Instead of Rehabilitation, Prisons Fuel a Vicious Cycle of Instability Incarcerated people need opportunities to learn and grow. Phillip A. Jones
The Dishonest Blame Game of Retail Store Closures and Crime Reporters who parrot corporate claims of out-of-control theft play into a narrative that benefits big business and perpetuates carceral policies. Kyle C. Barry
San Antonio’s Response to Homelessness Is Broken. It’s Time to Put Housing First Shelters are not meeting people’s needs, and the city is clearing encampments, says City Councilmember Roberto Treviño. Roberto Treviño
The U.S. Economy Won’t Recover Until Black Workers Do Biden’s American Rescue Plan is a start, but more public investment is needed to address racial inequality in the labor market. Ashley Mitchell
Misdemeanor Convictions Cause Real Harm. New York Needs a New Approach Getting convicted of a “minor offense” inflicts serious, long-term harm. The state can and must divert more people to counseling, group meetings, or other interventions. Jackie Fielding, Chloe Sarnoff
Choosing Adam Schiff For California Attorney General Would Be Ignoring What Californians Want The U.S. representative has been a chief architect of mass incarceration in the state and an instigator of racial injustice. Jody David Armour
The California District Attorneys Association Is Failing Californians After years of misappropriating millions of dollars, opposing criminal justice reform, and ignoring the will of voters, the CDAA must be held to account by the governor and the attorney general. Sydney Kamlager
This Biden Nomination Is Extremely Important For Everyday People The Office of the Comptroller of Currency is responsible for ensuring the safety, soundness, and broad accessibility of financial institutions. President Biden must choose someone to lead the agency who brings expertise and relevant lived experience to the job. Jamaal Bowman, Ayanna Pressley
Joe Manchin’s Voters Aren’t Letting Him Stop $2,000 Checks The intense backlash to his recent comments criticizing $2,000 stimulus checks signal the growing momentum for guaranteed income programs—and the emerging power of voters who care more about substantive results than partisan skirmishes. Jay Willis
Why Goodwin Liu Should Be California’s Next Attorney General The California Supreme Court Justice is motivated not by politics but by making equal justice under the law a reality for all Californians. Earlonne Woods
Gavin Newsom’s High-Stakes Choice For California Attorney General By appointing a reformer to replace the outgoing Xavier Becerra, Newsom has the chance to begin dismantling a sprawling, bloated system of prisons and jails that incarcerated nearly a quarter-million people as of 2018. Jay Willis
Don’t Delay on Closing Rikers The city says COVID-19 budget constraints will set back its plans to close the jail but people incarcerated there are suffering from the disease right now. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
The House Just Passed a Historic Marijuana Bill. Now the Senate Must Act. After decades of harm, wrought by the war on drugs, the federal government has finally listened to the American people by voting to decriminalize marijuana. Zachary A. Siegel
Biden’s Attorney General Needs to Think Like an Immigrant Rights Activist With aggressive legal maneuvering, the incoming head of the Justice Department can reverse some of Trump’s most lasting harm and take steps toward a more humane immigration system. Chris Gelardi
Americans Are Getting Tired of Willie Horton-Style Fearmongering In North Carolina, Attorney General Josh Stein’s Republican opponent painted him as soft on crime. Voters re-elected him anyway. Jay Willis
Joe Biden Has to Be More Than the Man Who Defeated Trump A Democratic president who politely listens to progressive rhetoric while failing to act on it is one who just watches the planet burn a little more slowly. Jay Willis
‘The Squad’ Is Growing—And So Is Its Power Members of The Squad are already among the Democratic Party’s most influential voices. Jay Willis
The Senate Filibuster Is Hollowing Out American Democracy If Democrats win control of the Senate, allowing this archaic tradition to survive will make everything of significance the party hopes to accomplish virtually impossible. Jay Willis
Election Night Coverage Is Broken. In 2020, It Could Be Dangerous In a presidential election likely to take weeks or months to decide, the race to name a winner on Nov. 3 could do tremendous damage to the integrity of the vote-counting process. Jay Willis
Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform Mayors of liberal cities love to criticize the president’s incendiary law-and-order rhetoric, but do precious little to check police violence and bloated budgets in their own backyards. Jay Willis
Communities Need And Deserve A Reset Of Policing And The Justice System. Trump Has Created A Sham Process that Excludes Them. Under the guise of restoring public confidence in law enforcement, President Trump’s secretive and regressive Commission on Law Enforcement is stacked with old-guard failed tough-on-crime thinking that precipitated the crisis of confidence we now face. Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Joe Brann
