criminal justice reform
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Meek Mill Discusses His High-Profile Battle With Justice System: ‘This Happens to Minorities on a Daily Basis’
In an interview with CBS This Morning, rapper Meek Mill acknowledged that without the high-profile support and endorsements he received, he’d likely still be in prison. Back in November 2017, Judge Genece Brinkley ordered Meek to serve up to four years in prison for violating his probation on a 2008 conviction on drug and weapons…
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Colin Kaepernick Speaks Truth to Power, Refers to Police Killings of People of Color as ‘Lawful Lynchings’
Colin Kaepernick (you may have heard of him) recently received the 2018 Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International. The ceremony was held Saturday night in Amsterdam. During his speech, Kaepernick called it like we all see it, referring to the police killings of black and brown people as “lawful lynchings.” Kaepernick, who has been…
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Watch: To Understand How Harmful Juvenile Incarceration Is, Listen to This Poem
In a spoken-word poem, Dwayne Betts details the emotional impacts of juvenile incarceration. In partnership with WNYC Studios, we present Caught. #CaughtPodcast
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Watch: The Role of Teenage-Brain Science in Juvenile-Justice Reform
In 2005 the United States became the last country to end the death penalty for offenders under 18 years old. Adolescent neuroscience research played a huge part in changing this policy. However, there are still approximately 2,500 prison inmates in the United States serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed…
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Virginia Lawmakers Want to Dismantle Their ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline’
One of Virginia’s newest state delegates is working on a series of bills that would disrupt the “school-to-prison pipeline” in a state that recently led the country in referring students to the legal system. The Washington Post used the example of Ryan Turk, an eighth-grader from Prince William County, to illustrate the severity of Virginia’s problems.…
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New Jersey Prisons Lift Ban on Award-Winning Book The New Jim Crow
Updated Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, 1:15 p.m. EST: After being called out by the ACLU for banning an award-winning book about mass incarceration, New Jersey said that it has lifted the ban on Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. According to the New York Times, the state made its decision after the ACLU issued a…
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Kim Kardashian Hires Criminal Attorney to Help With Cases of 2 Jailed Black Women: Cyntoia Brown and Alice Johnson
Look at Kim Kardashian jumping in with tangible help for black women in trouble. According to reports, the famous-for-being-famous celeb has hired high-powered Los Angeles criminal attorney Shawn Holley (who was on the same O.J. Simpson “dream team” as Kardashian’s late father, Robert Kardashian) to help in the cases of two black women who have…
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Donor Found for Georgia 2-Year-Old Denied Kidney Transplant Because of Father’s Probation; Tyler Perry Gifts Child’s Mom a Car
About a month ago, things were not looking very good for one Georgia family. Little A.J. Burgess needed a lifesaving kidney transplant, which he was denied all because his father—a more than perfect match—violated his probation terms, and the health of the 25-pound 2-year-old who was born without working kidneys was rapidly declining. Fast-forward and…
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Philly Residents Plan March for Meek Mill
If you saw the hashtag #FreeMeek while browsing Black Twitter and thought someone was giving away Meek Mill’s albums, you are incorrect. Residents of Philadelphia will take to the streets Monday afternoon to protest the imprisonment of the rapper and notorious collector of L’s after the hip-hop star was imprisoned on parole violations. Born Robert…
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Philly Residents Proved How Voting Can Help End Mass Incarceration
When talking about inequality in the criminal-justice system, we often focus on the war on drugs, crooked cops or the prison-industrial complex. But insiders know there is one part of America’s legal system that has an outsized influence on convictions, sentencing and incarceration: Local prosecutors. Here are a few facts that bear witness to the…