Latest criminal justice news and commentary 3.18.25

Top reads: For many families, the death penalty brings no closure; New York has a ruthless prison dynasty family, because of course it does; a feminist law professor says we should stop arresting people for domestic violence.

Media

• The Guardian wrote movingly about the experience of a man waiting for the execution of his father’s killer, as portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film, I am Ready, Warden (now streaming).

• A CBS documentary about a Florida prisoner’s tragic and preventable suicide has provoked a republican legislator to introduce a bill giving diversion options to people with mental illness.

• Former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy and Trump’s “pardon czar” Alice Johnson together critiqued mandatory minimums on a recent episode of his show. Gowdy, a former prosecutor, said “we have incarcerated a generation of young Black men with mandatory minimum drug cases and it doesn’t make any sense to me.” Note: Ms. Johnson incorrectly states that President Biden’s commutations didn’t release people from prison.

• Dwayne Betts published his new poem “Jethro’s Corner” in The Atlantic.

• Legendary Professor Steve Bright’s book The Fear of Too Much Justice comes out in paperback this spring. I have it pre-ordered. Bright founded the Southern Center for Human Rights. I met him when I took his course on how criminal procedure actually works for poor people. Spoiler - it’s deeply, profoundly unfair.

• Democracy Now covered the release of Leonard Peltier from federal prison.

Misc news

• Six senior members of the Bureau of Prisons leadership, including the Acting Director, abruptly announced their retirement. It’s not clear what’s going on in there.

• Wellpath, a major prison healthcare provider that is backed by private equity, is meandering its way through bankruptcy proceedings. They are the second such firm to file for bankruptcy in the past two years. Prisoners suing them for substandard care are trying to stay positioned. For an in-depth look at prison healthcare, see PPI’s report here.

• Larry Krasner filed for reelection as DA of Philadelphia.

Solutions and Wins

• Kentucky has introduced a ‘primary caregivers’ bill, which will provide diversion options for parents of young children. The goal is to avoid families being separated over low level crimes.

• Ann Arbor, Michigan has a new sheriff who is committed to solutions that lead people away from jail rather than into it. She will team up with DA Eli Savit to implement that vision.

• Between 2000 and 2020, the number of young people incarcerated in the United States declined by an astonishing 77%. James Forman writes for the NYTimes to explain how it happened, and you can listen to Forman and others discussing it on KQED here.

• A new study finds that the state of Indiana is saving more than $45 million a year thanks to increased mental health crisis services that are keeping more people out of jail. These savings are in addition to the more than $80 million saved in treatment costs thanks to effective early interventions that keep people out of hospitals.

• The “Community Over Cages” coalition in Atlanta is putting on pressure to reduce jailing in Atlanta and to improve the bad conditions there. Here’s a recent oped.

• Several reform bills are gaining momentum in New York, including: second look (allowing the court to consider claims by prisoners that their sentences are excessive or that they have transformed); earned time expansion (allowing prisoners to get time off for good behavior and participating in rehabilitation) and an act eliminating mandatory minimums entirely, plus elder parole (which now has a majority of the state senate in support).

• Governor Evers in Wisconsin has laid out a reform plan to upgrade certain prison facilities and close others, expand drug treatment programs, and shorten certain sentences for low level offenses. Local voices say that this is inadequate, and say that if he wants to reduce the state’s overcrowded prison population, here are some good ways to do it.

• Indigenous rights activist Leonard Peltier arrived home after nearly 50 years in prison, after President Biden commuted his sentence.

Wall of Shame

• Protesters, advocates, and lawmakers gathered in Albany, NY to demand prison reform in response to the killing of Robert Brooks, beaten to death by guards at Marcy Correctional Facility nearly two months ago. At the same time, New York prison guards went on a wildcat strike for three weeks. It ended when the commissioner fired 2,000 guards. The Center for Community Alternatives says that officers used the strike as a strategy to resist accountability for violence and human rights abuses within New York’s prisons and undermine criminal justice reforms. On point: NY Focus did an in-depth investigation into NY state prison commissioner Daniel Martuscello, detailing how his family has come to ruthlessly dominate NY prison politics over decades.

• The Lever did a remarkable deep dive into the squabbles between very wealthy owners of the prison telcom company ‘Smart Communications.’ The world would be much better without it. Follow Worth Rises for more information like this.

• The CEO of private prison giant Core Civic gleefully told investors how excited he is for the growth of their company this year. The company stands to benefit handsomely from mass detention of immigrants.

• Various states that haven’t executed a prisoner in years are scheduling executions this year.

• Thirty corrections officers in Los Angeles have been charged with various crimes for running ‘gladiator fights’ at a youth detention facility that’s run by the probation department.

• Many of the immigrants transported to Guantanamo, who Trump claimed were extremely dangerous, have in fact been designated low risk.