Despite sentencing reforms, hundreds of thousands of people who have been incarcerated over the last several decades are ineligible for parole.
Rob Bonta’s career has hinged on the idea that the law can be used to engender social justice. His elevation to California’s “top cop” position, where he will become responsible for the vast bureaucracy of the state’s criminal legal system, will be a crucible for that belief.
Local activists have soured on incumbent Mayor Ron Nirenberg, and no other candidate offers a compelling alternative.
True public safety, advocates say, is one of the most urgent issues facing Cincinnati voters ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.
Incumbent Bill Peduto’s policing record is under scrutiny after protests last summer. He is facing what may be his most competitive race yet.
Repealing state and federal mandatory minimums will help address the mass incarceration crisis, advocates hope.
Days before the election, campaign finance reports show that real-estate and construction industries favor Cara Spencer over Tishaura Jones.
Four first-time candidates could grant progressives a majority on the Board of Alders and transform public safety and housing policy.
One of the leading candidates for Anchorage’s mayoral race is backed by a far-right Facebook group tied to the U.S. Capitol riot.
Two progressive candidates will move on to the general election, while Lewis Reed, a figure in St. Louis’s Democratic party establishment since 1999, couldn’t carry a single ward.
The housing advocate’s run for city council could be a Texan litmus test for the broad appeal of policies popular with working class voters.
Jones says her experience transforming the treasurer’s office will make her an effective mayor. Voters will let candidates know what they think next week.
Jennifer Carroll Foy is a former public defender and state legislator who wants to overhaul school funding and extend an eviction moratorium until the end of 2022.
Proposed legislation would allow people accused of crimes to tell juries if they had a mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, or an intellectual or developmental disability at the time of a crime. The bill could have helped individuals like Matthew Rushin.
The four candidates vying to replace the mayor are each promising to build a better St. Louis, and in a little over a week, voters will decide which visions they endorse.
Months after footage emerged of officers fatally suffocating Daniel Prude, police were caught on video pepper-spraying a 9-year-old girl. Advocates say the incident highlights the shortcomings of Mayor Lovely Warren’s crisis response team.
The U.S. representative has been a chief architect of mass incarceration in the state and an instigator of racial injustice.
The political paradigm emerging in Louisville is being formed by newcomers to local politics.
It’s the latest bill in the state legislature’s long history of meddling with voter-approved amendments.
The intense backlash to his recent comments criticizing $2,000 stimulus checks signal the growing momentum for guaranteed income programs—and the emerging power of voters who care more about substantive results than partisan skirmishes.
More than 35 members of Congress signed a letter asking Biden to commute the sentences of the remaining 50 people on federal death row.
There may be one reason for local progressives to support Walsh for the U.S. secretary of labor: He’ll leave town.
It’s time for political leaders, no matter their party, to listen to voters—and provide financial relief from the pandemic.
By winning a narrow majority in the upper chamber, Democrats could at last stop the Republican assault on voting rights—if its centrist members have the courage to do so.
Progressive policies face a committee structure that distorts democracy and favors corporate-backed centrists.
Control of the U.S. Senate hinges on the results of next month’s runoff.
Incumbents Jimmy Flannigan and Alison Alter have been targeted by conservative challengers because of the council’s votes to cut police funding and repeal a ban on public camping.
Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman has jumpstarted the state’s pardons process, while Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s self-styled progressivism isn’t winning over advocates.
None of the Austin City Council members who voted to cut police funding lost their elections, but a police union vice president who fearmongered about the defund movement did.
In North Carolina, Attorney General Josh Stein’s Republican opponent painted him as soft on crime. Voters re-elected him anyway.
A Democratic president who politely listens to progressive rhetoric while failing to act on it is one who just watches the planet burn a little more slowly.
Voters decided to keep Adel in charge of the third-largest prosecuting agency in the country. She is recovering from emergency surgery for bleeding in her brain.
Fife has pledged to reinvest in the local community, aggressively combat the housing crisis, address income inequality, education, healthcare and more.
Party leaders have blamed progressive left policies for disappointing electoral results. A close examination of winners and losers suggests otherwise.
Candidates promising to remake Southern California’s legal system, won major races for DA, county supervisor, and City Council, among others while overcoming significant spending by pro-law enforcement groups.
Los Angeles County, with the country’s largest jail system and largest local prosecutor office, is considered a crown jewel in a nationwide push for criminal justice reform.
The ideological change is a boon for the left, as states prepare for redistricting in 2021 and the challenges that may come with it.
The LA County supervisors are poised to tackle a wide range of criminal justice reforms, including moving children and people struggling with mental health issues out of the criminal legal system, and redirecting millions of dollars away from law enforcement and back into communities.
Current law mandated that the city have at least 1,971 full-time police officers.
Jones has vowed to support expansion of the Supreme Court, back the Green New Deal, and push for criminal justice reform.