Criminal Justice

I had to return to jail before a resentencing hearing. It meant taking a trip back through hell.

Incarcerated people have testified before state lawmakers about legislation that would directly impact their lives, including bills to change the cost of prison communications and rein in extreme sentencing practices and the use of solitary confinement.

A former youth social worker reckons with her involvement in an institution that often does irreparable harm to the children it is supposed to help.

My husband Nick died from COVID-19 in March 2020 while imprisoned pretrial. Joe Biden has said he’d help others like him before it’s too late. But so far, the president has yet to make good on his promises.

We cannot punish our way out of gun violence. Instead, we must invest in dismantling the structures that allow this violence to thrive.

Gavin Newsom’s “California Model” of prison reform isn’t the step away from mass incarceration that it purports to be.

In American Purgatory, Benjamin Weber links the rise of American prisons to the expansion of American power around the globe.

In her new book, “They Killed Freddie Gray”, Justine Barron reveals much of what the public has believed about Gray’s death is incorrect.

This excerpt from Survivor Injustice asks us to reconsider what justice really looks like for crime victims.

For millions of families, this time of year is yet another reminder of all that is missed when a loved one is incarcerated

Serving out a sentence in a Washington state prison, I was certain I’d never own a home. When my wife and I started the process, we found out just how difficult it would be.

Thank you for all of your support. Your contributions have enabled us to turn The Appeal into a worker-led newsroom dedicated to exposing the harms of the criminal legal system — and to begin publishing again! Check out some of our recent pieces: We uncovered a robbery task force at DC’s Metropolitan Police Department that […]

Blind in one eye and at risk of losing vision in the other, 58-year-old Reginald Randolph is now on the verge of being sent to state prison to serve out a maximum of four years in state prison.

White voices and victims dominate the genre, which can skew the perception of what constitutes a crime.

Josie Duffy Rice and guest co-host Zak Cheney Rice talk with Radley Balko, opinion journalist at the Washington Post and author of The Cadaver and the Country Dentist, about faulty forensic science.

Josie Duffy Rice and guest co-host Donovan Ramsey talk with Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, about the privatization of America’s criminal legal system.

‘It is progressively getting worse, exponentially worse,’ a resident of one halfway house told The Appeal as part of a survey of facilities. ‘Something is going to happen and it’s not going to be good.’

One of America’s largest police forces says it’s drastically reducing the number of people it arrests during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dennis Sica struggled with substance use disorder and sold small amounts of heroin that prosecutors connected to overdose deaths. Because of an 1980s-era federal law, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Zak Cheney Rice joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting February 26.

Donovan X. Ramsey joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting February 26.

Derecka Purnell joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting February 26.

Darnell L. Moore joins Josie Duffy Rice as a guest cohost for season 3 of the podcast, starting Feb. 26.

Zak Cheney Rice interviews host Josie Duffy Rice about season 3 of the podcast, starting Feb. 26.

Tia Hamilton’s State v. Us focuses closely on the criminal legal system, especially as it applies to people of color, who are statistically overrepresented in the carceral system.

People held in courthouse cells were shackled for up to 15 hours a day, and some were unable to eat, change menstrual pads, or use the bathroom, advocates say.

The state’s parole board has recommended that Willie Mae Harris, convicted of killing her husband in 1985, be freed five times. Now 72 and completely blind, her fate lies with Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

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.

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.

More than three years after heavy rains and flooding devastated the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, officials have reached an agreement to build a new facility.

The attorneys said they did nothing wrong by finding a victim in a rape case who had disappeared, but a judge accused them of making her unavailable.

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.

The state is one of eight that allow cops to arraign people on misdemeanor charges. Advocates and academics say the practice is unjust.

His legal team had pushed for clemency, arguing that Bucklew’s previous attorneys mishandled his capital murder case.

WJLA’s Kevin Lewis selectively reports on immigrants arrested for sex crimes to paint a misleading picture of violence in Montgomery County.

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.

This month, nine people received commutations from life sentences, and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is calling for changes to the commutations process to give more people second chances.

Rodney Reed, set to be executed on Nov. 20, is innocent of a rape and murder, his lawyers say, and untested evidence will prove it. But prosecutors have pushed back, arguing the evidence is contaminated.

The Washington State Patrol has added thousands of old sealed juvenile records to a database it shares with law enforcement agencies across the country—erasing for many their chance of a clean slate.

Derek Harris awaits arguments in the state Supreme Court about the sentencing, which one judge called ‘unconscionable.’