Expanding the Supreme Court Is Not ‘Radical’ Rebalancing the nation’s highest court is a reasonable, proportionate response to a system that failed a long time ago. Jay Willis
The Trump Administration Is Pushing To Make It Harder For Trans People To Seek Shelter During The Pandemic The Trump administration mishandled COVID-19, creating conditions that left transgender people even more vulnerable to housing instability than before. Now it’s pushing for a rule change that would allow homeless shelters to discriminate against trans people. Gillian Branstetter, Sarah Saadian
A New Law To Help Formerly Incarcerated Firefighters Is Far More Limited Than It Seems California just made it a tiny bit easier for formerly incarcerated people to become civilian firefighters. But the law still leaves many obstacles in their path. Jay Willis
The Struggle Against A Stadium’s Construction Became A Battle for the Soul Of Los Angeles Sports venues like the new SoFi Stadium have been crushing poor communities around the country for over a century. Jonny Coleman
Trump’s Voter Fraud Lie Is the Oldest Trick in the Book The president’s fearmongering over mail-in ballots is part of a long history of politicians denying members of marginalized communities, and particularly Black people, the right to vote. Jay Willis
Prisons Are the Public Health Crisis Connecticut Won’t Acknowledge According to people incarcerated and their loved ones, state officials are ignoring the spread of COVID-19 at New Haven Correctional Center. Connecticut Bail Fund Hotline Volunteers
The Role of Police in Gentrification A lawsuit alleges Breonna Taylor died because Louisville was trying to arrest its way toward economic redevelopment. Research shows this is common. Brenden Beck
To Cut Police Budgets, Start in Public Schools The presence of police in schools is emblematic of America’s carceral approach to governing. Aaron Stagoff-Belfort
Impunity for Law Enforcement Must End. That Includes Officers in Jails and Prisons. Qualified immunity is just one obstacle of many that incarcerated people face when seeking to hold correctional officers accountable for misconduct. Joshua Manson
People Are About To Be Pushed Into Homelessness On A Large Scale. Hotels Are Key To Keeping Them Off The Streets. Tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County are at high risk for becoming homeless after the temporary halt on evictions is lifted—one of the largest mass displacements the region has ever seen. Ananya Roy, Jonny Coleman
A National Evictions Cliff Is Coming. America’s Failing Legal System Will Make It Worse COVID-19 is disproportionately putting Black and Latinx people at higher risk of eviction, fueling a housing crisis that is already in progress. Jay Willis
Requiring a Bar Exam in 2020 Perpetuates Systemic Inequities in the Legal System Prioritizing bar examiners’ gatekeeping function during a pandemic and economic crisis means putting aspiring lawyers at risk and making it harder for nonwhite and low-income people to enter the legal profession. Lauren Hutton-Work, Rae Guyse
The Pandemic Shows It’s Time for an Alternative to American Capitalism The nation has an opportunity to take advantage of this transformative event and pursue an alternative to the current system. David A. Love
The Supreme Court’s War on Miranda Rights in America For decades, the Court has been carving out generous exceptions and crafting new rules that limit the Miranda warning’s real-world impact. Jay Willis
Governors’ Coronavirus Decisions Put People of Color In Harm’s Way As the country reopens, we can’t quickly forget these failures of government, which have disproportionately harmed Black, Latinx, and Native people. David A. Love
My Friend Should Have Been Released from Prison. Instead, He Died There of COVID-19. James ‘Bumpy’ Bennett, who had twice survived cancer, was 71 and had served 48 years of his life without parole sentence. Robert Saleem Holbrook
L.A. Mayor’s Reaction to Protests Proves He’s Unfit to Govern This weekend’s string of errors is just the latest in his career of cruelty. Jonny Coleman
Too Little Has Changed About American Policing In the Last Few Decades. It’s Time For Something Different. The killing of George Floyd demonstrates that incremental police reforms are insufficient in the absence of a comprehensive plan to transform law enforcement and its stated purpose. David A. Love
For Trump, There Is No Policing Without Violence A president who openly endorses police brutality struggles with a nation rejecting it. Jay Willis
Don’t Let Cops Join Our Protests Cops who turn marches against police violence into parades don’t actually want substantial changes to policing. Derecka Purnell
Defund the Police Now More training, more equipment, and more officers will not stop police from killing Black people. Justin Brooks
Why We Shouldn’t Reward Fearmongering in Criminal Justice Reporting The Courier Journal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on Governor Matt Bevin’s commutations sensationalizes crime at the expense of future clemency efforts. Zachary A. Siegel, Leo Beletsky
