‘No Choice But To Do It’ Many of the 230,000 women and girls in U.S. jails and prisons were abuse survivors before they entered the system. Research for The Appeal shows that at least 30 percent of those serving time on murder or manslaughter charges were protecting themselves or a loved one from physical or sexual violence. Justine van der Leun
Loved Ones And Prisoners Sound Alarm As Coronavirus Cases Surge At Florida’s Largest Women’s Prison 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
Life Sentence For Missouri Woman Convicted Of Assaulting Police Officer Is ‘Extremely Distressing,’ Justice Advocate Says Nicole Poston was sentenced in July for punching a police officer after she slipped free from a handcuff. Life sentences, even for nonhomicide offenses like Poston’s, are ‘a major factor’ in mass incarceration in the U.S., a criminal justice expert said. Lauren Gill
‘I can never be more grateful.’ After Nearly 35 Years, Willie Mae Harris Is Released From Prison Harris, now 72 and blind, had been serving a life sentence for the shooting death of her husband, a man she said had abused her for years. Last month, the Arkansas Parole Board agreed to free her. Lauren Gill
‘I Am Feeling Scared And Alone.’ The Reopening Of America Leaves Behind Prisoners Who Remain At Risk Of COVID-19 Texas’s governor has proclaimed that ‘safe practices save lives,’ but prisoners say that advice can’t be followed in the state’s prisons, where unsanitary conditions have left the novel coronavirus ‘spreading vigorously.’ Tana Ganeva
Parole Reform Might Have Freed Maryland’s Longest-Serving Incarcerated Woman. Instead, She Was Hospitalized With COVID-19. Eraina Pretty has served 42 years in prison in connection with a 1978 store robbery. A new law that might have led to her release has been derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Victoria Law
Arkansas Grants Parole To Willie Mae Harris Three Decades After She Was Convicted For Killing Her Husband Harris, now 72 and blind, was sentenced to life in prison in 1985. Since she first started petitioning for executive clemency in 1998, the state’s parole board recommended her for release five times. Lauren Gill
Death Of New Mother At Federal Prison Hospital Prompts Calls For Accountability In Texas Andrea Circle Bear was confined within FMC Carswell while suffering from the novel coronavirus. ‘She was serving a 26-month sentence that ended up being a death penalty,’ one maternity specialist said. Tana Ganeva
Coalition’s Efforts Amid Coronavirus Derail Plans For New Women’s Prison The onset of COVID-19—and the need for social distancing—gave an unexpected boost to efforts against plans for a new prison in Washington. Victoria Law
Fears Grow That Coronavirus Could Overtake Florida’s Largest Women’s Prison 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
Justice In America Episode 23: Criminalizing Mothers Josie Duffy Rice and guest co-host Zak Cheney-Rice talk with Emma Ketteringham, the managing director of the Bronx Defenders Family Defense Practice, about the relationship between the criminal justice system and family court, and how together they can wreak havoc on American families.
The Appeal Podcast: Locking Up Women For Killing Their Rapists With Appeal staff reporter Lauren Gill.
Family Separation And ‘A Longer View Of Public Safety’: A Conversation With San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin Vaidya Gullapalli
The Appeal Podcast: Re-examining the Science of Shaken Baby Syndrome With Appeal staff reporter Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg. Adam H. Johnson
How Dubious Science Helped Put A New Jersey Woman In Prison For Killing A Baby In Her Care The state said Michelle Heale shook the baby to death, but some experts say her conviction was based on debunked science. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Louisiana To Build New Prison For Women Displaced By 2016 Storm 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. Lauren Gill
