In LA Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care
Los Angeles County is imprisoning more people with mental illness than it did a decade ago—but is failing to provide them with basic treatment. The U.S. Department of Justice says the county jail system is decrepit, dangerous, and unfit to house anyone—let alone people with mental illness.
Meg O'Connor Mar 10, 2023
When It Comes to Reporting Deaths of Incarcerated People, Most States Break the Law
Our team at the University of North Carolina analyzed death-in-custody reporting policies at every state and federal carceral entity. Data collection is a mess—and many states don’t follow the law at all.
M. Forrest Behne, Craig Waleed, Meghan Peterson, and Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein Mar 02, 2022
Unless The Biden Administration Acts, Thousands Could Go Back to Federal Prison
A Department of Justice memo from January could have a devastating effect on many federal prisoners who have been released on home confinement.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Apr 05, 2021
Trump Turned the Justice System Into a Black Box. Biden Could Fix It
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has suffered from years of poor funding and political interference by the Trump administration. Fixing it could be one of the most important tasks on Biden’s criminal justice reform agenda.
Ethan Corey Feb 02, 2021
‘She Just Said She Wanted To Be Believed’
More than 20 women accused Harry Morel, a longtime district attorney in Louisiana, of sexual misconduct. But Morel pleaded guilty to just a single obstruction of justice count while Mike Zummer, the FBI agent who investigated him, was fired. Now, Zummer is speaking about what he says is a grave injustice—at the hands of the Justice Department.
Jerry Iannelli Dec 15, 2020
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 Dec 04, 2020
Prosecutors Are Using Gang Laws To Criminalize Protest
Prosecutors in states ranging from New York to Utah are using decades-old gang laws to target participants in the largest uprising against police brutality in U.S. history.
Ali Winston Sep 01, 2020
Operation Legend Is Another Attempt to ‘Federalize’ Policing. Organizers Are Pushing Back.
President Trump and the DOJ are funding federal policing programs in cities like Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore, but advocates say they’re unnecessary, harmful, and ineffective.
Marcia Brown Aug 13, 2020
Seattle Mayor Known As ‘Tear Gas Jenny’ For Police Treatment Of Protesters Has Troubled History As A Federal Prosecutor
As U.S. attorney in Seattle, Durkan prosecuted a severely mentally ill man in a terrorism case using an informant convicted of child sex abuse—and claimed to have reformed the same Seattle Police Department that has tear-gassed peaceful protesters for weeks.
Jerry Iannelli Jul 29, 2020
The Defund Movement Aims to Change the Policing and Prosecution of Domestic Violence
Though domestic violence is often cited as a reason to maintain the carceral status quo, advocates say there are more humane—and effective—alternatives.
Jessica Pishko Jul 28, 2020
The Federal Death Penalty Has The Veneer Of Respectability. But It’s Just As Flawed As the States’ Killing Machines.
Attorney General Bill Barr has scheduled executions for four people on federal death row in July and August. That’s more federal executions in one month than in the entire modern history of the federal death penalty.
Ben Cohen Jul 13, 2020
Jacklean Davis Was The First Black Woman To Serve As a Homicide Detective in New Orleans. Did A Now Disbarred Prosecutor Bring About Her Fall?
In the 1990s, Davis was a policing superstar, hailed as the best crime solver the Crescent City had ever seen. But a dispute over a paid detail at a festival turned into a major federal case against her, brought by a prosecutor involved whose conduct in other cases was called ‘grotesque.’
Ethan Brown Jul 01, 2020
How the Federal Government Lost Track of Deaths in Custody
The Department of Justice is leaving researchers, policymakers, and advocates in the dark about deaths in police custody, prisons, and jails.
Ethan Corey Jun 24, 2020
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 Apr 08, 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
Elizabeth Warren Announces Plan to Legalize Marijuana If Elected President
The Democratic candidate also pledged to expunge prior criminal convictions for marijuana and invest in the communities most affected by the war on drugs.