The Public Health Risks of Jailing People for Poverty In Hillsborough County, Florida, the jail population is bloated by cash bail, fines, and fees, perpetuating health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Governors Who Are Banding Together on Pandemic Response Should Adopt Universal Basic Income The federal government is not going to lead the way on addressing the economic pain caused by the shutdowns. But states have the power to do something about it now. David A. Love
The Supreme Court Buys Into Donald Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Fearmongering Using language evoking pernicious stereotypes about immigration and crime, the Court’s conservative majority clears the way for the Trump administration to deport legal permanent residents for crimes committed long ago. Jay Willis
As the Coronavirus Spreads, Prisoners Are Rising Up For Their Health Faced with inaction on the part of state and corrections officials, incarcerated people in jails, prisons, and detention centers are protesting their treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak. Dan Berger, Ryan Fatica, Duncan Tarr
The Battle to Convert California Hotels into Housing Has Begun Elected officials need to stop making excuses for not getting unhoused people into hotel rooms. Jonny Coleman
Congress Does Not ‘Care’ About My American Family Intentionally disqualifying millions of American citizens from much-needed stimulus funds during this unprecedented health crisis is both unnecessary and cruel. Jane Lilly López
Judges Are Exploiting the COVID-19 Pandemic to Advance the Conservative Agenda A trio of cases in Wisconsin and Texas illustrates how Republican judges are feigning helplessness in the face of a public health crisis while furthering their own ends. Jay Willis
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
The Supreme Court Just Struck Down the Last State Law Allowing Split Jury Verdicts Ramos v. Louisiana is a long-overdue affirmation of the constitutional rights of criminal defendants—and sets the stage for dramatic Supreme Court fights in the years ahead. Jay Willis
Emptying Prisons to Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus Will Save Lives on the Outside, Too By letting people out now, we can avoid overwhelming our healthcare system with sick prisoners later. Oliver Hinds
The COVID-19 Prison Disaster Is No Longer Hypothetical People are dying in jails and prisons because elected officials hesitated at the worst possible moment. Jay Willis
Working-Class Tenants Are Seizing Vacant State-Owned Property in LA On the intersection of two public health crises: housing and COVID-19. Jonny Coleman
Don’t Look to the DOJ to Keep Federal Prisons and Their Surrounding Communities Safe During the COVID-19 Pandemic Experts are urging large-scale releases. But the Department of Justice often operates contrary to expertise. Shon Hopwood
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
The Voices Warning Trump About COVID-19 In Prisons Are Growing Louder. Will He Listen? There are no good reasons for the president to keep vulnerable people behind bars any longer. Jay Willis
Congress Failed to Make Cash Assistance Universal. Now Local Governments Must Step Up There’s still a chance to make sure some of the most vulnerable people can benefit from the federal stimulus bill. Yonah Freemark
A Plea to Governor Newsom: Don’t Abandon Elderly Incarcerated People to Die From COVID-19 We can’t allow “violent criminal” rhetoric to justify leaving some of the most vulnerable people in dangerous conditions. James King
Our Leaders Have the Power to Release People in Prison. Now They Must Use It. State governors and the president have the authority to grant commutations and reprieves to people in prison across the country as COVID-19 spreads. Rachel Barkow
The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Brought Out Society’s Alarming Disregard for People With Disabilities Politicians and the general public are ignoring the health and safety needs of those with disabilities and chronic conditions. Robyn Powell
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
Why Coronavirus in Jails Should Concern All of Us New research shows that jails contribute to infectious disease deaths in the greater community. Sandhya Kajeepeta, Seth J. Prins
As the U.S. Scrambles to Slow Coronavirus, We Should Be Wary of Increased Surveillance When the dust settles on this pandemic, we need to be clear on what was an emergency response and what is a desirable permanent change. James Kilgore
The Coronavirus Crisis Means We Need Cash Assistance for All But the proposals on the table are leaving our most vulnerable neighbors behind. Yonah Freemark
As Coronavirus Spreads, the Crisis LA’s Homeless Community Is Facing Has Been Decades in the Making It should not take a global pandemic for our elected officials to acknowledge that we are all safer if everyone can shower and wash their hands. Sabrina Johnson
What Sheriffs Can Do To Slow the Coronavirus Outbreak Sheriffs wield enormous power, and they can direct it in ways that will help contain the spread of COVID-19 and protect incarcerated people. Jessica Pishko
