Displaying all articles tagged:
Mass Incarceration
danny masterson rape trial
Sept. 11, 2023
A (Very Partial) Defense of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis It’s okay to write a leniency letter for a rapist, just not one that implies he’s innocent.
By Eric Levitz
Kanye West Can Be Bipolar and Accountable for His Antisemitism The case for holding someone accountable for harmful actions does not rest on whether they had full agency over their behavior.
By Eric Levitz
criminal justice
July 5, 2021
When Will Joe Biden Start Using His Clemency Powers? The president has signaled he wants to grant more pardons and commutations. The time to begin is now.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
art and soul
Sept. 21, 2020
MoMA PS1 Reopens to the Public With ‘Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration’ Featuring art made by people in prisons as well as work by non-incarcerated artists.
By Cassidy George
trans rights
Aug. 31, 2020
What Really Happened to Layleen Polanco? Polanco died in solitary confinement at Rikers last year. Now her family has reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city.
By Hannah Gold
2020 elections
Aug. 14, 2020
The ‘Tough on Crime’ Ticket The historical irony of a Biden-Harris ticket during a criminal-justice reckoning.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
bill de blasio
Aug. 8, 2020
Bill de Blasio Is Using New York’s Murder Rate to Demagogue The mayor doesn’t know why murder rates have risen in the city. But he’s using them for political purposes anyway.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
The ‘Law and Order’ Trap Some Democrats are agitating for Biden to try to get to the right of the Republican Party on crime. They shouldn’t.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
mass incarceration
May 14, 2020
Pregnant Woman Held in Coronavirus-Ridden Jail Over Traffic Violations Diamond Davis was pulled over for driving with temporary plates, then had to spend the night in jail during a coronavirus outbreak.
By Hannah Gold
Who ‘Deserves’ Jail During a Pandemic? The Cook County Jail in Chicago is America’s biggest coronavirus hotspot. Why did we allow this?
By Zak Cheney-Rice
Rikers Island Reports Its First COVID-Related Prisoner Death Michael Tyson, 53, had been locked up for a noncriminal, technical parole violation.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
coronavirus
Mar. 27, 2020
Coronavirus Fears Spark Prison Strikes, Protests, and Riots Around the World From Colombia to France to the U.S., prisoners are struggling to protect themselves where their jailers won’t.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
coronavirus
Mar. 24, 2020
Officials Are Using the Coronavirus to Expand the Criminal-Justice System Officials are asking for — and doling out — increased law-enforcement power.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
coronavirus
Mar. 18, 2020
Rikers Island Prisoner Tests Positive for Coronavirus Advocates have long warned about the deadly stakes of a jail or prison outbreak.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
democratic primaries
Mar. 18, 2020
Kim Foxx Wins Reelection in Chicago, Despite Jussie Smollett Case Opponents’ efforts to make the race a referendum on the Jussie Smollett case appear to have failed.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
coronavirus
Mar. 17, 2020
By Zak Cheney-Rice
coronavirus
Mar. 14, 2020
Pandemics Are a Great Reason to De-carcerate Coronavirus could wreak havoc on jails and prisons. If their inhumane conditions weren’t a self-evident reason to shrink them, this should be.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
criminal justice
Mar. 8, 2020
On Criminal Justice, Biden Has No Moral Standing Over Trump One of Trump’s main general election strategies will be contrasting the two men’s records. And it looks bad for Biden.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
criminal justice
Feb. 25, 2020
By Zak Cheney-Rice
immigration
Feb. 24, 2020
Biden and Bernie Pivoted on Deportations. America Must Go Even Further. Temporary moratoriums and only deporting “violent criminals” isn’t enough.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
The Lesson Trump Pardonees Learned in Prison: Prison Is Brutal and Unfair The Trump era is marked by many people’s dawning realization of how awful prison is when they personally have to endure it.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
michael bloomberg
Feb. 12, 2020
Why ‘Stop and Frisk’ Hasn’t Arrested Bloomberg’s Rise The former New York mayor’s ascension up the 2020 ranks, especially among black voters, seems incongruous. It’s not.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
criminal justice
Feb. 11, 2020
Trump Forgets That Criminal-Justice Reform Is His New Brand Last week, he was bragging about being forgiving. This week, he’s praising China for executing drug dealers.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
mass incarceration
Feb. 7, 2020
By Zak Cheney-Rice
democratic primaries
Jan. 31, 2020
Amy Klobuchar’s Dismal Polling With Black Voters Should Be Even Worse Myon Burrell’s murder case has the Minneapolis NAACP and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities calling on the senator to suspend her campaign.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
mass incarceration
Jan. 30, 2020
These Are the Prisons America Asked For The recent violence at Parchman Farm was not just predictable. It was inevitable.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
criminal justice
Nov. 11, 2019
Chesa Boudin’s Challenge to San Francisco — and America What happens when a district attorney candidate promises to upend what the criminal-justice system was designed to do?
