What you’ll read today Spotlight: In Texas, prosecution gets privatized In a Florida courtroom, people charged with probation violations face humiliation from judge Justice in America: police accountability Commentary: Missouri attorney general’s lack of courage in Lamar Johnson case is a miscarriage of justice Commentary: My friend spent many of his formative years in prison. He didn’t have to die there Federal judge […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: A conservative judge changes his mind In one California city, police kill with near impunity Chicago’s gang database can have ‘devastating’ consequences, but there’s no way to be removed from it Political Report: New Jersey and Kentucky restore voting rights to more than 200,000 Oregon’s Supreme Court limits police questioning during traffic stops Georgia legislature will not enfranchise anyone with […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Contemporary debtors prisons Ohio jail faces $2.8 million lawsuit after claims of abuse are made by dozens of men Curtis Flowers released on bail Bill that would enfranchise those on parole and probation in New Jersey heads to governor’s desk In the Spotlight Contemporary debtors prisons “Ours is an unforgiving age.” This is the first sentence […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: When McKinsey aids ICE and Rikers, is it amoral or immoral? Harris County DA candidate Audia Jones says she won’t prosecute sex work New Orleans jail staff supplied fentanyl that killed incarcerated man, lawsuit says Upstate New York county elects a reformist district attorney Dallas has been sending social workers to respond to 911 calls; the results are promising In […]
Special Edition What is the purpose of sex offender registries? Two days ago, the Union-Recorder in Georgia published a bizarre editorial. The editorial board noted that the state’s sex offender registry system drives people into homelessness and deprived them of counseling and employment opportunities, but laments this fact only insofar as it allows registrants to “fly […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Police play the victim when voters choose reform Working Families Party endorses José Garza for Travis County DA Chicago police torture: explained Supreme Court denies DOJ attempt to bypass appellate court and execute prisoners Selective enforcement of Bay Area public transit rules targets Black riders In the Spotlight Police play the victim when voters choose reform Last […]
The criminal legal system is unequal. Technology was supposed to help. But most of the time, technological advances end up magnifying inequality instead. Consider an example as simple as security cameras. When I was a public defender, I arraigned a case where a young man––we’ll call him Peter––was charged with felony assault on a police […]
Rodney Reed was scheduled to be executed tomorrow. He won’t be, at least not tomorrow. He was convicted and sentenced to die in 1998 for the rape and murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. But last Friday, the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas halted his execution and ordered the court where he was originally tried to consider […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Massachusetts’ highest court is urged to address a crisis in indigent defense Tuesday’s election boosts voting rights for people with past convictions Deadlocked San Francisco district attorney race shows strength of progressive prosecutor movement 39 years after a death sentence, Bobby Moore resentenced to life in prison in Texas In response to Freedom of Information request, Brooklyn […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: People in prison run enormous risks when they speak out. They need to be heard. Rep. Ayanna Pressley unveils sweeping plan to reshape American criminal legal system The Appeal Podcast: States turn to nitrogen gas for executions, despite serious concerns As Michigan raises the age, advocates vow to press for more change After bail reform, a drop in […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Democrats should deliver on gun control that doesn’t feed mass incarceration Why prisoners get the doctors no one else wants How district attorney Jackie Lacey failed Los Angeles Philadelphia trauma center closure could mean more shooting deaths—and more tough-on-crime talk Harmless Error: Explained After denying it existed, the NYPD finally destroyed an illegal database of children’s fingerprints Philadelphia […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: The U.S. has no “right to be forgotten.” But one news outlet is weighing the costs of the internet’s long memory. Commentary: New York subway police make us less safe Democrats flip prosecutors seats in Virginia Despite bipartisan pledges, drug arrests have gone up in recent years In the Spotlight The U.S. has no “right to be […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Yesterday, Oklahoma saw the largest mass commutation in U.S. history Commentary: It’s time to fight the Democratic mayors who are champions of the carceral state People behind the Girls Do Porn website were just charged with sex trafficking. But complaints were