America’s Biggest City Was Hit Hard By COVID-19. Its Jails Are Filling Up Again
New York City’s jail population is close to reaching pre-pandemic levels. Advocates say dishonest fearmongering about bail reform—and the politicians who capitulated to it—have created a very real safety crisis.
Joshua Manson Nov 30, 2020
New York City Pledged to Fund Programs to Stop Domestic Violence Without Involving the Legal System. But There’s Disagreement About How to Do It.
Rates of reporting domestic violence are low in immigrant communities, where survivors of abuse often don’t want to involve the police. As an alternative, the de Blasio administration promised to fund community-based domestic violence programming—but those funds were delayed, and advocates fear programs with strong community ties may not meet the city’s requirements.
Roshan Abraham Aug 18, 2020
New York City Public Defenders Oppose Resuming In-Person Court Appearances
The advocates describe the reopening as unsafe and unnecessary amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chris Gelardi Jul 23, 2020
Budget Cuts May Keep Rikers Open Past 2027 Deadline
Reductions in budgets related to the novel coronavirus have slowed New York City’s plan to close Rikers by building new jails, and it’s becoming increasingly possible that the city will not meet its January 2027 deadline.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem Jun 29, 2020
For Essential Workers, New York City’s Curfew Meant Fear, Harassment, and Arrest
Essential workers say curfews put them at risk of police violence, even though they were exempt.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jun 12, 2020
The Toll That Curfews Have Taken On Homeless Americans
The country’s homeless population was already struggling to access services during the pandemic.
Kira Lerner Jun 10, 2020
New York Protests Could Finally Push Through Increased Police Transparency
Lawmakers are targeting a statute that has been used as a cudgel to bat away almost any inquiries into police misconduct.
Chris Gelardi Jun 04, 2020
The Carceral Kings of New York
As COVID-19 spreads, Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio are slashing budgets, but leaving funding for police and prisons largely untouched.
Ross Barkan Apr 30, 2020
New York City Must Take Action to Ensure the Most Vulnerable Survive the Pandemic
The city has created the structural conditions that have engendered disproportionately high rates of infection and death among its Black and Latinx residents.
TS Candii, Darializa Avila Chevalier Apr 22, 2020
Policing Coronavirus
As infections and deaths mount, state leaders and law enforcement are turning to tough-on-crime tactics in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Jessica Pishko Apr 07, 2020
Coronavirus Has Come to Rikers, and the People Inside Are Fighting to Survive
The island’s Communicable Disease Unit is already overflowing with quarantined people.
Kim Kelly Mar 24, 2020
Michael Bloomberg’s Stop-and-Frisk Legacy Came Back to Haunt Him This Week
As old audio clips of Bloomberg defending the controversial policing policy went viral, new data showed the practice isn’t fading away in New York city.
Aaron Morrison Feb 12, 2020
Police Play The Victim When Voters Choose 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. Last month, longtime public defender Chesa Boudin was elected San Francisco’s next district attorney. His victory was not merely an upset over an interim incumbent with establishment […]
Sarah Lustbader Dec 09, 2019
Community Policing Is Not the Answer
Investing billions of government dollars into programs that embed police in Black communities will not reduce police violence, nor repair years of injustice.
Philip V. McHarris Dec 02, 2019
A Tale Of Two Mayors
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. New Yorkers were supposed to be finished with all of this. Done with 12 years of Michael Bloomberg, a technocratic, out-of-touch billionaire mayor who oversaw the highly […]
Sarah Lustbader Nov 22, 2019
‘I Never Thought Selling Corn Could Lead To Being Torn From My Family’
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 a video posted on Twitter on Friday, a small woman with a pushcart full of churros is surrounded by four NYPD officers inside the Broadway Junction […]
Sarah Lustbader Nov 12, 2019
New York Subway Police Make Us Less Safe
Recent violent arrests in the city subways should make New Yorkers question the push by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the MTA to hire 500 new transit police.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem Nov 05, 2019
It’s Time to Fight the Democratic Mayors Who Are Champions of the Carceral State
The mayors of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco wrap themselves in the language of progressivism, but when it comes to the criminal legal system they’re Trumpian.
Kelly Hayes Nov 04, 2019
What’s Not To Love About The NYPD Slowdown?
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. While progressives and reformers wax poetic about reducing low-level arrests, one group is making it happen: the NYPD. Not out of some newfound understanding about the moral […]
Sarah Lustbader Sep 03, 2019
Bill de Blasio seems perplexed about circumstances that led to a trans woman’s death at Rikers Island. He shouldn’t be.
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 […]
Sarah Lustbader Jun 13, 2019
Incarceration Is Always a Policy Failure
Instead of building ‘humane jails’ to replace Rikers Island, let’s push the NYPD to cut down on arrests.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem May 15, 2019
New York Lawmakers Want To Ban Sex Offenders From The Subway. That Won’t Solve Anything.
Banishing people from the subway will only marginalize them without addressing the problem.
Guy Hamilton-Smith Apr 01, 2019
Bronx D.A. Says She Wants to Reduce Overdose Deaths, But Opposes A Program That Can Help
Darcel Clark’s approach to overdose deaths continue the criminalization of drug users and put her on the wrong side of history, advocates say.
Raven Rakia Mar 15, 2019
Public Defenders Say New York’s New Policy To Reduce Marijuana Arrests Doesn’t Go Far Enough
The exceptions to the policy change could actually worsen the racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests, defense attorneys told The Appeal.
Raven Rakia Sep 17, 2018
Why Is New York Still Paying Eric Garner’s Killer Six Figures?
Daniel Pantaleo remains with the NYPD four years after Garner’s death.
Raven Rakia Aug 17, 2018
How the Push to Close Rikers Went From No Jails To New Jails
Activists say a once-radical campaign has been co-opted.
Raven Rakia, Ashoka Jegroo May 29, 2018
Activists Fed Up with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Silence on Safe Injection Sites
Local activists are set to gather at New York’s City Hall today, urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to end his silence on the idea of the city opening a supervised injection facility, a medical setting for safely injecting drugs. Organized by VOCAL-NY, a nonprofit grassroots organization, the coalition of activists and drug users are calling out […]
Zachary A. Siegel Feb 27, 2018
Countering The NYPD’s Neighborhood Policing Scam
In New York City, chants of “I can’t breathe” have given way to neatly run press conferences featuring Mayor Bill de Blasio’s boasts about how the NYPD’s “neighborhood policing” program, described as a collaborative crime-fighting strategy, brings the police and community together. Eric Garner’s killer still on the job and hasn’t faced justice? A horrifying story of rape involving cops from […]
Josmar Trujillo Feb 14, 2018