By Zak Cheney-Rice
How America’s Health-Care System Makes Mass Incarceration Worse A report from AL.com and ProPublica unearths disturbing practices in Alabama.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
women’s health
Aug. 29, 2019
A Woman Says She Was Forced to Give Birth in a Dirty Jail Cell, Completely Alone In a new lawsuit, Diana Sanchez says authorities “callously made her labor alone for hours.”
By Hannah Gold
Cyntoia Brown Has Finally Been Released From Prison After serving 15 years of a life sentence for killing a man who paid her for sex when she was 16.
By Bridget Read
The Death Penalty Is a Farce. William Barr’s Plan Might Make It Torturous. Capital punishment in America is racist and punishes innocent people at unconscionable rates. William Barr’s plan to use pentobarbital makes it worse.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
RIP Mark Kleiman, a Wonk Whose Work Mattered We’ve lost one of our greatest thinkers on drug and crime policy, just when we need his counsel most.
By Ed Kilgore
vision 2020
July 23, 2019
Biden Seeks to Cleanse His Record With Criminal-Justice-Reform Proposal Just as Biden once sought “cover” with tough-on-crime policies, he’s now reversing course to protect his status with African-American voters.
By Ed Kilgore
Bryan Stevenson on His ‘Not Entirely Rational’ Quest for Justice The attorney and activist on how America’s racial sins live on in our criminal justice system — and his belief that a transformation is possible.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
so you want to be president
June 21, 2019
Elizabeth Warren Wants to Ban ‘Corrupt and Inhumane’ Private Prisons Private prisons are notoriously abusive. Elizabeth Warren says she’s got a plan for that.
By Sarah Jones
Prison Is Torture. Voting Is Self-Defense. If prisoners continue to be barred from voting, the American electorate will continue drowning them in human-rights atrocities.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
Can Progressives Forgive Kamala Harris Her Past Moderation? Harris saved her outspoken progressivism for the 2020 presidential campaign. Will the “long game” she pursued as a prosecutor hurt her?
By Ed Kilgore
2020 presidential election
Mar. 20, 2019
Could Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams Form an Early Dream Ticket for 2020? There’s no real evidence to suggest it’s in the works, but it’s a fascinating possibility that could appeal to both pols.
By Ed Kilgore
the democrats
Jan. 23, 2019
Advice to Reformed ‘Tough on Crime’ Democrats: Be Honest Joe Biden and Kamala Harris built their careers on crime and punishment. The reckoning should be honest rather than politically expedient.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
2020 elections
Jan. 10, 2019
Biden’s Baggage Could Be a Heavy Lift in 2020 Problems with Biden’s record go far beyond the 1994 crime bill and Anita Hill. His longevity in politics is a treasure trove for his foes.
By Ed Kilgore
The Problem With Prison Isn’t Steak and Pie on Holidays Outrage over federal prisoners being fed well on New Year’s Day while prison workers go unpaid due to the shutdown is ridiculous.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
criminal justice reform
Dec. 20, 2018
The First Step Act Deserves Your Skepticism Tuesday’s celebrated bipartisan criminal-justice reform bill rests on an extremely fragile foundation.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
criminal justice reform
Nov. 20, 2018
Will Mitch McConnell Stand Tall for the Lock-Em-All-Up Racists of His Party? Trump could probably get his son-in-law’s prison-/sentencing-reform compromise through the Senate with a call to McConnell — but he may not even try.
By Ed Kilgore
bipartisanship
Nov. 16, 2018
Republicans and Democrats Can Agree. Mass Incarceration Is Proof. Trump is being hailed for unifying Republicans and Democrats around criminal justice. But the parties have rarely been that divided on this issue.
By Zak Cheney-Rice
shane bauer
Sept. 21, 2018
Shane Bauer Talks Working Undercover at a Private Prison In a new book, the investigative reporter toggles between the grim present and brutal history of for-profit incarceration in America.
By Benjamin Hart
criminal justice reform
Aug. 21, 2018
America’s Prisoners Are on Strike. We Can’t Afford to Deny Their Demands. Our nation’s mass incarceration habit is morally and financially bankrupting us. This week, America’s inmates are staging an intervention.
By Eric Levitz
Reformer Ousts St. Louis Prosecutor Who Didn’t Charge Cop in Michael Brown Case A progressive, former public defender just beat a seven-term prosecutor who was famous for being tough on criminal defendants (unless they were cops).
By Eric Levitz
‘Sheriff Joe’ and Everyday American Authoritarianism To see what racist tyranny would look like in the U.S., liberals don’t need to look into Europe’s history — only deeper into this country’s present.
By Eric Levitz
Can Trump and Sessions Kill Criminal-Justice Reform? Probably Not. While Trump’s election showed a return to “backlash” criminal-justice policies was politically feasible, state and local decision-makers matter more.
By Ed Kilgore
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