filed about them years ago. Illinois Department of Corrections revises book ban policy Study finds […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Chicago teachers fought for support staff and restorative justice in schools San Francisco police brutality claim puts pressure on next DA to hold cops accountable Arizona prosecutor commissions report that argues against leniency for teens who commit crimes San Francisco DA race is “wide open” before tomorrow’s election Federal prosecutors want no mention of Trump in second trial […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: In leaked audio, prosecutor admits locking people up is not about public safety California court destroys files in historic police corruption case A proposed solution to the facial recognition controversy Michigan raises age of criminal responsibility to 18 In the Spotlight In leaked audio, prosecutor admits locking people up is not about public safety “Hundreds of registered sex […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Louisiana prosecutors try to pull cases from Black judge who criticized discrimination in the courts New York State judges are jailing people who can’t afford to pay their fines Leaked presentation shows New York prosecutors training each other to subvert reform laws Tennessee sheriff cancels contract with ICE In the Spotlight Louisiana prosecutors try to pull cases from […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Julián Castro’s new criminal justice plan is long on inspiration, short on specifics Using nitrogen gas for executions is untested and poorly understood. Three states plan to do it anyway. Austin braces as Texas officials plan crackdown on homeless encampments Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg releases criminal justice reform plan New Mexico school resource officer who used excessive force on an […]
“As soon as Julie Eldred was granted probation for stealing jewelry to buy drugs, she got busy fulfilling the judge’s conditions,” Jan Hoffman reported for the New York Times last year. Eldred “began an intensive all-day outpatient treatment program. She even went an extra step and started daily doses of Suboxone, a medication that can quell opiate […]
The federal government pursues an execution that ‘is counter to the cultural beliefs and traditions of the Navajo People who value life’ In July, the Department of Justice announced that Attorney General William Barr had ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons to resume executions. The last federal execution was carried out in 2003, before challenges to the use […]
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. Early Saturday morning, Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, was at her home in Texas playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when police officers responded to a call […]
Early Saturday morning, Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, was at her home in Texas playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when police officers responded to a call made by a neighbor who noticed a front door open. Body camera footage released by the police shows Aaron Dean, a white police officer, going around the back of the […]
Special Edition Prison whistleblowers, too, are vulnerable This week, White House counsel informed House Democrats that the White House will not cooperate with their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The letter states, in part, “You have designed and implemented your inquiry in a matter that violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process.” As has become common for […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: A discriminatory rule that even Justice Kavanaugh opposes Philadelphia man begins rebuilding his life after wrongful conviction More than 40 people have died in the East Baton Rouge jail. Will voters oust the sheriff? Jury deadlocks in first police hate crime trial in a decade In LA, Black and Latinx people more likely than white people to be stopped […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: The First Step Act freed people. Now prosecutors are trying to lock some of them up again. When cops lie, should prosecutors rely on their testimony at trial? A night in jail over $2.75 Should public defenders be the ones to investigate police misconduct? ‘Feel good copaganda’ in Tempe sparks […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Prison systems can respect the religious rights of Muslims. State government should ensure they do. New York City’s homeless diversion program is ‘smoke and mirrors,’ advocates say Oregon overhauls its youth justice system The politics of prosecutors Woman pleads for husband charged by Bronx DA in their children’s deaths Ayanna […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: The federal government offered four arguments for reinstating the death penalty. They all fail. Pennsylvania Democrats had a chance to reject law limiting Philly DA’s authority Florida sheriffs arrest hundreds in ‘trafficking’ stings Secret documents show that Amazon’s Ring is ‘using local police as a de facto advertising firm’ Virginians […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Risk