criminal justice
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Following Viral Article, More Than 30,000 Call for Release of Black Teen Incarcerated for Not Doing Her Schoolwork
Earlier this week, ProPublica and the Detroit Free Press published a story about a 15-year-old Black girl, identified only as Grace, who is currently detained in a Michigan juvenile detention center for not keeping up with her schoolwork. The article, which went viral, chronicled the struggles between Grace, her mother and the legal system leading…
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The Story of a Black Teenage Girl Incarcerated for Not Doing Her Online Schoolwork Shows Us Just How Big Our Criminal Justice Problem Is
As activists have sustained calls for a radical transformation of our nation’s criminal justice system over the last several weeks, many among us are reimagining what necessary interventions ought to look like, absent the police. How can we resolve domestic issues, for instance, without having to call 911? One idea that’s been frequently tossed around…
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Facial Recognition Results in Detroit Man Being Arrested for a Crime He Didn't Commit
The long, arduous slog that’s been 2020 has had me reflecting on many things. One of those things has been how extensively movies and shows about cops lie to us. We’re repeatedly inundated with this idea that cops are moral arbiters who, operate like a well-oiled machine, and utilize the most cutting edge technology to…
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No Peace Without Economic Justice
When Andre Perry thinks about American policing and incarceration, he sees an economic issue as much as a human rights one. “There’s no bigger wealth extractor than the criminal justice system,” Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities told The…
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Christian Cooper Says He Will Not Participate in Prosecution of the White Woman Who Threatened to Call 911 on Him
Earlier this week, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said his office had filed charges against Amy Cooper, a white woman who went viral earlier this summer when she frantically threatened to call the cops on a Black bird watcher. She’s been charged with filing a false police report, a class “A” misdemeanor.” But the man…
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WNBA Star Maya Moore Earns MVP Off the Court by Helping Wrongly Convicted Black Man Regain His Freedom
As a young girl, Maya Moore dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player. But after conquering the sport as an adult, and abandoning that dream in order to pursue criminal justice reform, another dream of hers has now become a reality. ESPN reports that after putting her WNBA career on pause in 2019 in order…
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Spurred by the 2019 Death of Layleen Polanco, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Moves to End Solitary Confinement in City Jails
A year after trans Afro-Latina Layleen Xtravaganza Polanco died while imprisoned in solitary confinement at Rikers Island, New York City Bill de Blasio has vowed to end the practice “once and for all.” The mayor made the announcement during his Monday briefing, invoking Polanco’s name as well as that of Kalief Browder, the young Black…
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Chrystul Kizer, Held in Jail for 2 Years After Killing Her Alleged Abuser, Finally Set Free Thanks to Community Bond Fund
Chrystul Kizer, a 19-year-old accused of killing her alleged sex trafficker in 2018, was able to step outside Kenosha County Detention Facility in Wisconsin for the first time in two years on Monday. Saddled with an oppressively high bond—originally set at $1 million, then bumped down to $400,000—Kizer had been in jail since June 2018…
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The Stolen Life of Mecenia Dials
Macie’s dead. She was not killed by a police officer while running away. She was not killed by black-on-black crime. She did not die in a school shooting. She was not powerless—she was strong — but not strong enough to stop America from opening its ferocious mouth and sucking her into its unyielding belly, swallowing…