Drawing from years in public defense and her work co-founding Partners for Justice, she explains why the criminal legal system often punishes instability rather than crime - and how policy choices, not individual morality, frequently determine who enters the system.
A far-left Brooklyn pol is hoping the third time's a charm with socialist Zohran Mamdani now NYC mayor as she pushes legislation that could give "young people" carte blanche to commit crimes without fear of being arrested. The legislation, reintroduced for a third time on Jan. 29 by Democratic Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, would require that "young people" be "diverted" to "community-based organizations to receive services in lieu of criminal enforcement."
Local nonprofit For The People presents a free special screening of Oscar-nominated documentary The Alabama Solution, a gripping inside look at how incarcerated men risk everything to expose injustice-using footage captured behind prison walls. The screening will be followed by a conversation with justice leaders focused on solutions. Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.
After her partner was sentenced to 22 years in jail at age 17, Harris experienced life as a young Black mother fighting to keep her family intact while navigating the justice system. "The first five years were the most difficult for him because he felt his life was over," she said. "Twenty-two years ... when you are a teenager sounds like a lifetime."
David Lammy's plans to introduce judge-only criminal trials in England and Wales will save less than 2% of time in crown courts, the Institute for Government (IFG) has said. In a report that casts doubt on the ability of the changes, which will slash the number of jury trials to achieve their goal of wiping out the courts' backlog, the thinktank described the gains from judge-only trials as marginal.
More than a decade after a jailhouse snitch scandal rocked the Orange County district attorney's office and nearly upended the prosecution of the deadliest mass shooting in county history, federal officials announced they have ceased overseeing the department's informant program, citing recent reforms. The decision, announced Dec. 23, ends a year-long agreement between the Department of Justice and local prosecutors who were tasked with reforming the way they use informants in criminal cases.
In 2024 in Alameda County, we saw that same carnage, the destabilization of our justice system by a billionaire - a single billionaire - and his wannabe wealthy friends, who spent millions of dollars on a recall campaign to destabilize our justice system.
The law is meant to offer hope to people who are facing long sentences for crimes related to their victimization: women who kill their abusers, for instance, or victims of sex trafficking who harm the people who have trafficked them. These people are often referred to as criminalized survivors, recognizing their dual status as victims and defendants. Similar laws have already been passed in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, and Oklahoma and proposed in several other states.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
He served 27 years in prison before being granted parole. As soon as he was released, he was taken into ICE custody. Although not currently incarcerated, Prasad is haunted by the fear of deportation, given the administration's escalated actions against immigrants. Additionally, as a queer man, he faces potential persecution in Fiji. Prasad and his legal team are seeking a full pardon from Governor Newsom.
Her office paid tribute to her as a committed and passionate advocate for victims who drew on her own experience of the criminal justice system to campaign for victims to be treated with compassion, decency and respect. A statement read: Under her leadership, the role of victims' commissioner was transformed growing in stature, influence and authority.
Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty. Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about, declared Abdul El-Sayed in 2020. The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people, read another one of the thousands of tweets deleted by the progressive Democrat, who was also a CNN contributor at one point.
It's a Wednesday afternoon in Department 1203 at the Central Courthouse, and the man in the defendant's chair is anxious. The next morning, he'll be released from jail and expected to put his name on a waiting list at a drug treatment program. He has no car, no cellphone, no money for cab fare, and, he tells Superior Court Judge Cindy Davis, a poor sense of direction.
Because many of his cases were sealed, it is unclear why Bohler remained free for years. His latest case came while he was already locked up at Rikers Island on the machete attack, when he was charged on Oct. 9 with hitting and killing pedestrian Lelawattie Narine, a cancer survivor who was out for a walk in Queens on March 22, 2024, when she was struck and killed.
"Having that haven, a roof over your head-it is the most important thing in the world." That's how Richard, the first resident of the Fulton Community Reentry Center in the Bronx, described what it felt like to walk through our doors after leaving prison. Recently, Fulton reached a significant milestone: more than 75 formerly incarcerated men have moved into permanent homes and reintegrated with society as productive community members.
One of the most significant changes is the elimination of Florida's commercial rental tax, which has been in effect for decades. First enacted in 1968, it added state sales tax to commercial leases, making Florida unique among the states. As of October 1, the tax will disappear, a measure that is expected to save businesses nearly $1.15 billion this fiscal year and more than $1.5 billion next year.
We reject the outdated view that criminal justice is a zero-sum game that pits safety versus justice against one another. Moreover, history - and countless studies, data, and lived experiences - tells us reactive policymaking driven by politics and fear in response to a specific incident, no matter how awful, leads to poor legislation that serves neither justice nor safety.
Serious violent crime in England and Wales should be expected to rise unless urgent steps are taken to boost the probation service. That is the alarming warning from Martin Jones, HM chief inspector of probation. He estimates that 100,000 offenders on probation are currently not being properly managed. This overstretched service cannot be expected to manage the increased workload that will follow from sentencing reforms.
When Connecticut legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, the state's lieutenant governor, Susan Bysiewicz, boasted that the new law was "crafted to repair the wounds left by the War on Drugs." The move followed the same rationale that had motivated legalization in 18 other states: fewer resources exhausted on policing a drug that legalization advocates view as largely unharmful, fewer lives derailed by what they argue to be excessive lockups.
