National Newsletter

The First Step Act freed people. Now prosecutors are trying to lock some of them up again.

Sarah Lustbader Jul 30, 2019

Prison systems can respect the religious rights of Muslims. State government should ensure they do.

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 29, 2019

The federal government offered four arguments for reinstating the death penalty. They all fail. 

Sarah Lustbader Jul 26, 2019

Risk assessment tools are flawed—should we throw them away? 

Sarah Lustbader Jul 25, 2019

In prison longer than any woman in Louisiana, and now recommended for clemency

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 24, 2019

The allocution will not be televised

Sarah Lustbader Jul 23, 2019

Needed in jails in a heat emergency: air conditioning and oversight

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 22, 2019

Cory Booker’s new sentencing reform bill centers the possibility of redemption

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 19, 2019

Stevens’s views evolved over time. Scalia called it ‘arrogance,’ but it was the opposite.

Sarah Lustbader Jul 18, 2019

Daniel Pantaleo won’t face federal charges. Will he be fired?

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 17, 2019

Blue Bell listeria outbreak killed three people, but only the teenage prankster accused of licking a carton will face charges

Sarah Lustbader Jul 16, 2019

Challenging lawmakers to go inside prisons and jails

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 15, 2019

The dangers of gang databases and gang policing

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 03, 2019

Biden’s tough-on-crime past: Were all Dems really like that? 

Sarah Lustbader Jul 02, 2019

Fighting against a new prison—and winning—in Letcher County, Kentucky

Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 01, 2019

What if Justice Roberts gave criminal defendants do-overs like he did for the Trump administration? 

Sarah Lustbader Jun 28, 2019

On Curtis Flowers, the Supreme Court got it right—for the wrong reasons

Sarah Lustbader Jun 27, 2019

The criminal and juvenile legal systems are drivers of poverty. Presidential candidates should recognize that. 

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 26, 2019

Free phone calls from San Francisco and NY jails demonstrate ‘status quo bias’

Sarah Lustbader Jun 25, 2019

After Nipsey Hussle’s killing, gang members call for an end to violence

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 24, 2019

With the taking of Marion Wilson’s life, a grim milestone for a death penalty in decline

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 21, 2019

Corrupt cops, lazy lawyers, and cowardly politicians: Kevin Cooper’s case exemplifies three and a half decades of systemic failures

Sarah Lustbader Jun 20, 2019

When police spread racism and hate online, it says something about how they work

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 19, 2019

In Alabama, departing sheriffs destroy property, deplete funds, and (usually) face no consequences

Sarah Lustbader Jun 18, 2019

Flint and the pursuit of accountability

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 17, 2019

Linda Fairstein is canceled. Is ‘Law & Order’ culture next?

Sarah Lustbader Jun 14, 2019

Bill de Blasio seems perplexed about circumstances that led to a trans woman’s death at Rikers Island. He shouldn’t be.

Sarah Lustbader Jun 13, 2019

Will Chicago get a memorial to honor the survivors of police torture?

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 12, 2019

When saving lives is illegal, something is wrong with the law. When humanitarians are prosecuted, something is wrong with law enforcement.

Sarah Lustbader Jun 11, 2019

Durham City Council says no to more police

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 10, 2019

‘A new wave of prosecutorial transparency’

Jun 07, 2019

A law to help free domestic violence survivors, drafted by incarcerated women

Sarah Lustbader Jun 06, 2019

Saying yes to solitary confinement for Paul Manafort means saying yes to it for tens of thousands of people

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 05, 2019

Neighborhood crime apps stoke fears, reinforce racist stereotypes, and trick people into performing police surveillance

Sarah Lustbader Jun 04, 2019

In a study of cops’ Facebook accounts, 1 in 5 had posted racist, violent content

Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 03, 2019

People in prison face extreme heat and extreme indifference

Vaidya Gullapalli May 31, 2019

Memorial Day shootings prompt calls for more police—but why?

