National Newsletter

Harvard professor loses post for defending an unpopular client

Sarah Lustbader May 14, 2019

A vision for keeping women out of jail

Vaidya Gullapalli May 13, 2019

What abolitionism looks like

Sarah Lustbader May 07, 2019

How we count people skews political power

Vaidya Gullapalli, Daniel Nichanian May 06, 2019

A rare guilty verdict in a police shooting case cannot substitute for systemic reform

Vaidya Gullapalli May 03, 2019

LAPD retreats from ‘predictive policing,’ for now

Sarah Lustbader May 02, 2019

Revitalizing clemency, at the federal and state level

Vaidya Gullapalli May 01, 2019

From ‘civil death’ to ‘civic bonds’: There is no (good) reason prisoners can’t vote

Sarah Lustbader Apr 30, 2019

Women in jails and prisons are forced to use cotton balls and rags as substitutes for tampons and pads

Vaidya Gullapalli Apr 29, 2019

What “the largest gang takedown in New York City history” tells us about gang indictments

Apr 26, 2019

Joe Biden’s role in mass incarceration was no ‘mistake’: It was politics.

Apr 25, 2019

Problems with campus police, on and off campus

Apr 24, 2019

Good news: NYC prosecutors are keeping track of unreliable cops. Bad news: The list is secret.

Apr 23, 2019

Solitary could not break Albert Woodfox, but it breaks too many

Apr 22, 2019

Can parole decisions be freed from law enforcement’s outsize influence?

Apr 19, 2019

Eradicating bias from jury selection is only half the battle: What if the jury pool is skewed?

Apr 18, 2019

The Trump administration ignores ‘the world’s answer’ to W.E.B. Du Bois’s appeal

Apr 17, 2019

Why do we hide sentences from jurors?

Apr 16, 2019

Why three ‘mega-prisons’ aren’t the solution to violence in Alabama’s prisons

Apr 15, 2019

‘BLUEPRINT FOR A SAFER AND MORE JUST AMERICA,’ Principle 4: Treat Addiction Like the Medical Issue That It Is

Apr 12, 2019

‘Blueprint For a Safer and More Just America,’ Principle 5: End Cycles of Violence

Apr 11, 2019

‘Blueprint For a Safer and More Just America,’ Principle 2: Allow People To Grow and Change

Apr 10, 2019

‘Blueprint for a Safer and More Just America,’ Principle 1: Stop Criminalizing Poverty

Apr 09, 2019

‘Driving while Black’ in Louisville, Kentucky

Apr 08, 2019

Freeing people and resources by shrinking community supervision

Apr 05, 2019

Julián Castro’s immigration proposal challenges the distinction between ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ immigrants, a little

Apr 04, 2019

Michael Brown’s mother lost her bid for City Council, but is one of many bringing personal experience with the criminal system to politics

Apr 03, 2019

If you think the war on drugs is over, just look to the most recent drug task force corruption scandal

Apr 02, 2019

‘I can’t help but wonder if the public knows just how bad these men are treated’: Over 2,000 photos show the blood and violence of an Alabama prison

Apr 01, 2019

Providing opioid use disorder treatment in jails and prisons saves lives

Mar 29, 2019

Witness memories have always been fallible. New York is starting to remind jurors of this.

Mar 28, 2019

The FBI used a made-up category to justify surveillance of Black activists. What else is it doing?

Mar 27, 2019

Journalism drives justice reform. It is also collapsing.

Mar 26, 2019

Things we didn’t know needed to be banned: Using attack dogs on incarcerated people 

Mar 25, 2019

How can presidential candidates show they are serious about dismantling mass incarceration? Pledge to appoint public defenders to the bench.

Mar 22, 2019

What do Florida’s proposed ‘poll tax’ and Louisiana’s nonunanimous convictions have in common? They silence Black voices.

Mar 21, 2019

People in Alabama prisons go on a hunger strike over placement in solitary confinement

Mar 20, 2019

Police who shoot civilians are using a victims’ rights law to keep their names secret

Mar 19, 2019

When we look at recidivism rates to evaluate reforms, we are looking for—and funding—the wrong things

Mar 18, 2019

Poetry or threat? The Supreme Court may weigh in on rap lyrics as evidence.

Mar 15, 2019

Was the California moratorium on executions undemocratic? Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Mar 14, 2019

The youth activists of #NoCopAcademy offer a vision of a different Chicago

Mar 13, 2019

We don’t create vaccines by popular consensus; why do so for criminal justice policy?