This Tool Can Track Changes to Incarcerated Populations Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic At a time when it’s vital to reduce jail and prison populations to prevent outbreaks, this data can help advocates identify areas where that is or is not happening. Oliver Hinds
Why Jails Are Key to ‘Flattening the Curve’ of Coronavirus Local jails are notorious amplifiers of infectious diseases. If we don’t move quickly to reduce their population, it may undermine our ability to control the new coronavirus, nationally and locally. Kelsey Kauffman
Bloomberg’s Stop-and-Frisk Philosophy Also Informs the Rest of His Work on Gun Violence Prevention We need to be more critical of the former New York mayor’s outsize influence on the gun control movement. Alex Clavering
My Vote Was Taken Away From My Community and Given To a District Where I Was Incarcerated Prison-based gerrymandering takes political power away from Black and Latinx communities—power that could be used to push for more funding for schools, social services, infrastructure, and other important reforms. Robert Saleem Holbrook
Missouri Attorney General’s Lack Of Courage In Lamar Johnson Case Is A Miscarriage of Justice Eric Schmitt should follow the lead of a Pennsylvania prosecutor who acknowledged that a man deserved a new trial, even when it meant reversing a murder conviction. Ben Miller
My Friend Spent Much of His Formative Years in Prison. He Didn’t Have to Die There. Josh Norman was one of the 17 people to die in Mississippi prisons so far this year. His death raises important questions about the state’s failures. Justin Brooks
Jamal Trulove: The Enduring Trauma of Stop-and-Frisk As a Black child in San Francisco, I learned early that mine and others’ bodies meant nothing to those supposedly tasked with our protection. Jamal Trulove
What Kim Ogg Gets Wrong About Work, Poverty, and Crime The attitude behind the Harris County district attorney’s message to ‘put down your gun and pick up an employment application’ is outdated. Jessica Pishko
Singling Out Crime ‘Suspects’ As Homeless Is A Media Double Standard That Unjustly Penalizes The Poor Leading with housing status for homeless people is a common trope in the news reporting business and one in urgent need of re-examining. Adam H. Johnson
Five Jurists Said Donnie Lance Deserved a New Sentence. Georgia Executed Him Anyway. Three Supreme Court justices and others said competent counsel could have saved his life. Kyle C. Barry
Pretrial Reform Must Go Beyond Ending Cash Bail As a society, we can’t continue to subject hundreds of thousands of people to the trauma of incarceration before they face a jury of their peers. Andy Philipson
Jackie Lacey’s Culture Of Fear Lack of evidence does not stop opponents of former San Francisco DA George Gascón from making the claim that the city’s criminal justice reforms unleashed a crime wave. Alex Sherman
Police and Sheriff’s Departments Join Media Campaign Against Bail Reform In New York State A wave of sensationalist press is not just coming from New York City, but also from county sheriff and city police departments frustrated by bail reform that they claim is ‘too broad.’ Adam H. Johnson
How the Media Can Stigmatize Parents and Separate Families Stories that uncritically blame child welfare agencies for the deaths of children at the hands of their parents can contribute to increases in child removals—with devastating consequences for families. Elizabeth Brico
Why Keeping People With Sex Offense Convictions Off Social Media Sites Does Little To Make Those Sites Safer New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal purports to take sexual violence seriously, but it aggressively ignores reality in favor of lazy solutions. Guy Hamilton-Smith
The Media’s Misguided Backlash Against Criminal Justice Reforms in D.C. and New York Many liberals support reform in theory. But when unpopular decisions need to be made, it’s back to the 1990s “Tough on Crime” playbook. Adam H. Johnson
Why the Attorney General’s Concern About Crime Victims and Their Families Rings Hollow William Barr says the government owes it to the victims and their families to resume federal executions. In doing so, he’s ignoring important facts about the death penalty—and the actual wishes of victims’ families. Ben Miller, Daniel S. Harawa
It’s Time For LA’s District Attorney’s Office To Lead The Way On Decriminalizing Homelessness As a form of punishment, incarceration does not enhance public safety when it is not balanced against its tendency to make a person’s unfortunate situation worse. Alex Sherman
Prosecutors Can Right Past Wrongs—If Only The System Lets Them More prosecutors are trying to root out wrongful convictions and restore trust in the legal system. They’re meeting opposition on all sides. Nina Morrison, Somil Trivedi
Kamala Harris’s Criminal Justice Record Killed Her Presidential Run Harris’s record as a prosecutor was representative of a politics of the past. The nation has moved on. Lara Bazelon
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
