In Pennsylvania, Overdose Deaths Were Falling. Then COVID-19 Hit.
Advocates say the pandemic has exacerbated the overdose crisis in the state by forcing people into isolation and impeding access to treatment.
Joshua Vaughn Jul 06, 2020
Fatal Overdose Deaths Soar In Communities Across The Country Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
In Cook County, Illinois, suspected or confirmed fatal overdose deaths doubled over last year in the first five months of this year.
Elizabeth Brico Jun 30, 2020
A Public Health Focus On Coronavirus Shouldn’t Sideline Overdose Prevention Efforts
Recent successes in stemming the opioid crisis could be reversed if public health budgets are cut or the crisis is seen as secondary to the pandemic.
Jacqueline Goldman, Brandon Marshall Apr 14, 2020
Undercover Providence Police Faked Withdrawal Symptoms and Solicited Suboxone
Rhode Island prosecutors charged nine people with felony distribution of the addiction treatment drug. Reform prosecutors in other states are declining such charges and instead encouraging access to the drug.
Julia Rock, Harry August Mar 10, 2020
As Bail Reform Takes Hold Across New York State, a Rural County Wrestles With The Future Of Its Aging Jail
The debate around bail reform focused predominantly on New York City’s Rikers Island, but the bigger impact may be upstate, where almost two-thirds of the state’s jail capacity is located.
Ted Alcorn Feb 04, 2020
Federal Crackdown On Fentanyl Analogues Repeats the Mistakes of the Drug War, Advocates Warn
Legislators are considering giving the DEA dangerous authority, harm reduction advocates say.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jan 28, 2020
New Orleans Jail Staff Supplied Fentanyl That Killed Incarcerated Man, Lawsuit Alleges
Staff at the troubled Orleans Justice Center are also accused of violating Edward Patterson’s constitutional rights by failing to treat his drug addiction.
Lauren Gill Dec 11, 2019
Two Major Victories For A Public Health Approach To The Overdose Crisis
Criminalization as a response to the overdose crisis can cost lives.
Vaidya Gullapalli Oct 07, 2019
Missouri Executes Russell Bucklew Despite Threat of Botched Execution
His legal team had pushed for clemency, arguing that Bucklew’s previous attorneys mishandled his capital murder case.
Lauren Gill Oct 02, 2019
Missouri Is Set To Execute Russell Bucklew. His Lawyers Say His Case Was Mishandled.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that his execution, which experts have said will be bloody and gruesome, does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment. But problems with his case started long before that, his attorneys say.
Lauren Gill Sep 20, 2019
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 Sep 17, 2019
Inequality, Not Violence, Is Killing Americans At Record Rates
Media coverage obsessively focuses on homicides, which are at historical lows. Meanwhile, suicides and overdoses skyrocket, quietly driving record declines in American life expectancy.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem Aug 20, 2019
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 Aug 15, 2019
Pennsylvania’s Top Cop Says He Supports Criminal Justice Reform. His Record Suggests Otherwise.
When it comes to criminal justice, advocates say, Attorney General Josh Shapiro seems intent on maintaining the status quo.
Joshua Vaughn Aug 02, 2019
Utah Jail Nurse Faces Negligent Homicide Charge in Death of 21-Year-Old Woman
In 2016, Madison Jensen died from opiate withdrawal at the Duchesne County jail. New court filings allege that jail staff, including its nurse, ignored her rapidly deteriorating health.
Lauren Gill Aug 01, 2019
Drug Treatment Is Reaching More Prisons and Jails
Recent legal victories have spurred counties and states to provide medication-assisted treatment to prisoners struggling with substance use.
JB Nicholas Jul 31, 2019
The Appeal Podcast: The Media’s Misguided Fentanyl Hype
With Appeal contributor Maia Szalavitz
Adam H. Johnson Jul 18, 2019
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 Jul 16, 2019
Law Enforcement Is Urged to ‘Think Like a Parent, Not a Prosecutor’
A new DA in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, is treating the overdose crisis as a criminal matter rather than a community health issue.
Joshua Vaughn Jul 10, 2019
New York Prisons Offer ‘Tough Love’ Boot Camp Programs. But Prisoners Say They’re ‘Torture’ And ‘Hell.’
Prisoners can shave time off their sentences by participating in shock incarceration programs. More than a dozen former shock prisoners say that comes at a steep cost.
Keri Blakinger May 21, 2019
Overdose In An Arizona Prison? Get Ready To Pay Up.
‘Worst policy imaginable’ punishes, rather than treats, patients who earn less than a dollar an hour, advocates say.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 03, 2019
Bronx D.A. Says She Wants to Reduce Overdose Deaths, But Opposes A Program That Can Help
Darcel Clark’s approach to overdose deaths continue the criminalization of drug users and put her on the wrong side of history, advocates say.
