After last week’s election victories, will Virginia Democrats address gun violence in ways that don’t rely on criminalization?
A severe shortage of assigned counsel due to low rates of compensation in Hampden County, Massachusetts jeopardizes the rights of defendants.
Last year, Cleveland.com announced that it would consider requests to remove names from long-ago stories about low-level charges.
After an 11-day strike, the Chicago Teachers Union won guarantees of nurses and social workers in every school and a “path” towards hiring librarians, counselors, and restorative justice coordinators.
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Chicago teachers fought for support staff and restorative justice in schools San Francisco police brutality claim puts pressure on next DA to hold cops accountable Arizona prosecutor commissions report that argues against leniency for teens who commit crimes San Francisco DA race is “wide open” before tomorrow’s election Federal prosecutors want no mention of Trump in second trial […]
O’Rourke’s marijuana legalization plan includes expungement and clemency, and for communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs to reap the economic benefits of legalization.
Incarcerated women, half of whom are in local jails, have histories of trauma that require care, not criminalization.
Something as basic as a government ID can be impossible to get, yet a requirement to have, for people returning home from prison.
Months or years can go by before officials admit that water is unsafe for drinking.
School districts are responding to fears around school shootings with policies that risk targeting Black and Latinx, and disabled, students, who are already disproportionately targeted by school discipline measures
Attorney General William Barr has ordered the resumption of executions by the federal government. Five executions were scheduled for December and January before a federal appeal court granted a stay in the case of Lezmond Mitchell.
Several policies under consideration in New York would promote prison visits.
Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people face restrictions, even repression, as they engage in activism to end mass incarceration.
Criminalization as a response to the overdose crisis can cost lives.
In some Alabama counties, a new investigation shows, sheriffs release people in jail who are experiencing medical emergencies to avoid liability for hospital bills.
At least a quarter of all people killed by police each year suffer from untreated mental illnesss. New York City’s Public Advocate is proposing a new hotline and mental health crisis teams.
Carceral institutions are the sites of this country’s most extensive book bans.
Five Lake County, Illinois teenagers no longer face murder charges after the killing of their cousin and friend. But the rule that allowed them to be charged is still on the books.
Federal policy denies incarcerated people Medicaid coverage, making re-entry a time of heightened health risks. Tracie Gardner of the Legal Action Center explains New York State’s effort to “break the cycle of justice-involvement, poor health, economic instability, and recidivism that plagues individuals and families throughout New York.”
Climate activists in Houston are charged under a new law aimed at criminalizing protest
A member of San Francisco’s juvenile probation commission, a citizen oversight body, talked to the Daily Appeal about her decision to spend a day and a night inside the city’s juvenile hall.
The cost of underfunded indigent defense is borne by defendants whose lawyers may spend as little as a few minutes on a case.
Harsh disciplinary measures and school-based arrests continue to disproportationately affect students of color, including preschoolers in Texas.
South Carolina’s decision not to evacuate people in prison in the evacuation zone is consistent with an indifference to the humanity of those in prison.
People who have lost loved ones to violence and to life without parole sentences are calling for an end to these sentences in Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill 136 would repeal one of California’s most frequently used sentence enhancements, which gives judges the discretion to add a year to a felony sentence for every prior felony prison or jail term.
The intense interest in conditions at MCC after Jeffrey Epstein’s death was preceded by years when little was done to address restrictions so oppressive one observer described them as “diabolical.” Why do Americans allow brutality, even torture, to go unchecked?
California Supreme Court rules that the government cannot subject a young person on probation, as a condition of release, to random searches of his electronic devices and social media accounts.
Forty-three elected local prosecutors filed an amicus brief last week in support of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office’s Conviction Integrity Unit’s work in the case of Lamar Johnson.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors votes to cancel contract to build Mental Health Treatment Center in place of Men’s Central Jail
Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent death by suicide highlights the problems of adequate mental health care and monitoring in jails nationwide.
Nearly 380 people remain in custody after ICE raids in Mississippi Wednesday. They are likely to be held in immigration detention in Louisiana, far from their families and access to legal counsel.
The American Correctional Association has granted accreditation to includes detention centers, prisons, and jails where people are held in horrific conditions.
Police unions resist accountability and exert influence over criminal justice reform.
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 2017, the coalition Freedom to Thrive looked at the enormous outlay on policing and incarceration across the U.S.—over $180 billion annually—contrasting it with the systemic underinvestment […]
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. Nearly 20 million people in the United States are estimated to have felony convictions. This makes up approximately 8 percent of all adults and a full third […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Prison systems can respect the religious rights of Muslims. State government should ensure they do. New York City’s homeless diversion program is ‘smoke and mirrors,’ advocates say Oregon overhauls its youth justice system The politics of prosecutors Woman pleads for husband charged by Bronx DA in their children’s deaths Ayanna […]
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 years, civil rights organizations have litigated cases on prison systems’ failures to respect the rights of Muslim plaintiffs to practice their faith. In a report published […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: In prison longer than any woman in Louisiana, and now recommended for clemency Miami officials: Most people who owe fines and fees can vote America’s new ‘Sheriff of the Year’ pushed to allow teachers to carry weapons in school Joe Biden’s criminal justice plan Conviction integrity unit seeks new trial […]
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, The Advocate reported on the case of Gloria Williams, also known as Mama Glo, and her win before the pardon board. Williams has been in […]