Philadelphia

I was raised an Eagles fan. Their Super Bowl win reminded me of painful lessons my father and his father gave me.

Staff at Philadelphia’s Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility allegedly did not give Louis Jung Jr. his insulin for six straight days. Jung’s family says his treatment exemplifies how the jail treats everyone.

The Reverend Christobal Kimmenez has joined others in calling for greater services for survivors of crime and the formerly incarcerated, including restorative justice.

Instead, harm reduction advocates are calling for strategy to create a safer supply of currently criminalized drugs.

Intergenerational partnerships must be prioritized amid the youth gun violence epidemic — not more police and prisons.

When I was 19, I worked in an emotional support classroom in a North Philadelphia elementary school. I saw children as young as five get treated like prisoners.

Cynthia Alvarado was raped in jail before she was sentenced to life in prison for a murder she did not commit. Now that her sentence has been overturned, Alvarado is fighting for women like her.

Every Thursday morning, the Philly Homes 4 Youth (PH4Y) Coalition hosts a weekly virtual workspace for its members. The coalition of young advocates, youth workers, and non-profit administrators have been strategizing together since at least 2016 to improve care for young people experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. But lately, the group’s meetings have taken on a more urgent tone: Tens of millions in federal COVID-19 relief funding is currently up for grabs in Philadelphia, and the coalition wants to ensure at least 20 percent of the money goes to youth services.

This budget season, Philadelphia must hold our law enforcement accountable for their failures by redirecting resources to strategies that can help us.

Prosecutors across the country have begun declining low-level cases in an effort to reduce racial inequity and to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor has made good on promises to reduce incarceration in the city. His re-election bid will be a litmus test for the progressive prosecutor movement he helped start.

Community members and advocates question why Mayor Jim Kenney and the City Council continue to fund the police department at record levels, despite the department’s low murder solve rate.

The Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, which recorded and published the complaints, paid for the release of some incarcerated women on Saturday.

U.S Attorney William McSwain denies he’s targeted the social justice leader, but experts say prosecutors’ use of the man’s clothing and social media to argue that he should be detained pretrial is unusual.

The city will give advocates 50 vacant homes to be used for permanent housing for low-income residents, according to a tentative agreement.

Although the agency has vacant properties, public housing has been out of reach for nearly a decade for many who need it.

Advocates say the pandemic has exacerbated the overdose crisis in the state by forcing people into isolation and impeding access to treatment.

The city’s clearance rate for murder, whose victims are disproportionately Black, has hovered around 40 percent for the last several years.

Safe and healthy communities start with less police and more investment in community services that work.

The city’s DA’s office and its public defender association urged judges to adopt video meetings to speed the release of incarcerated people. But emails obtained by The Appeal show that judges took a much more limited approach to decarceration.

The Metropolitan Police Department has discussed reducing arrests, but it has not formally announced any policy changes.

In a joint statement, they emphasized the need to reduce the number of people currently incarcerated in order to contain the deadly COVID-19 virus.

Research shows access to a trauma center is critical after a shooting. But as gun deaths are rising in Philly, one trauma center has closed. Experts say a rise in homicides may prompt more policing.

After more than two decades, Terrance Lewis was exonerated and released from prison earlier this year. He is now an advocate for other innocent people caught up in the criminal legal system.

The state’s narrow interpretation gives too much weight to voices that support a punitive criminal legal system, advocates say.

Nearly 20 years ago, Biden urged prosecutors to wield the ‘crack house‘ statute against rave promoters. Now it’s being used to stamp out public health responses to the opioid crisis.

The decline under DA Larry Krasner, who took office in 2018, marks a significant change in juvenile justice in Pennsylvania.

A federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania blamed DA Larry Krasner for a bloody standoff, but the suspect has a long relationship with the government that includes a sentence reduction because of his cooperation.

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, while attempting to serve a warrant, Philadelphia police found themselves under fire. Six of them were shot, and although none were seriously […]

A new report shows that a progressive approach, like the one advanced by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, can help decrease jail populations—and crime.

In California, Texas and Florida, advocates sent letters to district attorneys, demanding that they refuse to work with officers with histories of misconduct.

Lawmakers say Republicans used deceptive tactics to pass the controversial bill. The legislative record tells a different story.

Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. Last week, court watchers from the Philadelphia Bail Fund and a journalist filed a federal lawsuit to challenge a ban on audio recording during bail hearings, arguing that […]

Larry Krasner says the punishment is ‘really about poverty’ and race.

With Appeal reporter Josh Vaughn

Krasner’s office acknowledges ‘there’s room to move forward and do more.’

Many jurisdictions across the country use video instead of holding bail hearings in person, a practice that often leads to dire consequences.

The city’s experiment with civil asset forfeiture was supposed to end, but the practices of its parking agency and some in state law enforcement suggest that police may be turning to other forms of property confiscation.

Campus police forces have become more professionalized, but critics say they operate behind a veil of secrecy and often exceed their jurisdiction.

Grassroots group VOCAL-NY is teaching people with substance use disorder how to avoid getting ensnared in the criminal justice system.