Mar 12, 2019

‘Free’ tablet programs in prisons and jails run on predatory pricing and threaten essential services

Mar 11, 2019

Hundreds of students march after prosecutors decline to charge the cops who killed Stephon Clark

Mar 08, 2019

Legal but unspeakable: Arkansas lawmaker wants to make it a felony to identify makers of its execution drugs

Mar 07, 2019

How jails harm, and the challenge for healers

Mar 06, 2019

South Carolina sheriff’s program says it’s helping at-risk youth; experts call it child abuse

Mar 05, 2019

How electronic monitoring sets people on parole up to fail

Mar 04, 2019

From Roger Stone to Houston drug busts, no-knock raids come under scrutiny

Mar 01, 2019

Presidential hopefuls should pledge to roll back mass incarceration using clemency

Feb 28, 2019

When police kill sleeping people, it is time to ask how police tactics set the stage for violence

Feb 27, 2019

Needed: A tech upgrade and an end to overdetention in the Louisiana Department of Corrections

Feb 26, 2019

A victory against a gang database in Cook County, Illinois

Feb 25, 2019

Protections against excessive fines date back to Magna Carta. Why is this still an issue?

Feb 22, 2019

Should all prison sentences end after 20 years?

Feb 21, 2019

A challenge to Pennsylvania prisons’ legal mail policy

Feb 20, 2019

What making PACER free could mean for people in prison

Feb 19, 2019

‘This is not the only way’: County commissioners reject Houston prosecutor’s proposal to solve problems with more law enforcement

Feb 15, 2019

Amy Klobuchar will not be a criminal justice ally until she reckons with her past

Feb 14, 2019

Oakland’s renowned school restorative justice program is in jeopardy

Feb 13, 2019

Cindy McCain and the moral panic over human trafficking

Feb 12, 2019

Punitiveness of the sex offender registry ‘negates public safety justification,’ Michigan AG says

Feb 11, 2019

Tennessee Republicans try to strip Nashville police oversight board of its subpoena power

Feb 08, 2019

On facial recognition technology, can we regulate our way to safety?

Feb 07, 2019

Will Cory Booker continue talking about second chances for people convicted of violent crimes?

Feb 06, 2019

How ‘the evil of banality’ may have enabled a humanitarian crisis at a Brooklyn jail

Feb 05, 2019

The limitations of trainings for ending police abuse

Feb 04, 2019

Kamala Harris’s slogan, ‘for the people,’ raises the question: Who really represents the people?

Feb 01, 2019

Beyond unhelpful: a few ways body cameras are making the system even more unfair for defendants

Jan 31, 2019

Is a total overhaul of parole and probation possible?

Jan 30, 2019

Underfunded mental health treatment programs mean people wait for open spots from jail cells

Jan 29, 2019

‘This work is so urgent’: A new association to develop and support Black public defenders

Jan 28, 2019

The ‘lack of respect for human life’ in South Carolina’s prisons

Jan 25, 2019

Does the police ‘code of silence’ extend to judges and journalists?

Jan 24, 2019

In the face of an overdose epidemic, the Bronx DA rejects a harm reduction strategy and Governor Cuomo chooses inaction

Jan 23, 2019

Kamala Harris was a tough-on-crime prosecutor in a Black Lives Matter era

Jan 22, 2019

New York can do more than adopt Texas’s discovery laws

Jan 18, 2019

Mass injustice: Judge says breathalyzers cannot be used in Massachusetts until they are proved accurate

Jan 17, 2019

As an attorney general nominee is quizzed in Washington, federal prosecutors in Arizona argue that leaving water in the desert to save lives is a crime

Jan 16, 2019

The ethics of doxing and the politics of public shaming

Jan 15, 2019

What to expect in Season 2 of ‘Justice in America’

Jan 14, 2019

‘Reefer Madness’ redux ignites pursuit of victory, not truth

Jan 10, 2019

Good news in clemency, but far from enough

Jan 09, 2019

Let them eat steak: The disgraceful press coverage of holiday meals in federal prisons

Jan 08, 2019

Why it makes no sense to criminalize fathers who can’t pay child support—and why we should support prosecutors who recognize that

Jan 07, 2019

In the first of a series, “The New Prosecutors,” we consider whether recently elected district attorneys can make transformative change.

Jan 04, 2019

The real death panels––withholding medical care in prison

Jan 03, 2019

Deaths in custody show the folly of immigration arrests and mass incarceration

Jan 02, 2019

Looking back on 2018

Dec 21, 2018

Why the First Step Act is, at best, a ‘baby step’

Dec 20, 2018

ICE Air, a little-known division of ICE, deports people in shackles and funnels tax dollars to Republican-friendly businesses

Dec 19, 2018

‘Stand Your Ground’—a law that favors white men and increases homicides—now applies to cops in Florida

Dec 18, 2018

Cambridge, Mass., asserts community control over surveillance technology

Dec 17, 2018

We know how to make prosecution less awful, but many prosecutors work hard to resist any changes

Dec 14, 2018

The waiting game: NYPD ripped 1-year-old from mother, but why did the benefits office expect her to wait for hours, standing up, with a child?

Dec 13, 2018

Cyntoia Brown and an effort to end life imprisonment

Dec 12, 2018

The country’s largest police department now has a drone program. NYPD critics worry illegal surveillance will follow

Dec 11, 2018

Jeff Sessions is gone, but there’s no cause to rejoice as Trump nominates William Barr to replace him

Dec 10, 2018

Campus sexual misconduct is a problem. Emulating a broken system is not the only solution.

Dec 07, 2018