Joshua Vaughn Feb 23, 2020
How to Rethink Drug Dealing and Punishment
Criminalizing those who sell drugs by enacting more punitive laws may lead to more dangerous drug use and will disproportionately affect communities of color, a new report suggests.
Zachary A. Siegel Dec 17, 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
Chicago Police Pointed Guns At And Traumatized Children in Botched Raids, Lawsuits Allege
Children as young as 4 years old are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result, the complaints say.
Lauren Gill Aug 14, 2019
A No-Holds-Barred Assault on Prosecutors
Attorney General William Barr pushed back against reforms by progressive prosecutors—but perhaps his greatest vitriol was reserved for the Boston DA’s attempt to rein in police.
John Pfaff Aug 13, 2019
The First Step Act Freed People. Now Prosecutors Are Trying To Lock Some Of Them Up Again.
Prosecutors are pushing back against First Step Act reforms.
Sarah Lustbader Jul 30, 2019
My Year As A New Orleans Consent Decree Insider
The Crescent City is in the final stages of a multimillion-dollar federal police reform process. Here‘s why it and other programs like it fail to achieve real reform.
Matthew Nesvet Jul 30, 2019
State Trooper Said Man Took Bag From Fentanyl Supplier, But Video Demonstrated That The Deal Never Went Down
Trooper testimony inconsistent with video and misconduct among state and local law enforcement in New Hampshire and Massachusetts have caused at least 15 drug cases to unravel.
Zachary A. Siegel May 20, 2019
‘They’re Trying To Kill Us In Here’
At Virginia’s Hampton Roads Regional Jail, reform has been slow even after high-profile tragedies including the death of mentally disabled man incarcerated who allegedly stole $5 worth of snacks.
Aaron Morrison Apr 16, 2019
Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Proves Inescapable
Critics say the state’s policy of keeping non-residents registered bloats the list—and harms public safety.
Steven Yoder Mar 01, 2019
Memphis’s Juvenile Court Plagued By ‘Culture of Intimidation’ And ‘Blatantly Unfair’ Practices
The Department of Justice is leaving Shelby County, but discrimination against Black children in court continues, a federal monitor says.
Raven Rakia Feb 01, 2019
Immigrants and activists flood San Diego to protest ‘Operation Streamline’
Defense attorneys say they’ll have only minutes to meet with their clients before the immigrants are convicted en masse.
Max Rivlin-Nadler Jul 06, 2018
Eric Holder May Be Considering a Presidential Run. But Has His Time Passed?
As voters begin to realize that prosecutors in the world’s most incarcerated nation may not be the best people to run the government, the era of the prosecutor politician could be on its way out.
Chase Madar Jun 19, 2018
Chaos in the Courthouse as Border Arrests Surge
Public defenders say immigrants arrested under Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy are being denied their due process rights.
Max Rivlin-Nadler Jun 12, 2018
Broken Covenant: A Homeless Youth Organization’s Assault on Trafficking Is Making Women More Vulnerable
It looked like a flyer promoting Bourbon Street strip clubs: purple, magenta and black, with neon light-styled letters spelling out the name of then-New Orleans mayoral candidate, Desiree Charbonnet. But it wasn’t a flyer. It was an opposition mailer, sent just before the hotly-contested November election. Under a photograph of Charbonnet, the mailer stated, “In December […]
Melissa Gira Grant Jan 22, 2018
Federal monitors go where they’re not wanted: Juvenile Court
Memphis critic says Juvenile Court Judge’s resistance to reforms has ‘emasculated’ Department of Justice
Wendi C. Thomas Oct 05, 2017
Sessions scales back federal reform as police-community relations continue to crumble
In what can be seen as a natural extension of Jeff Sessions’ already-evident disdain for Obama-era criminal justice policies, the Attorney General announced Friday that the Department of Justice would scale back its Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The COPS program was known in part for investigating the work of local police departments and issuing reports on […]
Rebecca McCray Sep 19, 2017