How Imprisoned People Forced to Pick Cotton Got ‘Prison Slavery’ Bans on the Ballot
On Election Day, voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont will decide whether to close loopholes in their state constitutions allowing the forced labor of incarcerated people.
When Prisons Locked Down, Prisoners Were Denied Release
Leaving prison often hinges on completing rehabilitative programming. The pandemic caused many of these required courses to be put on hold.
The Medical Examiner Said He Died of ‘Excited Delirium.’ Medical Experts Say Police Strangled Him to Death.
Sterling Higgins died in a Tennessee jail in 2019 after officers pinned him to the floor. Two new medical experts’ reports describe the incident as homicide.
Suit Seeks $10 Million For ‘Senseless, Avoidable Death’ Of Tennessee Man In Custody
Sterling Higgins called 911 in March 2019 seeking help during a mental health crisis. Police took him to Obion County Jail, where he died after officers pinned him to a floor.
Tennessee Set to Execute Intellectually Disabled Black Man In Killing of White Woman Even Though Innocence Questions Persist
Attorneys say the prosecution’s theory of the murder case was ‘concocted out of whole cloth’ and based on ‘outdated racial stereotyping.’
Cash Bail Is Creating a Crisis in Rural Jails
A federal lawsuit alleges lack of due process in a rural Tennessee county, and reform advocates say its jail is hardly an outlier.
Tennessee Man Could Be The First Person In Nearly A Century To Be Executed After Being Forced To Represent Himself At Trial
Across the country, the death penalty is in steep decline. But in September, the state’s attorney general sought execution dates for nine men, and its Supreme Court set dates for two of them.
New Law Forces Dozens on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry From Their Homes
The legislation also makes it illegal for many ex-offenders to be alone with their own children.
Wrongly Accused of Rape, Randall Mills Has Been Proven Innocent. But That Doesn’t Mean He’s Exonerated.
Vindication and compensation remain elusive for Tennessee’s wrongly convicted, in part because of the state’s parole board.
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.
Cyntoia Brown Case Reveals Entrenched Problems with Tennessee Juvenile Justice
State law makes it easier to throw Brown away than consider traumas youth face and offer them hope of rehabilitation.
Tennessee Sheriff Launches ‘Busted Bingo’ To Round Up People With Warrants
“Kiss your boyfriend goodbye.”
Tennessee Prosecutor Wants to Teach Men to Stop Buying Sex
Do these so-called “john schools” actually hurt women more than help them?
Shoplifting from Wal-Mart can get you 12 years of prison time in Tennessee
The price of shoplifting at Wal-Mart isn’t always low.