More from The Appeal:
State Attorney Melissa Nelson is pushing for a death sentence even as more prosecutors reject capital punishment.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jan 22, 2021
A grassroots coalition is showing up at locations across the swing state to ensure Black and Latinx voters can cast their ballots safely.
Harrison Jacobs Nov 02, 2020
Efforts by elected leaders in several states are making it harder to get to the polls and fomenting misinformation about the election amid a pandemic.
Joshua Vaughn Oct 21, 2020
The Florida Sheriffs Association gains a third of its multimillion-dollar budget by selling big-ticket items like trucks and mobile command centers to local sheriff’s departments and other government agencies.
Jerry Iannelli Oct 09, 2020
Legislation proposed this week by Gov. Ron DeSantis also seeks to withhold state funding from counties that move to decrease police budgets.
As of Thursday, 993 incarcerated women and 62 staffers at Lowell Correctional Institution have tested positive for the virus. Two women have died.
Alexandra DeLuca Aug 21, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed Florida lawmakers’ failure to build affordable housing for its residents.
Jerry Iannelli Jun 05, 2020
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 May 04, 2020
Public defenders are working with the courts to secure release for people incarcerated in the Florida county, many of whom are jailed for low-level offenses.
Victoria Law Apr 08, 2020
Despite risks to incarcerated people and the public, Florida is sending prisoners to perform hard labor.
Inconsistent rules nationwide mean some people are still registering and reporting in person despite public health directives meant to control COVID-19.
Dawn R. Wolfe Apr 03, 2020
Telecommunications companies that serve prisons and jails, like Securus Technologies and Global Tel Link, are offering a limited number of free calls, but families say it’s not enough.
Molly Minta Apr 02, 2020
With COVID-19 rapidly spreading across the state, there’s heightened concern that the conditions inside Lowell Correctional Institution, coupled with the prison’s sizable elderly and pregnant population, could foster a deadly outbreak.
Alexandra DeLuca Apr 01, 2020
One of America’s largest police forces says it’s drastically reducing the number of people it arrests during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jerry Iannelli Mar 20, 2020
Advocates worry the widespread confusion may have a chilling effect on eligible voters.
Kira Lerner Mar 16, 2020
67% of people arrested under state laws that criminalize HIV exposure and transmission are sex workers. But new legislation meant to modernize these laws would retain harsh penalties against them.
Molly Minta Feb 28, 2020
Probation officers in the state’s 13th Judicial Circuit file thousands of violations, and they’re heard by a judge known for his harsh, punitive style.
Samantha Schuyler Feb 26, 2020
The court found that a law that critics described as a poll tax violates the Constitution.
Kira Lerner Feb 19, 2020
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister’s stings, conducted under the guise of targeting human trafficking, netted the largest number of arrests there since 2008. Sex workers say the operations put them at risk.
Molly Minta Jan 28, 2020
Barred from other shelters, registrants were left with few options as the hurricane approached.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Sep 04, 2019
Dozens of reports about an indigent man in Bradenton, Florida, showed the cruel excesses of local news’s homelessness coverage.
Adam H. Johnson Jul 31, 2019
In California, Texas and Florida, advocates sent letters to district attorneys, demanding that they refuse to work with officers with histories of misconduct.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jul 29, 2019
Offices across the state conduct operations under the guise of saving victims of human trafficking. But the vast majority of people detained, including sex workers, are charged with prostitution.
Molly Minta Jul 25, 2019
Lawyers and advocates in Miami-Dade County will roll out a new plan to counter the disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions.
Police in Ozark said they solved the 1999 murders of two teenage girls using a genealogy database. But Coley McCraney‘s attorneys say that the case against their client is far from certain.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, Florida, is one of the state’s most controversial lawmen.
Jessica Pishko Jul 23, 2019
Over a three-year period, Alachua County prosecutors closed 236 sexual battery cases: 115 were dropped, 92 were offered plea deals, and seven went to trial.
Molly Minta Jun 24, 2019
Thanks to the diligence of one assistant state attorney, 119 cases were thrown out and the officer is under state investigation.
Katie Rose Quandt Jun 17, 2019
A new court order allows the family’s lawsuit to proceed, and may lead to holding jail staff accountable.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 28, 2019
Florida is poised to pass a law that imposes a ‘poll tax’ on thousands of formerly incarcerated people.
Kira Lerner May 01, 2019
A scandal of falsified drug arrests is spreading at a Florida sheriff’s office that has also spent more than $1.33 million settling excessive force lawsuits and is at the center of the increasingly troubled Robert Kraft case.
Meg O'Connor Mar 26, 2019
Lawmakers are redefining certain crimes in order to carve out broad exceptions to who can regain the right to vote.
Kira Lerner Mar 20, 2019
In 2017, over 2,000 homeless people were arrested on charges including drinking in public and panhandling. That same year, roughly 1,400 people were arrested in Miami-Dade County for rape, murder, and robbery.
Meg O'Connor Mar 18, 2019
A 22-year-old woman overdosed and died in jail. A 24-year-old faces first-degree murder charges. Did the system fail them both?
Tana Ganeva Mar 08, 2019
With Appeal staff reporter Kira Lerner
Adam H. Johnson Mar 07, 2019
A Philadelphia-born man was detained by ICE and nearly deported. The agency’s mistake was caught, but the case exposes a new collaborative program that encourages jails to hold immigrants for ICE.
Debbie Nathan Mar 06, 2019
Critics say the state's policy of keeping non-residents registered bloats the list—and harms public safety.
Steven Yoder Mar 01, 2019
Claims including sexual assault of a woman with mental illness to lying in reports haunt the Miami Gardens police; payouts in federal lawsuits have cost the city's taxpayers at least $3.5 million.
Meg O'Connor Feb 21, 2019
Defense attorneys say they were unaware of the practice and are unclear on how they can expunge the data of nonconvicted clients.
A Florida woman with substance use disorder allegedly brokered a drug sale that ended in a fatal overdose; she faces 15 years in prison.
Zachary A. Siegel Feb 05, 2019
The technology also allows authorities to mine call databases and cross-reference the voices of individuals prisoners have spoken with.
One commissioner wants the state Department of Corrections to show proof that his county isn’t just using prisoners as ‘slaves.’
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jan 28, 2019
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office stands accused of violating immigrants’ rights and dismissing a shocking number of jail deaths.
George Joseph Oct 23, 2018
With privatization of the state’s prisons in full swing, this year is on track to be its deadliest on record.
Michael Sainato Jun 25, 2018
In the ‘fentanyl’ bust at a ‘narcotics house,’ no opioids were seized at all.
George Joseph May 30, 2018