Raven Rakia Mar 15, 2019
Cops Claimed She Set Up A Drug Deal. Now She’s Being Prosecuted For Manslaughter.
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
Man Charged With Homicide For Sharing Drugs With Woman Who Later Died
Under Pennsylvania’s drug delivery resulting in death statute, a man faces up to 40 years in prison for sharing heroin with a woman who overdosed.
Joshua Vaughn Jan 15, 2019
Overdoses, Riots, And Escapes Roil A Rural Kentucky Jail
The Boyd County Detention Center has been consumed in chaos, even as the DOJ investigates it. Now, the community is pinning hopes for reform on a new jailer.
Zachary A. Siegel Jan 02, 2019
Back-to-Back Jail Deaths Rock Small Utah County
Two women died at the Duchesne County Jail in the span of about one week in 2016. Now their families are suing in federal court.
Lauren Gill Dec 20, 2018
Charging ‘Dealers’ with Homicide: Explained
In May 2016, 26-year-old Caleb Smith was prepping for medical school entry exams, and ordered what he thought was Adderall off the internet to help him study. After the package arrived at his home in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, his girlfriend, 26-year-old Amanda Leach, asked to try some. Smith obliged, and days later, Leach was found dead […]
Zachary A. Siegel, Leo Beletsky Nov 02, 2018
A Trump Favorite For His Hardline Anti-Immigration Stance, Maryland Sheriff Now Faces Re-Election
Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins seeks a fourth term as critics blast him for a record that includes poor jail conditions, in-custody suicides, and the deaths of two young people at the hands of his deputies.
Raven Rakia Oct 31, 2018
D.A. Charges Pittsburgh Mom After Toddler’s Mysterious Death from Fentanyl in Sippy Cup
Despite looming questions about what happened, Jhenea Pratt is now facing life without parole.
Joshua Vaughn Oct 30, 2018
Prisons Crack Down On An Opioid Treatment Drug, Endangering Lives
Few of the prisons trying to stem flow of contraband Suboxone offer substantial opioid treatment programs.
Raven Rakia Oct 11, 2018
Safe Injection Sites Are On the Way. But Will Prosecutions Follow?
As the federal government vows to pursue ‘swift and aggressive action’ against the sites, experts weigh in on what’s likely to happen next.
Maura Ewing Sep 13, 2018
Proposed Pennsylvania Bill Would Force Patients With Chronic Pain Into A Treatment Agreement
A bill introduced in the state would require all chronic pain patients to enter into an agreement with their doctor before being prescribed opioid medication for the first time.
Joshua Vaughn Aug 17, 2018
A New Rhode Island Law Allows For Life Sentences in Drug Overdoses
Public health advocates are concerned that ‘Kristen’s Law,’ meant to punish drug dealers, will criminalize users and fail to stem the opioid crisis.
Abdullah Shihipar, Meghan Peterson Aug 16, 2018
In New York, A Harm-Reduction Organization Is Leveraging Participatory Defense To Empower Its Clients
Grassroots group VOCAL-NY is teaching people with substance use disorder how to avoid getting ensnared in the criminal justice system.
Christopher Moraff Aug 09, 2018
A Pennsylvania Man Survived An Overdose Only To Be Charged With Homicide
York County resident Aaron Hinds overdosed on heroin with a friend. The friend died, and Hinds now faces a ‘drug delivery resulting in death’ charge and a 40-year prison sentence.
Joshua Vaughn Jul 24, 2018
Prosecutors and Judges in Pennsylvania County Hammer Defendants in Low-Level Drug Cases
In overdose-wracked Franklin County, Pennsylvania, a small-time dealer is denied bail, while the number of drug induced homicide cases has skyrocketed.
Joshua Vaughn Jul 09, 2018
The Appeal Podcast Episode 3: Turning Users Into Dealers and Overdoses into Murders
Guest Zachary A. Siegel is a journalist covering the opioid crisis.
Adam H. Johnson Jun 07, 2018
We’ve been fighting the drug war for 50 years. So why aren’t we winning?
A new paper argues that President Johnson’s 1967 Commission on Law Enforcement’s report on the subject was “decades ahead of its time.”
Zachary A. Siegel Jun 04, 2018
A Florida Sheriff’s Dramatic Drug Raid Went Viral, But It Wasn’t What It Seemed
In the ‘fentanyl’ bust at a ‘narcotics house,’ no opioids were seized at all.
George Joseph May 30, 2018
Two States Just Made It Easier to Take Babies Away From Mothers Who Use Drugs During Pregnancy
M. thought she was doing the right thing. She had become dependent on opioids, but when she learned she was pregnant, she immediately tried to enroll in a medication assisted treatment (MAT) program. MAT is the standard of care for treating people with opioid use disorder — especially pregnant women, as quitting opioids too suddenly […]
Lisa Sangoi May 17, 2018