What Tracy McCarter’s Case Reveals About the Fight to Decriminalize Survival
Prosecutors recently dropped murder charges against McCarter, a domestic violence survivor who killed her estranged husband in an act of self-defense. Her legal ordeal shows how much more we must do to show up for women.
NYC Advocates Fear More Police Violence, Homeless Criminalization Amid Forced Hospitalizations
New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a directive this week that puts police at the center of renewed efforts to remove people exhibiting signs of mental illness from public spaces.
Almost All Abortions Are Now Banned in Arizona
A judge allowed a Civil War-era law to go back into effect today. The law requires two to five years in prison for people who provide abortions, except to save the life of the pregnant person.
Pressure Mounts Against HIV Criminalization as Prosecutions Continue
Roughly 30 states still have some form of HIV criminalization law or sentencing enhancement on the books. Advocates say it’s long past time for change.
Amid Fears of Crime and Mental Illness, States Move to Expand Forced Treatment
Advocates of assisted outpatient treatment say it could reduce homelessness and mass shootings. Critics call it incarceration by another name.
Arizona Judge Blocks Law That Treats Fetuses as People
The law granted embryos and fetuses the same rights as a person. Civil rights groups sought an injunction out of concern the law could criminalize people who provide or obtain abortions.
28 Years, 160 Arrests: What One Man’s Record Reveals About San Diego’s Broken Justice System
What do you do with people who are repeatedly failed by social services and the legal system?
Justice Department Launches Investigation Into NYPD’s Troubled Special Victims Division
The probe will assess whether the SVD engages in a “pattern or practice of gender-biased policing," according to the DOJ.
What To Expect Now That Roe’s Been Overturned
Most abortion bans criminalize providers by making it a felony to perform an abortion. But experts say people who obtain abortions can and will be criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes — they already have been even while Roe was still in place.
Supreme Court Overturns Roe, Opening Door for Mass Criminalization of Abortion
Police and prosecutors will now be tasked with enforcing state anti-abortion laws.
Anti-Abortion Group Urges States to Pass Sweeping Criminalization Laws Post Roe
Model state legislation proposed by a leading anti-choice group would impose felony charges for a broad new set of activities related to abortion.
‘I Did Not Shake My Son’: Is a Father Serving Life for a Crime That Never Occurred?
Expert says trauma from childbirth, not shaking, led to the death of Danyel Smith's two-month-old child.
How Los Angeles Created the Playbook for a Nationwide War on the Unhoused
As politicians look to build public support for homeless encampment sweeps, they’re using tactics popularized in LA—the site of one of the nation’s most intense battles over the unhoused.
Man Left Paralyzed After Hospital Denies Care And Calls Police: Lawsuit
Accused of faking his symptoms, Joshua Lee Smith was dragged from his hospital bed, called a “junkie,” and thrown in jail, his lawsuit says. Then, he woke up paralyzed.
What Would the End of Roe v. Wade Mean for Pregnancy Behind Bars?
A Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion could force thousands of incarcerated people to carry pregnancies to term.
After Years Locked up for Stealing Cold Medicine, Reginald Randolph Is Released
But if he loses his appeal and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declines to grant him clemency, he will likely be sent back to prison.
A Homeless Man Has Spent 800 Days At Rikers After Stealing Cold Medicine. Now His Prison Sentence May Be Beginning.
Blind in one eye and at risk of losing vision in the other, 58-year-old Reginald Randolph is now on the verge of being sent to state prison to serve out a maximum of four years.