National Newsletter

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

As long as police emphasize ‘force and complete submission over safety,’ they will continue to kill people with mental illness

Dec 06, 2018

Can a country that loves “perp walks” really believe in the presumption of innocence?

Dec 05, 2018

On George H.W. Bush’s legacy and who is afforded respect in death

Dec 04, 2018

A new database forces New Jersey to re-examine police use of force

Dec 03, 2018

If Border Patrol agents should refuse to tear gas children, shouldn’t prosecutors, police, and judges refuse some of their duties too?

Nov 30, 2018

New York high court rules that criminal defendants facing threat of deportation are entitled to a jury trial, but many others are deprived of juries

Nov 29, 2018

First, the cop who killed Laquan McDonald was found guilty of murder. Now attention turns to the alleged cover-up.

Nov 28, 2018

Rather than continuing to target young people of color, some cities pull back on curfews

Nov 27, 2018

Reconsidering excessive fines and fees, from California counties to the Supreme Court

Nov 26, 2018

New York Democrats won big. Will they deliver big change?

Nov 20, 2018

The American Public Health Association on how to end police violence

Nov 19, 2018

Police can no longer pretend to be neutral enforcer of laws

Nov 16, 2018

Trump-endorsed criminal justice reform bill would do a lot more good if it were made retroactive

Nov 15, 2018

Over 20,000 Alcotests used in drunk driving convictions thrown out in New Jersey, and challenges to the convictions could follow

Nov 14, 2018

Will Portland adopt a law to restrict protests?

Nov 13, 2018

Making jail a site of services for veterans

Nov 12, 2018

On his way out, Sessions guts one of the most important tools for ending police abuse

Nov 09, 2018

Beto didn’t make it to the Senate, but massive turnout turned important Texas courts blue

Nov 08, 2018

Blue wave aside, there was a tide of criminal justice victories last night

Nov 07, 2018

Special Edition: Ballot Initiative Elections Guide

Nov 06, 2018

Special Edition: Law Enforcement Elections Guide

Nov 05, 2018

Special Edition: Attorney General Elections Guide

Nov 02, 2018

The high costs of low pay for public defenders

Nov 01, 2018

Pardons for immigrants with criminal records emerge as a tool of resistance to Trump’s deportation agenda

Oct 31, 2018

Rethinking prosecutors’ ‘second bite at the apple’ during parole proceedings

Oct 30, 2018

Medical examiners and cover-ups

Oct 29, 2018

New York’s long-overdue ‘Raise the Age’ law will protect 16- and 17-year-olds from Rikers Island, but not upstate prison

Oct 26, 2018

How Amazon and other tech giants became crucial enablers of Trump’s immigration and law enforcement agenda

Oct 25, 2018

People laughed when Kanye called for abolishing the ‘trap door’ in the 13th Amendment; now Coloradans are voting on theirs

Oct 24, 2018

Ohio’s Issue 1 ballot initiative could ‘deal a blow’ to mass incarceration

Oct 19, 2018

Why many aren’t cheering for officers who don’t shoot civilians

Oct 18, 2018

Could voting out judges end mass incarceration?

Oct 17, 2018

Missouri’s parole board can no longer ignore the rehabilitation of people sentenced to juvenile life without parole

Oct 16, 2018

The community and care that people in prison offer one another

Oct 15, 2018