Top reads: the Democratic party is making a huge mistake by ignoring people in prison; ICE is trying to sell 7 warehouses it bought for $700 million; The Alabama Solution’s curriculum page is great.
Commentary and Analysis
Kwaneta Harris wrote a trenchant piece about how dangerous it is for the Democratic Party to abandon prisoners. She describes how Turning Point USA is busy recruiting in Texas prisons.
The Work Release is Beyond the Bars’ monthly substack about how the economy locks people with criminal records out of good jobs, and how they are organizing to change the rules. Check out their 3-part series on race, work, and power in America’s construction industry.
Mariame Kaba reflects on the 10th year anniversary of Survived and Punished, an organization built to decriminalize actions taken to survive domestic and sexual abuse. She closes with these words by Rebecca Farr that bear repeating:
“I am not proposing that sexual violence and domestic violence will no longer exist. I am proposing that we create a world where so many people are walking around with the skills and knowledge to support someone that there is no longer a need for anonymous hotlines. I am proposing that we break through the shame of survivors (a result of rape culture) and the victim-blaming ideology of all of us (also a result of rape culture) so that survivors can gain support from the people already in their lives. I am proposing that we create a society where community members care enough to hold an abuser accountable so that a survivor does not have to flee their home. I am proposing that all of the folks that have been disappointed by systems work together to create alternative systems. I am proposing that we organize.”
The Urban Institute published a compelling letter to D.C. policymakers with ideas to reduce shootings. Very lucid and worth reading!
Republicans have been in favor of criminal justice reform for years, including in the reddest of states (as I saw first hand when doing policy at the ACLU). They backed away during the post-COVID crime spike, but now that things have cooled down, they’re coming back to the table. This rhetoric embracing reform isn’t new, but it’s welcome. Though of course their arguments are still framed in ideological terms.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson meditated on belonging and the future of America against the backdrop of a New York City united during the Knicks championship run.
Media
I finally started reading The Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt, by Orisanmi Burton. I’m not far in yet, but it’s a gripping read!
Must watch briefing: current trends in safety and justice with criminologist John Roman. Whether you already know a little or a lot, I guarantee you’ll learn something.
The Alabama Solution film’s website now has a curriculum page featuring a resource guide of over 30 books, films, essays, and podcasts for viewers who want to understand where mass incarceration came from, what it does, and who benefits from it.
Here’s a short film about a historian who teaches a college course on the history of crime and punishment to a class of both incarcerated and non-incarcerated students.
Boots Riley cited work by Alec Karakatsanis on how police departments spend vast sums to shape the news (the LA Sheriff and police have 67 employees on their PR teams) as informing his new film I love Boosters.
The Judith Center has this new exhibit with works by people traumatized in prison.
The Poynter Institute is offering $10,000 grants to journalists writing about the impact of incarceration on families.
Justin van der Leun’s great new book Unreasonable Women tells the stories of women in prison who survived abuse but were criminalized. Here’s a podcast about it and a review.
Solutions and Wins
San Francisco is seeing a massive drop in youth crime after committing to providing a case manager for every young person released from detention.
Violent crime rates are “plunging” across the U.S. The Trace interviewed Jeff Asher about it. See also this coverage in Popular Information contracting Trump’s false claims about blue cities.
Ohio’s Republican Governor Dewine is calling for abolition of the death penalty.
Hard-fought campaigns to slow down and stop efforts by ICE to open new detention warehouses are working. The NYTimes reports that ICE will now try to sell 7 buildings worth $700million.
The awful Alabama AG Steve Marshall was building momentum for his US Senate run in Alabama but then lost badly in the recent primary. We think it’s because the film The Alabama Solution revealed him to be a cruel and dishonest man and garnered him a lot of bad press.
The Maryland Public Defender office championed five bills that passed this session.
A number of meaningful reforms passed in Oklahoma this session, including automatic expungement, making ‘good time’ credits available earlier, and improvements to medical parole.
The CA Supreme Court recently handed down a momentous decision on bail in the Kowalczyk case. This will affect tens of thousands of cases per month. Here’s a rundown on the arguments.