Someone Tell Joe Biden: Marijuana Is Not a Gateway Drug Biden believes that the jury is still out on the question of whether marijuana is a gateway to other illicit substances. But the truth is that it is not—and this has long been a matter of settled science. Paul Armentano
How Child Services Punishes Mothers With Substance Use Disorder—And Their Children Rather than separating families, child ‘welfare’ agencies should help families get access to the care they need. Elizabeth Brico
New York’s Child Welfare Laws Will Advance Justice Two bills, awaiting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature, would help reduce the punitive impact of the child welfare system on kids and their families, including formerly incarcerated parents. Nora McCarthy
Uncritical Reporting on a Biased Baltimore Spy Plane Poll A close examination of a poll backed by a business group reveals loaded questions, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and the shortchanging of very real privacy concerns. Adam H. Johnson
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
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
Exploiting New York City’s Chinatown Killings to Attack Bail Reform The New York Post used a tragedy to target bail reform activists, rather than point to the challenges of a failed mental health system and poverty. Adam H. Johnson
Say No to New Jails in New York City The mayor claims that building new jails is the only safe way to close Rikers Island jail complex, but the City Council shouldn’t fall for this Faustian bargain. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
A One-Sided Report on North Carolina Gun Violence The Charlotte Observer built a narrative on gun crime that relies almost exclusively on police and prosecutors, ignores the violence of incarceration, and offers zero non-carceral solutions. Adam H. Johnson
Amber Guyger Should Not Go To Prison The former Dallas police officer should be held accountable for killing Botham Jean, but sending her to prison does not keep us safe. Elisabeth Epps
California Gang Laws Are Normalized Racism The gang database in the state gives police increased authority to approach and harass people for virtually no reason at all. Emily Galvin-Almanza
A California Sheriff And Prosecutor Want To Jail Homeless People. Their Plan Is Unlawful. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood and District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer intend to openly defy a 1975 state Supreme Court precedent that says law enforcement cannot intentionally discriminate against a person or group of people. Kate Chatfield
The Media Frenzy Over Chanel Miller Boosts Mass Incarceration Miller's victim impact statement was centered in a recent '60 Minutes' segment on the Brock Turner case. But such statements do not heal victims, and Miller's unfavorable comparison of Turner's sentence to drug offenders only reinforces carceral logic. Meaghan Ybos
What Kamala Harris’s Take on Policing Gets Wrong Rather than encouraging more faith in the police, true reform requires dismantling the system that empowers them. Alex S. Vitale
Why Juries Need Expert Help Assessing Jailhouse Informants Informants are highly motivated to lie. But jurors don’t always have the information or skills to discern the truth. Alexandra Natapoff
How Local Media Should Report on Safe Injection Sites In a rare case of local media nuance, a Boston TV news station provided a humane and health-focused segment on safe drug use. Adam H. Johnson
Report Praises High School in Jail But Fails to Ask Why Kids Are Locked Up at All A Pittsburgh public radio piece lacked critical reporting about the many problems with jailing children in adult facilities. Adam H. Johnson
Parents Threatened With Losing Children Over Cannabis Use Even in states where use is decriminalized, child welfare systems continue to treat it as a sign of neglectful parenting, particularly among families of color. Miriam Mack, Elizabeth Tuttle Newman
Assuming Guilt While Reporting on Mass Arrests Kansas City news outlets called scores of people ‘violent criminals’ based solely on the word of police and the federal government. Adam H. Johnson
San Francisco Deserves Restorative Justice Our response to crime should focus on healing and accountability, not punishment and retribution. Chesa Boudin
Bail Isn’t Supposed to Be a Punishment. Why Does the Media Keep Acting Like it Is? How high or low bond is isn’t a measure of how severe the state considers a crime. Adam H. Johnson
Painting a Distorted Picture of Crime ‘Spikes’ in New York City Murder rates are at an all-time low in Brooklyn, but one would hardly know it reading the New York Times. Adam H. Johnson
Pulling Back the Curtain on Boston’s ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ Most coverage of police raids targeting homeless people and substance users parroted official—and fraught—talking points. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Sensationalist Tale of an Elderly Killer Feeds False Narrative The New York Times’s coverage of the one-off case of a 77-year-old man omits key facts about how older adults are treated by our punitive legal system. Adam H. Johnson
For New York’s Police Union, Any Accountability For Eric Garner’s Death Is Too Much Vaidya Gullapalli
