No system designed to make money by subjugating people intends to rid us of those harms. Abolition is a vision for the future.

There is nothing romantic about the police state. And yet, in some of the biggest rom-coms, white cops are underdogs looking for the right person to love.

I was lucky enough to get a lot of mail while imprisoned on Rikers Island. Paper mail is one of the few things that keeps prisoners feeling human.

ShotSpotter, Flock Safety, and Fog Data Science pitch themselves as third-party public-safety platforms, but they really are are “data brokers”—companies that profit by selling bulk information to others.

Newsom’s measure—called “CARE Court”—paves the way for family members, state officials, and first responders to force more unhoused people into court-ordered treatment programs for a period of up to two years.

For millions of families, this time of year is yet another reminder of all that is missed when a loved one is incarcerated

New York law can leave people who are involuntarily committed financially liable for their hospital bills and ambulance ride

Some recent redevelopment projects show how the work of reforming and dismantling the prison system can move us towards a society centered around restorative justice and social wellness.

Youth curfews don’t work. Over 11,500 kids were arrested in 2019 for curfew violations or loitering, per FBI data. Nearly 30% were Black.

Police gave Alex Mingus an award for saving a shooting victim’s life. Mingus showed up wearing a shirt that said “Smash white supremacy”.

Midterm election results show the bad-faith “crime wave” narrative failed to con a critical mass of voters, who instead want a less draconian police state.

One year of worker-led publishing! But our at The Appeal work is just beginning. Thanks to NewsMatch, your donation will be tripled.

Olayemi Olurin spoke with The Appeal about abolition, living in a police state, Rikers Island, and the media.

The medical examiner who helped put Tasha Shelby in prison has since said her son’s death was not a homicide.

The politics of criminal justice is overwhelmingly local, and elected prosecutors have some of the most direct power over how justice is dispatched.

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon be hearing a case that will impact whether Texas executes Rodney Reed for capital murder— though another man has confessed to the crime.

The intense focus on increased law enforcement spending in recent years has overshadowed a historic funding boost for community violence intervention.

On September 23, 2020, a Black man died for the alleged crime of crossing the street the wrong way. His death was due in large part to America’s long history of criminalizing public spaces and our existence in them.

The fight to remove cops from classrooms is still raging, with some successes.

Intergenerational partnerships must be prioritized amid the youth gun violence epidemic — not more police and prisons.

The stakes for getting reporting on abortion right are very high, but it costs nothing to call out politicians on their BS.

Politicians are demanding greater oversight over the Virginia Department of Corrections, after women at one state prison said they’re served spoiled food.

If Brooke Jenkins fails to deliver results with “tough-on-crime” policies, will San Franciscans blame her, just as they did her predecessor, Chesa Boudin?

States will have a hard time stopping medication abortion. Abortion pills are safer than Tylenol and have been approved by the FDA since 2000.

Florida seems to be sprinting in the opposite direction of progress. A new law allows cops to pull people over for driving loud cars.

Stacey Abrams wants to give police officers raises. Time and again, Democrats have reacted to calls for racial justice by giving more money to cops.

When I was 19, I worked in an emotional support classroom in a North Philadelphia elementary school. I saw children as young as five get treated like prisoners.

The horrific experiences of women at a Virginia prison fit a broader pattern of neglect across the country.

Resources from organizations that have spent decades helping people access abortions and defending people who are criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes.

If the Democratic Party wants to run away from those candidates, it will only be running towards its own demise.

New “domestic terror” laws will do little to stop gun violence in America, but may pacify suburban white voters.

For the wealthy backers of the Boudin recall, “progressive” prosecutors are the perfect scapegoat for what they see as threats to a system that treats them just fine.

Prosecutors across the country could soon be tasked with enforcing abortion laws that require people to reproduce against their will.

New laws imposing criminal penalties for trans healthcare follow a long legislative history of explicitly targeting queer people in the United States.

The racketeering charges against Young Thug, Gunna, and YSL are over-broad, over-stated and unnecessarily harsh.

The U.S. must close its congregate care facilities and fully fund community-based alternatives for kids with mental-health issues.

In January, a New Jersey judge said Shaken Baby Syndrome is “akin to junk science.”

Her jeans were so tight, she couldn’t have been raped, the judges said.

We’re celebrating 4/20 by tackling some popular myths about marijuana and the criminal legal system.