out of jail A bill in Alabama would require people convicted of sex offenses to undergo ‘chemical castration’ as a condition of parole Dallas Police Department responds after […]

Prosecutors are supremely powerful and have played an outsize role in mass incarceration. What can be done?

The content of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act represents a new kind of lawmaking—a process that originates with the people who have the most at stake and is shepherded by a diverse coalition.

What you’ll read today Spotlight: Incarcerated women helped draft a New York bill to help free domestic violence survivors. Now it’s law.   Queens prosecutor’s office failed to share 911 tapes in murder trial and then lost file, attorneys say Video hearings: The choice ‘between efficiency and rights’ Largest public defense office in Oregon stops taking […]

  If I open an app called Citizen, which offers neighborhood “911 crime and safety alerts,” an alert pops up: “200 FEET AWAY: police search for four suspects after shooting incident.” There is a thumbnail picture of a map with a bright red dot in the middle, and shades of red cover the area around […]