Stoking Hostility Toward Homeless People Dozens of reports about an indigent man in Bradenton, Florida, showed the cruel excesses of local news’s homelessness coverage. Adam H. Johnson
Prison Systems Can Respect the Religious Rights of Muslims. State Government Should Ensure They Do. Vaidya Gullapalli
Media Frame: Stop Quoting Bill Bratton For far too long, the press has leaned on wrong-headed tough-on-crime officials like the former NYPD commissioner when reporting on the criminal legal system. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Media Frame: 5 Common Tactics Used to Discredit Reform D.A.s The backlash is underway against a recent wave of prosecutors who champion criminal justice reform. Here are some methods of attack. Adam H. Johnson
The Power of Peremptory Strikes As public servants, prosecutors should be willing to put their cases before anyone in the communities they serve. Vida B. Johnson
Media Frame: Fentanyl Panic Is Worsening the Overdose Crisis Sensational and false news reports about the drug are pushing lawmakers to enact harmful policies. Zachary A. Siegel, Maia Szalavitz
County Failures, Not State Reforms, Are Killing People In California Jails Since the state’s public safety realignment in 2011, sheriffs have used criminal legal reform as a scapegoat for their failure to maintain safe jails—and recent reporting has given county officials a free pass to make that excuse. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Spotlight: When Police Spread Racism and Hate Online, It Says Something About How They Work Vaidya Gullapalli
The Carceral Feminism Of Linda Fairstein A nearly 30-year-old New York Times Magazine profile of the infamous prosecutor may reveal as much about Linda Fairstein as Ava DuVernay‘s acclaimed new Netflix series. Meaghan Ybos
Spotlight: Departing Alabama Sheriffs Deplete Funds and (Usually) Face No Consequences Sarah Lustbader
Spotlight: De Blasio—The Circumstances of Layleen Polanco’s Death Shouldn’t Be So Perplexing Sarah Lustbader
Spotlight: Prosecuting Lifesavers Exposes Deep Problems With Laws and Their Enforcement Sarah Lustbader
Body Cameras And Tasers Rake In Billions For Axon, But They’re No Panacea For Police Violence The popularity of Axon’s tech soared after the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014, but it may be doing more harm than good in protecting people from excessive force. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Media Frame: Stoking Panic Over ‘Flood’ of ‘Juveniles’ in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor The sensationalist coverage of a handful of fights highlights local media’s misplaced priorities. Adam H. Johnson
Spotlight: Incarcerated Women Helped Draft New York Law to Free Domestic Violence Survivors Sarah Lustbader
Spotlight: In A Study of Cops’ Facebook Accounts, 1 in 5 Had Posted Racist, Violent Content Vaidya Gullapalli
It’s Time to Make Chicago Police Pay For Their Misdeeds—Out Of Their Own Budget Chicago hands out millions in settlements and legal fees for police misconduct. Its newly inaugurated mayor should take a dollar from the department’s budget for every dollar the city spends settling with its victims. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Johns Hopkins University’s Private Police Force Would Bring More Cops To An Overpoliced Baltimore A former Baltimore officer says the Hopkins plan should be viewed skeptically because campus police have a history of deadly force and its officials come from troubled Baltimore Police units. Larry Smith
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
I Worked As a Bail Bond Agent. Here’s What I Learned. Low-income women are fueling bail industry profits—and getting harmed in the process. Joshua Page
I Arrested A Man On Marijuana Charges. Then He Took His Own Life. A former Baltimore Police officer says it’s time for the department to stop wasteful, harmful marijuana arrests, especially after Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s announcement that her office would not prosecute cases of possession. Larry Smith
Cannabis Alarmism Hinders Smart Regulations Alex Berenson says he’s concerned there’s not enough research into cannabis risks, but his misleading arguments set scientists back. Alex Gertner, Kelsey Priest
The Appeal’s Favorite Stories of 2018 Our staff picks 12 stories worth reading (or rereading) before the new year.
Boston’s New D.A. Pushes Back Against Prosecutors’ ‘Punishment-centric’ Point of View Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’s promise to decline to prosecute several offenses is a rejection of the punitive tradition of prosecutors and perhaps signals a new kind of reform that spurns criminal justice as a solution to public health problems. John Pfaff
Moving Teens Off Rikers Island Was a Good First Step. Now Comes the Hard Part. The rocky implementation of New York’s Raise the Age law shows that young people in detention need love, not force. Rubén Austria
Baltimore’s Gun Offender Registry Is A Misfire Established to track anyone convicted of a gun-related offense, the registry has proved to be both racist and ineffective in reducing gun violence. Larry Smith
