Florida’s ‘Secret’ Formulas to Calculate Release Dates May Be Trapping People in Prison Jerry Iannelli
Biden Must Fix The Broken Executive Clemency Process. This Is Who He Should Select To Lead That Effort. Emily Galvin-Almanza
A Life Sentence Couldn’t Defeat Their Love. Now They’re Working To Change The System That Kept Them Apart. Mara Kardas-Nelson
What ‘Defund The Police’ Means In A New York Neighborhood With High Homicide Rates and a History of Struggling for Justice Abigail Savitch-Lew
New York City Pledged to Fund Programs to Stop Domestic Violence Without Involving the Legal System. But There’s Disagreement About How to Do It. Rates of reporting domestic violence are low in immigrant communities, where survivors of abuse often don’t want to involve the police. As an alternative, the de Blasio administration promised to fund community-based domestic violence programming—but those funds were delayed, and advocates fear programs with strong community ties may not meet the city’s requirements. Roshan Abraham
Coronavirus Has Raged Inside American Prisons At A Higher Rate Than Rest Of Nation All lawmakers have a duty to use every available lever to reduce the number of people in prison, whether by compassionate release or expanded use of furloughs or some other mechanism. Taking these steps will demand immense political courage. But not doing it means consigning people—some just months away from release—to die preventable deaths. Sharon Dolovich, Brendan Saloner
At San Quentin, Overcrowding Laid The Groundwork For An Explosive COVID-19 Outbreak All but nine of California’s 35 prisons house more people than the facility was designed to hold. Juan Moreno Haines, Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
10 Ways To Reduce Our Reliance On Policing And Make Our Communities Safer For Everyone Police should no longer occupy all of our vital support systems in our communities. Alex S. Vitale
In This Moment Of Reckoning Around Police Violence, Don’t Forget The Unseen Abuses Of People Who Are Incarcerated Excessive force against people being arrested, falsification of evidence against suspects, and brutality by guards against prisoners — these are all just different forms of the same problem. Vernon Horn
The Case For Racism Response Funds – A Collective Response To Racist Acts Through this mechanism, communities can accept accountability for the racism they allow to flourish by failing to disrupt it. Monica C. Bell
Prisons Are Overwhelmed With COVID-19. Why Aren’t Governors Doing More? How governors respond to this pandemic will define their legacy. They all face a choice: save lives in prisons now, or hand down potential death sentences with their inaction and watch harm ripple through communities and exacerbate inequities into future generations. Chesa Boudin, Miriam Aroni Krinsky
The Roger Stone Commutation Was Bad. Congress Shouldn’t Make Things Worse. Democrats in Congress must still their impulse to legislate restrictions on clemency. Not only would such a law be unconstitutional, but it may deter future presidents from using clemency the way that the framers intended. Mark Osler
How Prison Abolitionists Are Meeting The Moment The COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality are strengthening the case against mass incarceration, advocates argue. Emily Nonko
There Must Be Mass Releases From NYC Jails Immediately – It’s The Only Way To Protect Public Health New data obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request paint a dire picture of New York City COVID-19 testing in its jails. Brad Maurer, Seth J. Prins, Sandhya Kajeepeta
When My Brother Died Of An Overdose, The State Charged Two People With Murder. That Isn’t Justice. You can’t incarcerate a public health problem. It doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t repair harm. Daveen Trentman
Budget Cuts May Keep Rikers Open Past 2027 Deadline Reductions in budgets related to the novel coronavirus have slowed New York City’s plan to close Rikers by building new jails, and it’s becoming increasingly possible that the city will not meet its January 2027 deadline. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Judges Must Also Be Centered In Demands To Defund And Divest From Mass Criminalization Calls to defund the police must also be accompanied with divesting power and discretion from judges. Gina Clayton-Johnson
Jails and Prisons Must Reduce Their Populations Now We did it in San Francisco. If we are smart about how we respond to COVID-19 in the criminal legal system, then we can simultaneously tackle two crises. Cristine Soto DeBerry
Law Enforcement Leaders Agree: Money Bail Has To End, Especially In A Pandemic The current coronavirus crisis underscores our urgent need to look hard at our pretrial justice system. Eliminating money bail is a necessary first step. Ronal Serpas, Taryn Merkl
Colorado Supreme Court Fails To Protect State Residents As Coronavirus Grows ‘Exponentially’ In Jails People behind bars are too often forgotten and treated as expendable. We cannot afford to forget them. Our shared survival and shared humanity demand action. Aya Gruber, Benjamin Levin
Emptying Prisons to Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus Will Save Lives on the Outside, Too By letting people out now, we can avoid overwhelming our healthcare system with sick prisoners later. Oliver Hinds
Every Public Official With The Power To Decarcerate Must Exercise That Power Now Doing so will save countless lives, and in the process, they may show us by example how to begin, finally, to dismantle mass incarceration for good. Sharon Dolovich
The COVID-19 Prison Disaster Is No Longer Hypothetical People are dying in jails and prisons because elected officials hesitated at the worst possible moment. Jay Willis
Don’t Look to the DOJ to Keep Federal Prisons and Their Surrounding Communities Safe During the COVID-19 Pandemic Experts are urging large-scale releases. But the Department of Justice often operates contrary to expertise. Shon Hopwood
What It’s Like Inside A Miami Jail As Coronavirus Spreads: “This Place Is A Petri Dish For Disease” I am trying my best to take care of myself in the midst of this pandemic, no different from you, no different from any other human being. But it’s impossible to do that at this jail. Anthony Swain
The Pandemic Exposes The Shared Fates Of The Jailed And The Jailer Incarcerated people, corrections officers, and their families and communities are bound together by the threat of a deadly and fast-moving disease. The sooner we recognize this, and take decisive action, the more lives we will save. Cyrus Ahalt
The Voices Warning Trump About COVID-19 In Prisons Are Growing Louder. Will He Listen? There are no good reasons for the president to keep vulnerable people behind bars any longer. Jay Willis
A Public Health Doctor And Head Of Corrections Agree: We Must Immediately Release People From Jails And Prisons Decisive action by governors and the President now can save lives -- of incarcerated people, correctional and medical personnel, and nearby community members. Business as usual will not. Brie Williams, Leann Bertsch