Sarah Lustbader May 30, 2019

Translating Black voters’ political knowledge into political power

Vaidya Gullapalli May 29, 2019

Baltimore police union’s tweet tells cops to ‘protect each other’ and reminds them that some children are ‘criminals’

Sarah Lustbader May 28, 2019

A look at New York State’s parole system

Vaidya Gullapalli May 24, 2019

‘To remain silent would mean complicity’: Whistleblowers expose harm in ICE detention facilities

Vaidya Gullapalli May 23, 2019

‘If you build it, they will come’: How jail beds drive incarceration

Sarah Lustbader May 22, 2019

Prosecutors become unlikely line of defense against abortion bans

Sarah Lustbader May 21, 2019

Examining the chokehold that killed Eric Garner, from One Police Plaza to Arizona

Vaidya Gullapalli May 20, 2019

In domestic violence cases, prosecutors seek a way around the Sixth Amendment

Sarah Lustbader May 17, 2019

U.S. drug companies won’t help execute people, so the DOJ will allow prisons to buy from other countries

Sarah Lustbader May 16, 2019

San Francisco bans government use of facial recognition technology

Vaidya Gullapalli May 15, 2019

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

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

Washington State’s death penalty ruled racially biased, unconstitutional

Oct 12, 2018

Police video helped Laquan McDonald’s killer get convicted, but it could have helped him get acquitted

Oct 11, 2018

Police video helped Laquan McDonald’s killer get convicted, but it could have helped him get acquitted

Join rapper Common as he bails out a stranger

Oct 10, 2018

Time to fight for better judges in criminal court, too

Oct 09, 2018

The blue wall of silence came up for the cop who killed Laquan McDonald

Oct 05, 2018

‘Burned alive. On fire. Choking on toxic fumes’: Being pepper sprayed in prison

Oct 04, 2018

Locking up mothers in Oklahoma

Oct 03, 2018

California scales back its felony murder law

Oct 02, 2018

In new video game, Spider-Man helps the cops beat up drug dealers

Oct 01, 2018

What Kavanaugh should learn about criminal justice from yesterday’s ordeal

Sep 28, 2018

Advocates score rare victory as Virginia prisons back down from tampon ban

Sep 27, 2018

Kavanaugh debate, on the left and the right, shows inability to see outside the criminal justice system

Sep 26, 2018

As overdose deaths climb, Arizona fills prisons with people charged with low-level drug offenses

Sep 25, 2018

The limits on justice for Native women and girls

Sep 24, 2018

Wrongful conviction reversed—thanks to Golf Digest

Sep 21, 2018

Those calling for forgiveness for Brett Kavanaugh are ignoring their own criminal justice system

Sep 20, 2018

Envisioning an end to ‘death by incarceration’

Sep 19, 2018

When will Governor Cuomo act to end racism in his corrections department?

Sep 18, 2018

How police and media portrayals demonize Black victims of police violence

Sep 17, 2018

Boston’s DA nominee embraces the next frontier of criminal justice reforms: declining cases

Sep 14, 2018

In a new genre of criminal justice programming, incarcerated people are the creators

Sep 13, 2018

As hurricane nears, South Carolina won’t evacuate over 900 prisoners in a red zone

Sep 12, 2018

In Chicago, organizers say #ByeRahm and chart a course for the future

Sep 11, 2018

A police officer and his union defended the arrest and tasing of an 11-year-old girl

Sep 10, 2018

Officer who killed Laquan McDonald wants a venue change—and is more likely to get one than the people he’s arrested

Sep 07, 2018

We never seem to see the headline: ‘Native-born American arrested’

Sep 06, 2018

The success of the 2018 prison strike will depend on us

Sep 05, 2018

A progressive Democrat wins the Florida governor primary and calls for ‘real criminal justice reform’

Sep 04, 2018

What if John McCain had been a prisoner in this country?

Aug 31, 2018

Why the California bail overhaul might backfire

Aug 30, 2018

Open borders is the new prison abolitionism

Aug 29, 2018

Economists say more guns and less regulation caused the crime spike of the ’90s

Aug 28, 2018

A new study reveals that police militarization does not keep anyone safe

Aug 27, 2018

On flipping, Trump is right for the wrong reasons

Aug 24, 2018

The importance of who sits on parole boards

Aug 23, 2018

States use anti-protest laws to protect oil pipelines and criminalize environmental activism

Aug 22, 2018