Latest criminal justice news and commentary 1.14.25

Top reads: What if we listened to survivors of child sexual abuse about what they want to happen?; After the fall of the Assad regime and the release of thousands of prisoners in Syria, it’s a good time to reread this 2016 article on Syrian prisons; How ideology can help or hurt movements building power for change (don’t be deterred by the topic; this article is fascinating!); a solid rundown of work to cut the incarceration of women in California.

Media

• Roc Nation released a new podcast series about abuse in the Kansas City police department called Corruption Uncovered. A key focus is on disgraced officer Roger Golubski. Michael Harriot did a deep investigation on this in The Root.

• The New York Times reviewed a new documentary looking at parole: Nature of the Crime.

• More Perfect Union has an informative video on why CVS is getting worse. They’re understaffing stores and underpaying workers, and blaming theft for the degraded customer experience.

• Top Twitch streamer Hasan Piker met with incarcerated firefighters in L.A. and learned about their experiences. Here’s his full stream, and here is a short news segment about it.

Solutions and Wins

• President Biden continued his commutation program with clemency for 37 out of 40 people on federal death row, converting those sentences to life without parole. This brings relief to these prisoners and their families, finality to the cases (as they will be unlikely to continue appeals), and frees up a ton of resources. I’m really grateful to the President for using his clemency power in this way, which is not only good in itself, but also gives governors permission to do the same. This follows on his commutations for 1500 people who’ve been on home confinement since COVID. He has a few days left to do more, and we hope he does! But he should be celebrated for these actions so far.

• The Baltimore mayor’s violence prevention initiative seems to be working. Gun violence has declined 24% and non-fatal shootings were down 34% compared to the same time last year. Fewer teenagers were shot in the city during the first half of 2024 than any in recent history.

• The Justice Department announced reforms to curb suicides in federal prisons and jails, following scathing internal and news reports on terrible and dangerous conditions.

• Advocates in Michigan have succeeded in passing a bill eliminating most fines and fees for children in the justice system. Bolts has the story, explaining how onerous and destructive the old system was. The change is retroactive.

• The Nation did an in depth review of the impact of the new bail law in Illinois. Short version: even better than expected, with major reductions in jail populations and no crime bump.

Reports and Research

• In another great report, the Prison Policy Initiative laid out why jails and prisons aren’t going to be able to recruit their way out of their staff vacancy crisis – no one wants to work in overcrowded prisons, even if the pay is high compared to other high-stress, physically demanding jobs. A bunch of interventions haven’t worked to improve recruitment. Reducing the number of people in prison is the most direct and effective way to fix understaffing.

• The incomparable journalist Jennifer Gonnerman wrote about how prosecutors pick death penalty juries. Gonnerman has done phenomenal reporting over the years and is always worth reading.

• Scrutinize published a new report on how judges implemented NY’s new bail reform laws. Long story short, discretion matters a lot. Quote: “First, bright-line rules work - judges followed the clear requirements set in NY's bail reform law. Second, where there are no bright line rules, judges will use their discretion to undermine reform and maintain the status quo. “

• The Prison Policy Initiative did a useful report on jail bookings. It looks like 75% of admissions are for trivial things.

• ProPublica investigated the practice of sweeping homeless encampments, where incredibly important items and documents are trashed, making people even less stable.

Campaigns

• The Abolitionist Law Center is litigating against terrible jail conditions in Pennsylvania. Men were kept in near total darkness without heat or electricity for most of the day, lacking access to water for days at a time, while cockroaches ran over their food and they couldn’t see to eat, all supposedly to stop drug use.

• A republican Tennessee lawmaker is striving for reasons to remove the Memphis DA from office, meaning stripping a democratically-elected DA of his job. Mulroy, elected in 2022, is moderately reform-oriented.

• The California Coalition for Women Prisoners has done years of impactful work on prison conditions. Now they are aiming to close down the state’s remaining women’s facilities. The trajectory is good: the number of women inside has dropped by 70% in 15 years.

Wall of Shame

• Private Prison company GEO group is doing a ton of shady things, including arguing that it’s an extension of the government so should not have to pay taxes.

• The AP is continuing its powerful investigation into the exploitation of prison labor in Alabama. They found that prisoners are denied parole, yet work outside the prison for 40 hours a week and get weekend passes home. Safe enough to let out, but not safe enough to let out? Looks like the state wants to keep making a profit. All prison systems in the US are exploitative to some degree, but Alabama is really excelling here.

• The Seattle Police Department deputy chief is extremely excited to begin jailing more people again, after the city lifted restrictions on jailing people for every low level misdemeanors. When presented with information about how more jailing leads to worse outcomes for everyone, including more crime, and data showing that property and violent crime fell while the arrest restrictions were in place, the deputy chief responded that they just need to clean up the disorder in the street. In other words, it doesn’t work, but it looks like it could work, so that’s good enough.

• The Intercept reported on a 12-officer police raid on a student’s house, coordinated with the FBI, stemming from a graffiti incident. Why the extreme show of force? The student’s advocacy for Palestine.

• New York corrections officers beat a man to death while he was handcuffed on a medical examination table after a recent prison transfer. At least they have been fired.