Crime, Reform & Abolition

562 posts

Q&A: Two women could make history as the first Black woman DA and sheriff in Alameda County

Recent election cycles have seen a surge in the number of women, particularly women of color, running for elected office. Now, months after the highly anticipated 2020 election came to a close, two women have already their eyes set on two major elected positions in their county—and if they’

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12 Min
By: Carolyn Copeland

Beyond disaster relief, these Texas mutual aid networks are meeting people’s long-term needs

In the midst of the cascading catastrophes caused by the snowstorm that hit the South in mid-February, people across the country have been turning to mutual aid networks to offer support to hard-hit communities in Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Over 4 million Texans lost power and more than 70

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4 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Black girls are vulnerable to police violence, too. Is anyone giving them ‘the talk’?

In January, a video of police officers pepper spraying and arresting a 9-year-old Black girl in Rochester, New York, became the latest in a long line of viral videos and tragic cases of Black children being victimized by police violence. Black parents and families have long tried to mitigate their

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8 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Incarcerated California man shares his experience contracting COVID-19 behind bars

This narrative in the Unheard Voices of the Pandemic series from Voice of Witness is published with permission, as part of a partnership with Prism. Interview and editing by Mateo Hoke.  Under usual circumstances, U.S. prisons and jails are unhealthy and dangerous places to be, but they have been

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6 Min
By: Mateo Hoke

Defund the police? Not in our state, Indiana Republican lawmakers say

Last summer, in response to new incidents of anti-Black police violence, people around the country coalesced around a singular demand: defund the police. Whether intended as a step toward abolishing police altogether or as a method for shrinking but not entirely eliminating police power, the call to divest from policing

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6 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

I am a survivor of gun violence, but it took me years to realize it. Here’s why

Gun violence isn’t something I talked about growing up—not because it didn’t happen, but because it happened so often. Turn on the news, there it was. Open social media, there it was. Throughout the neighborhood, there it was. Then one day, it was in my own family.

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4 Min
By: Taina Patterson

Black mayors and law enforcement agents team up to eliminate white supremacy from police departments

Black lawmakers are teaming up with Black law enforcement agents to try to eliminate white supremacy from police departments across the country. On Jan. 20, The African American Mayors Association (AAMA) and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) released a joint press statement calling on police departments

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4 Min
By: Carolyn Copeland

How politics and punitive logic are warping the debate over COVID-19 vaccines in prisons

As the country approaches the one year mark of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 400,000 Americans and more than 2 million people worldwide, many are finding some spark of hope in the new availability of new and highly effective vaccines. In the face of limited

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7 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Compassion or capital punishment? Survivors push for an end to execution

As assistant chief investigator in New Jersey’s Office of the Public Defender, Dina Windle knows the ins and outs of the criminal legal system. And a survivor of violence herself, she understands the parts of the system that most people fail to acknowledge—especially when it comes the death

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9 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Released after decades in prison, a former Black Panther still faces threats to his freedom

Since the emergence of the Movement for Black Lives and the uprising against police violence that sparked new waves of activism last summer, an entire generation has returned to the lessons and tenets of past thinkers, organizers, and agitators, namely the Black Panther Party. Meanwhile in the mainstream, celebrities, activists,

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7 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

The child welfare system is another form of discriminatory policing

The sky was overcast but the air was warm and the streets were awash with sunlight as protesters gathered in tank tops, shorts, and skirts to march through Brooklyn in the early summer of 2020. Many of them held cardboard signs scripted with black sharpie slogans: “Black families matter,” “Dismantle

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5 Min
By: Elizabeth Brico

Federal government executes Lisa Montgomery, first woman put to death in 67 years

In the early morning of Jan. 13, the U.S. federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row and the first woman to be put to death by the federal government in 67 years. In the months leading up to Montgomery’s death, more attention than

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3 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Showing 12 of 562 total posts

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