criminal justice
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Patrisse Cullors, LA Reform Jails Tackle Mental Health, Mass Incarceration with Mental Health Matters Summit + Day Party
In its commitment to addressing the failures of the prison industrial complex—as it pertains to mental health, drug dependency, chronic homelessness, and other issues—Patrisse Cullors, founder of Reform L.A. Jails, knew her organization would require a unique strategy in order to build a stronger rapport with Los Angeles residents and educate them on the unspeakable…
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Ayanna Pressley's Latest Resolution Is a Sweeping Progressive Vision That Would Transform America's Legal System
Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley introduced on Thursday a comprehensive criminal justice resolution package that would massively restructure America’s legal system—and fundamentally reshape the role prisons and jails play in American life. Titled the “the People’s Justice Guarantee,” the resolution is a progressive vision of justice that is being touted as “the most progressive and comprehensive plan…
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Louisiana DA Tries to Remove Black Judge from Hundreds of Cases After She Spoke Out Against Racial Injustice
Some funny things happen when you try to tell the truth. In Louisiana, for instance, a white district attorney is actively undermining and delegitimizing a black judge for daring to say that the criminal justice system “disproportionately puts African Americans in more harm or risk than anyone else.” As the Acadiana Advocate reports, Sixteenth Judicial…
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ACLU Files Suit Against South Carolina's Wealth-Based Driver's License Suspensions
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles’ policy of automatically suspending the driver’s licenses of people unable to pay traffic tickets, a policy which disproportionately affects poor and nonwhite people. Along with the ACLU of South Carolina, Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC, the Southern…
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When NY Ended Money Bail, a Prosecutor Trained DAs to Keep People in Jail
As New York joined a handful of other states in passing sweeping criminal justice reforms, one of the state’s top prosecutors helped attorneys and legislators find loopholes to subvert laws intended to end money bail and guarantee speedy trials. In April, New York Democrats, who controlled the governorship and both legislative branches, passed measures that…
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Exonerated Five Fighting to Stop Cops From Lying, Using Innocent People’s DNA and Other Things You Probably Thought Were Already Illegal
Innocent until proven guilty is one of the foundational tenets of American jurisprudence. Even when a person is arrested and jailed for a crime, they are afforded the same presumption of innocence as Ivanka Trump, Jesus Christ, the white people in lotion commercials or any other unblemished, blue-eyed blonde American. Of course, if you’re black,…
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‘What the Hell …’?: Trump Touts Himself as the Best to Ever Do It for Black America Before an Audience of Allies at Benedict College Criminal Justice Forum
Donald Trump kicked off a three-day criminal-justice forum at South Carolina’s Benedict College on Friday, giving a racially fraught speech before an audience predominated by Trump friendlies and including few students from the HBCU. Trump was the headliner Friday at the “Second Step Presidential Justice Forum.” Billed as a bipartisan discussion of criminal-justice issues, the forum’s…
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Botham Jean, Amber Guyger and the Delusion of Forgiveness
It was described as “stunning,” “rare,” and “inspirational”: Brandt Jean, the younger brother of Botham Jean, killed last year at the hands of a Dallas police officer who mistakenly walked into his apartment, asking his brother’s killer if he could hug her. “I love you as a person,” Jean, who had been delivering his victim…
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Dallas Cop Who Got Fired After Killing a Black Man Minding His Own Business in His Own Home Cries Self-Defense as Murder Trial Begins
The Dallas cop who got fired after she shot and killed a black man in his own home, saying she mistook his apartment door for her own, is claiming self-defense as her murder trial gets underway. Amber Guyger had been on the Dallas police force for about five years when she fatally fired on 26-year-old…
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Kamala Harris Releases Criminal Justice Reform Plan to Address Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, the Drug War
Kamala Harris has a lot of plans. Every other week the California senator introduces a proposal that would end climate change (with a trillion dollars,) create Medicare-for-all (without pushing out private insurers) and fund black businesses (while ensuring that the local Jamaican restaurant never runs out of oxtails). And on Monday, the Democratic presidential hopeful…