Policy and Campaigns
CORCA, the very bad federal bill now in Senate Judiciary that will give even more money and surveillance power to DHS under the guise of fighting shoplifting, is becoming a political liability. Here are Democratic primary candidates attacking their opponents on it: Abdul El-Sayed, Brad Lander, Donavan McKinney, Jason Poulos, Austin Dyches, and Ethan Wechtaluk. (h/t Vera Action)
There’s a fierce battle in SF over how pre-trial cases are handled. For years, the probation department has been trying to seize control of this arena, currently served by the nonprofit SF Pretrial. A proposed plan to dissolve that contract and send $12million to probation to do the same work is meeting fierce resistance. See coverage here and here and the website here.
Hawaii is currently considering spending $1billion on a new jail. The state spends $112,000 a year per person in prison and a third of their incarcerated population is Native Hawaiian. Thankfully, I hear that there’s a solid coalition in place to fight the jail construction.
The Colorado Governor just signed a bill that slightly increases earned time credits (which speed up the clock towards the release date if the prisoner completes certain programs, has no writeups, etc) and establishes a working group to think about how to deal with overcrowding. Apparently, there are 5,000 people inside who are already eligible for parole but haven’t been released due to lack of parole officers and required transition programs.
Reports, tools, and research
Sophie Cull, along with Bisish Sarma, document the trends around the country in what they call the ‘second look movement,’ which seeks to revisit extremely long sentences handed out many years ago. Two other reports in this vein include one on challenges faced by women serving extreme sentences in Michigan prisons, and another calling for ‘second look’ legislation to combat unjust and extreme sentences in NY.
The Prison Policy Initiative reports on changes in parole and probation trends over the decades. The number of people on supervision has fallen 30% from the peak.
James Dold writes about the childhood ‘trauma to prison pipeline,’ outlined in this report, which produces startling statistics. He writes that 98% of children in the criminal justice system have: (1) suffered chronic abuse or neglect; (2) are victims of trafficking who were coerced into criminal acts; and/or (3) committed crimes against people who abused them. Relatedly, Hawaii is considering a bill to consider trauma before prosecuting kids in adult court.
The MacArthur Justice Center’s recent report details the abandonment of federal oversight of police misconduct under the Trump administration.
A study finds that, after controlling for many factors, a history of incarceration is associated with dying 6 years sooner than a person with no incarceration history.
Jeff Asher built a crime data assistant that will let you compare different places and aspects of historical crime trends. See also his Crime Index.
Wall of Shame
It’s a feel good story, but I can’t help feeling repulsed by this program in Indiana to allow imprisoned mothers to be with their babies. If they are safe enough to handle babies, why are they inside? The story opens with a mom in prison for violating probation on a years-old drug charge. That is grotesquely inhumane and will perpetuate a lot of harm.
The DA of Minneapolis has charged an ICE officer who shot blindly into a house. The officer fled the state and is now hiding in Texas and it’s unclear if they will agree to extradite him.
Thousands of people in Oregon are stuck in horrific limbo with cases that can’t be resolved (even in cases of innocence!) because the state has a shortage of defense attorneys.
Louisiana is using AI to decide who’s eligible for a parole hearing, with dire results.
Louisiana’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeal allowed staff to secretly dismiss over 5,000 petitions to review sentences without reading them. Most were authored by Black prisoners.
Cook County (Chicago) prosecutors under DA Burke (who will next face election in 2028) have been refusing to issue certificates of innocence to exonerated prisoners and are insisting on seeking warrants against people who missed traffic court because they were in ICE detention.
Tech leaders have cheerfully suggested putting microchips in prisoners in the UK to track them.
Senitoba, MS police officer Hunter Foster shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley to death in a Walmart parking lot. His mother had frantically signaled that there was a baby in the car. Police turned up over a false claim that the mother’s friend stole diapers. I’ve seen allegations that Foster has had many complaints of excessive force and has moved departments multiple times. This story is still being investigated, while community members are protesting and demanding justice.