Public health recommendations aren’t easy to follow for the incarcerated, unhoused, or the thousands who’ve been subjected to water shutoffs in recent years.
The heads of the Montgomery County public defender office were fired two weeks ago after filing an amicus brief about the use of pretrial detention and money bail against their clients
Incumbent District Attorneys faced challenges from reform candidates in California and Texas
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
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 […]
A new survey shows support across political lines for second-look legislation and sentence review by prosecutors
A culture of violence and resistance to reform in the corrections department set the stage for a recent lockdown
In November 2018, Democrats won control of the state Senate in New York. And they did so with authority. Vivian Wang of the New York Times reported after the election: “Democrats had needed to flip only one seat to erase the Republicans’ razor-thin majority. They blew past that number, unseating five incumbents and winning three open seats.” […]
Leaving power with the same actors, who equate safety with mass criminalization and detention, will yield the same results.
Kalief Browder’s death in 2015 and Layleen Polanco’s in 2019 are reminders that jail is the real threat to public safety.
A small school district spent $1.4 million to equip surveillance cameras with the technology.
In 1976, New York criminalized “loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense,” a law that has allowed for policing that targets LGBTQ and immigrant New Yorkers of color. Now, a broad coalition is hoping to repeal the law, as a step towards broader decriminalization.
Opposition to it should lay the groundwork for opposition to the system of which it is a part.
“A public health approach neither accepts harm as a given nor accepts punishment as prevention.”
A case before the Kentucky Supreme Court involves a challenge to the practice of charging people for the time they are held in jail even if they are ultimately not convicted of the charges against them.
“We will prioritize family integrity and family unity at every stage of the process to the extent we can do so.”
Testimony by an architect of the CIA torture program is a reminder of the problem of torture—and health professionals’ complicity—by domestic law enforcement
Two recent investigations look at how, in the name of fighting crime, police departments engage in dangerous, often fatal, vehicle pursuits
Moms 4 Housing made a home for their families in a vacant house in Oakland. Yesterday, police in tanks and riot gear evicted them.
A class-action lawsuit filed Saturday alleges that staff at a New Hampshire youth detention center subjected children to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse
“I sometimes wonder whether, in 100 years’ time, people will be as shocked by the length of sentences we are imposing as we are by some of the punishments of the 18th century,” the lord chief justice of England and Wales said in 2006.
An enormous database of DNA samples could pave the way for increasingly exclusionary anti-immigrant policies
On the eve of the state’s marijuana legalization law going into effect, Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois announced that he would issue 11,017 pardons to people with low-level marijuana convictions.
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 2014, Morgan Godvin’s best friend, Justin DeLong, experienced a fatal drug overdose. She had sold him the heroin he used. The next night, police officers raided […]
Children who have been in foster care, especially those who have been subjected to multiple moves, are at a high risk of ending up incarcerated.
Rather than target fraudulent universities, ICE created its own to go after foreign students.
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. Two years ago, the executive director of Just Detention International, an organization whose mission is to end sexual assault in jails and prisons, wrote in an opinion piece for […]
After protests over the police shooting of Alton Sterling, DeRay Mckesson, the Black Lives Matter activist, was sued by a police officer.
Compare this with New York where additional transit police will cost $50 million a year but a subsidized fare program cannot be fully funded.
A rule restricting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will have profound consequences for people with criminal legal system involvement.
Racial disparities in incarceration rates are dropping but still remain high. Racial disparities in sentence lengths are growing.
Tribal jurisdiction over intimate partner and sexual violence was created in the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and advocates argue it is necessary for accountability and safety.
Recent reporting is a reminder of the crisis of elderly and ailing people in US prisons.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 24-10 in favor of the MORE Act, which would legalize marijuana at the federal level.
In a letter to the sentencing judge, the Minnesota representative called for compassion toward the man who pleaded guilty to threatening to kill her.
Efforts are underway to address life without parole sentences and free people who have been in prison for decades.
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Massachusetts’ highest court is urged to address a crisis in indigent defense Tuesday’s election boosts voting rights for people with past convictions Deadlocked San Francisco district attorney race shows strength of progressive prosecutor movement 39 years after a death sentence, Bobby Moore resentenced to life in prison in Texas In response to Freedom of Information request, Brooklyn […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: People in prison run enormous risks when they speak out. They need to be heard. Rep. Ayanna Pressley unveils sweeping plan to reshape American criminal legal system The Appeal Podcast: States turn to nitrogen gas for executions, despite serious concerns As Michigan raises the age, advocates vow to press for more change After bail reform, a drop in […]
Even when retaliation is likely, people speak out about the violence and abuse they experience and witness.
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Democrats should deliver on gun control that doesn’t feed mass incarceration Why prisoners get the doctors no one else wants How district attorney Jackie Lacey failed Los Angeles Philadelphia trauma center closure could mean more shooting deaths—and more tough-on-crime talk Harmless Error: Explained After denying it existed, the NYPD finally destroyed an illegal database of children’s fingerprints Philadelphia […]