assessment tools are flawed—should we throw them away? In Alabama, decades-delayed injustice in a double homicide—or a brand new injustice? AG Barr says federal government will start executing people Federal court ruling could overturn hundreds of immigrant convictions Meek Mill gets a new trial In the Spotlight Risk assessment […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: In prison longer than any woman in Louisiana, and now recommended for clemency Miami officials: Most people who owe fines and fees can vote America’s new ‘Sheriff of the Year’ pushed to allow teachers to carry weapons in school Joe Biden’s criminal justice plan Conviction integrity unit seeks new trial […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: The allocution will not be televised Decarceration activist Janos Marton launches run for Manhattan DA Media Frame: Stop quoting Bill Bratton Prosecutors are trying to lock up people recently freed by the First Step Act Mark Kleiman, towering figure in drug policy, dies Bail reform in North Carolina results in no […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Needed in jails in a heat emergency: air conditioning and oversight Commentary: I was sexually assaulted. And I believe incarcerating rapists doesn’t help victims like me. Media Frame: 5 common tactics used to discredit reform DAs Will November bring a ‘wave’ of reform prosecutors in Virginia? Hawaii governor sinks criminal […]
Special Edition Cory Booker’s new sentencing reform bill centers the possibility of redemption An article by Campbell Robertson in the New York Times today looks at the case of Angelo Robinson, in prison in Ohio since 1997 for the murder of Veronica Jackson, committed when Robinson was 20 years old. A new project, Beyond Guilt, […]
Special Edition Stevens’s views evolved over time. Scalia called it ‘arrogance,’ but it was the opposite. Just about every year while they were on the bench, the Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia would take each other on. “These contests reflect the temperaments of the two men—Stevens’s cautious balancings against Scalia’s caustic certainties,” wrote […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Daniel Pantaleo won’t face federal charges. Will he be fired? Media Frame: Fentanyl panic is worsening the overdose crisis Commentary: County failures, not state reforms, are killing people in California jails Justice John Paul Stevens’s evolution on the death penalty LA settles for $53 million with women who were strip […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Blue Bell listeria outbreak killed three people, but only the teenage prankster accused of licking a carton will face charges Philadelphia DA asks court to declare death penalty system unconstitutional The struggle to be trans in Minnesota’s sex offender program No charges for killing Eric Garner WNYC uncovers direct link […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Challenging lawmakers to go inside prisons and jails Boston Globe accused of ‘Willie Horton’-style fearmongering New reports highlight behavior of Port Authority police in ‘lewd act’ arrests Immigrants stay home, fearing mass raids Phoenix prosecutor silent on police accountability, critics say Jackson, Mississippi, prosecutor candidate wants to fix a broken system […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: The dangers of gang databases and gang policing Commentary: San Francisco is paying for Jamal Trulove’s wrongful conviction. Will Kamala Harris? Media Frame: A ‘war on cops’ narrative without evidence Federal prosecutors will retry case against humanitarian worker Oakland to launch a pilot program of non-police responses to mental health […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Biden’s tough-on-crime past: Were all Dems really like that? ‘A town without pity’: Lawsuits allege police cover-up of sex abuse by officers in Maine New York’s highest court takes a big step backward The secret Facebook group where border patrol agents joke about children dying Groups sue to block Florida […]
Special Edition Fighting against a new prison—and winning—in Letcher County, Kentucky The region of eastern Kentucky, once reliant on mining and the coal industry, has, over the decades, become home to three federal prisons. Last year, the Daily Appeal wrote about the controversial proposal to build yet another federal prison in Letcher County, Kentucky. That […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: What if Justice Roberts gave criminal defendants do-overs like he did for the Trump administration? New Orleans youth crime: the epidemic that wasn’t Pennsylvania police department accused of sexism Bank of America will no longer fund private prisons (but Wayfair apparently will do business with them) Pennsylvania becomes the first […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: On Curtis Flowers, the Supreme Court got it right—for the wrong reasons In Oklahoma, private companies run pretrial services, driving people into debt Wisconsin on track to fund more prosecutors Study finds releasing prisoners in California reduced recidivism rate The NYPD has received thousands of bias complaints and substantiated none […]