Crime, Reform & Abolition

562 posts

For rural communities, decades-long investment in incarceration poses grave COVID-19 threat

On Feb. 29, a funeral for 64-year-old Andrew Jerome Mitchell in the small rural town of Albany, Georgia, unknowingly became what health experts call a “super spreading event” for the coronavirus. In the days and weeks following the service, the surrounding county of Dougherty—with a population of just under

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5 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

It shouldn’t take a pandemic for Los Angeles to see the dangers of mass incarceration

The crisis Los Angeles is facing as we confront COVID-19 does not take place in a vacuum. It is a public health crisis that converges with many decisions we have made as a county thus far. Decades of investing in policing and punishment have put our health at greater risk.

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5 Min
By: Mark-Anthony Jones

No child is irredeemably corrupt. It’s time to abolish life without parole sentences for juveniles

Lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson said it best: “Slavery never ended, it evolved.” When reflecting on our current system of mass incarceration and the racial bias that dominates today’s criminal justice systems, there is a consistent pattern of racial inequality and economic injustice that is enforced by

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8 Min
By: Luna Reyna

Paycheck Protection Program shuts out many small business owners with criminal records

An additional $484 billion in emergency loans for small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic was approved by the House of Representatives last week. By April 16, the initial $349 billion granted through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program had been used up after less than two weeks.

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7 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Prison gerrymandering: what it is, its role in the census, and how organizers are trying to end it

Imagine being sent to live in a community you have never been in before. You never see beyond the walls of the building that you eat, sleep, and work in. Local leadership and political hopefuls rarely, if ever, come to visit you or ask you questions about your needs—mostly

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5 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

San Francisco’s new DA is trying to stop families from being separated by incarceration

Both of Carizma Hughes’ fathers have spent time behind bars. Her biological father has been in and out of prison most of her life, and her stepfather has been incarcerated for 26 years. She never knows when her biological father will disappear again and turn up in jail. “Right now

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5 Min
By: Casey O'Brien

She was arrested for trace amounts of weed. Now Shanel Lindsay is transforming the cannabis industry

In 2009, shortly after Massachusetts decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, Shanel Lindsay was arrested for possession when she was pulled over for a traffic violation. She’d been using marijuana to treat pain from ovarian cysts. She says she repeatedly told the officer it was half an ounce,

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4 Min
By: Lola Méndez

Families shouldn’t have to go into debt to talk to loved ones in jail. Phone calls should be free

Most prisons in America contract out their phone services for incarcerated people to two telecommunications companies: Securus Technologies and Global Tel Link. This allows those companies to set and control pricing for the vast majority of all phone calls from people in prison. Incarcerated people typically set up accounts with

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4 Min
By: Dawn Onley

Incarcerated activists face retaliation for speaking out about COVID-19

This Saturday morning marked the twelfth meal that Stevie Wilson had skipped. It was his fifth day in the “hole” at the maximum security State Correctional Institution at Fayette, located in a rural county about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Described by Wilson as “a prison inside of a

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8 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

New PBS documentary, ‘Bedlam,’ spotlights how people with mental illness are funneled into prisons

As a society, we’ve come to know this quote: “The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” This is not only an idea we are invoking as we see pieces of our systems and federal leaders falter in all-too-familiar ways

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4 Min
By: Patrisse Cullors

How much do you know about the judges in your state? The facts might concern you

Judges are tasked with applying the law to the facts, and are often called upon to determine which barriers have risen too high and what behaviors are considered reasonable. The lens through which a judge views the facts of criminal and civil cases, as well as appeals, affects the outcome

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3 Min
By: Yveka Pierre

Incarcerated people are being neglected during the pandemic, and it’s threatening public health

Sheila’s 25-year-old son has been detained pretrial at Manhattan Detention Center (MDC) for almost three years. He hasn’t yet been convicted of any crime, but he’s losing hope that he’ll ever see home again. Two weeks ago, he told his mother that he’d lost his

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8 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Showing 12 of 562 total posts

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