May 9 Criminal justice updates and commentary roundup

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a great spring. Here’s my latest collection of news, updates and commentary. If I’ve missed any key pieces, please share them in the comments.

Top reads:   Chicago organizers break down Brandon Johnson’s win in terms of crime and safety messaging; Helen Gym is in the hunt for Philadelphia mayor, and a win would be huge for CJR; Holden Karnofsky’s classic post for Open Philanthropy on “hits based giving.” 

Reports

• A team of medical researchers from Columbia and NYU has concluded that expanded use of the life-saving harm-reduction drug Naloxone does not increase adolescent heroin use, particularly relevant in light of claims by certain economists that naloxone creates a ‘moral hazard.’

• Alabama Appleseed’s report on fines and fees found that 4 in 10 people committed new crimes (such as selling drugs) to pay off their current fines and fees. This is a pretty important angle I hadn’t previously considered as to the counter productive nature of punishment. Thank you Alabama Appleseed for your great work!

• Third Way reviewed homicide data to find that the murder rate in red states has been consistently higher than in blue states, even when the largest city in the red states were removed (responding to claims that the blue cities in red states were driving murders). 

• The Center for Just Journalism published a brief covering the basics on bail reform policy and data for journalists. 

Media 

• In “The Art of Freedom,” Inquest interviewed artists Jesse Krimes and Russell Craig, who are both formerly incarcerated, about their work. I’m very proud to have supported them to launch the Right of Return fellowship for formerly incarcerated artists way back in 2016! 

• Angela Davis and colleagues discussed a “Black Abolitionist view on Cop City,” about the ongoing crisis in Atlanta. 

• If you’d like to get more of a visceral feel for the challenges of people coming home from prison, you may like to read the book Free, by Lauren Kessler, which immerses the reader in six stories of reentry. I haven’t read it yet but it was recently recommended to me.  

• Journalist Maurice Chammah has a riveting new podcast about a Texas ranger railroading a ‘witness’ (actually, suspect) in a cold case. Here’s his intro to the series “Just Say You’re Sorry.” 

• If you missed Josie Duffy Rice’s podcast “The Unreformed” about a youth prison in Alabama, you should correct that! Here is her interview in Teen Vogue. 

• Morgan Godvin, a formerly incarcerated journalist and researcher, takes us back to history with her discussion of Eugene Debs’ run for the presidency while he was in prison. 

Commentary

• Read Olayemi Olurin’s oped in Essence Magazine about how Black people care about crime, safety, and addressing root causes all at the same time. 

• Read Emily Galvin Almanza’s illuminating oped discussing the linkages between housing and justice policy, arguing that NY state’s plan to make it easier to detain people for being poor (bail law) would stymie progress on reducing homelessness, given how many people lose housing while they or a family member are locked up. 

• When tech founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death at 2:30am on a deserted San Francisco street last month, many rushed to blame homelessness and criminal justice policies. Then it came out that he was killed by someone he knew (as is most often the case with murder). Michael Hiltzik for the L.A. Times says this story shows how crime reporting fails miserably. 

Politics

• After relentless attacks by the Missouri legislature, the most recent of which threatened to strip power from St. Louis city to elect its own city prosecutor, Kim Gardner has resigned as the DA of St. Louis county. The Intercept has the story, along with a lot of useful context. 

• Here’s a helpful thread on efforts to strip power from elected officials, including DAs. 

• Bolts Magazine covered the upcoming Philadelphia mayoral election. In a crowded field, Helen Gym is the only one who’s outlined a strong progressive platform on justice issues, and is running neck and neck against multiple other candidates. 

• Two leading Chicago organizers are urging politicians to run on progressive criminal justice solutions, arguing that it plays much better for voters, in addition to being good policy.

Solutions and Wins

• Colorado passed a bill to make all prison calls free across state prisons, ensuring that poor families aren’t spending $7.5million a year to call loved ones, with prices out of reach for many. Details on the bill are here. Congratulations to Worth Rises and local partners for this major win!

• I came across this profile from the Trace last year talking to young people in Chicago about their solutions for gun violence. I think it’s very exciting to directly engage young people in solutions work, so I’m sharing it again here as inspiration to others. 

• I’ve heard various phrases to describe the concept that criminalizing social problems tends to make them worse, not better, and resources must be spent on solutions that address root causes. The most resonant so far appears to be “treatment not trauma,” out of Chicago. Philadelphia is also catching on! 

• Another big win brought to you by Los Angeles organizers: the Board of Supervisors in L.A. County has agreed that 1,000 more treatment beds are needed for mental health, and has asked the relevant agency to develop a plan for quickly ramping this up. 

• Orlando DA Monique Worrell is hosting a full-day summit for local electeds and other leaders on violence prevention. Progressive leaders like Worrell are regularly slandered as anti-safety when they propose policies that seek to reduce the unfairness and racism of the system. It’s exciting to see Worrell taking a proactive stance here. Also, here’s her recent bruising letter to DeSantis. 

• Austin voters strongly supported a police oversight ballot measure in last week’s election. 

• President Biden unveiled a ‘second chance’ initiative impacting 100 agencies. “Under the proposed executive changes, those getting out of prison or jail could have additional access to housing vouchers, Pell grants for education and small business loans.”  The implications of this directive (whether modest or transformative) remain to be seen; as usual, it all depends on implementation. 

• Following Governor Newsom’s announcement that San Quentin prison would be transformed into a rehabilitation facility, the entire death row population is being transferred to other facilities, where after decades of living in tiny cells they will be able to touch grass. The Guardian tells the stories of this major transition. 

Wall of Shame

• Akela Lacy wrote for the Intercept on ‘how not to get arrested for killing in public,’ responding to the recent killing of Jordan Neely on a NYC subway by an unemployed ex-Marine.  

• The bad trend of states passing laws to remove prosecutors and other local democratically elected officials if they refuse to enforce locally unpopular and bigoted laws continues in Georgia, where prosecutors may soon be removed for refusing to prosecute people for abortion. 

• When the Atlanta police department shot to death Manuel Terán, who was camped in the forest to protest against ‘cop city,’ they claimed they found a gun by his person and that he had fired first. An autopsy has now found no gunpowder residue on his hands, indicating that he did not fire a weapon. They did find 57 bullet wounds in his body. The medical examiner has ruled the killing a homicide. Here is a thread of Atlanta Democrats responding to the autopsy results. 

• Also in Atlanta, activists face felony charges and up to 20 years in prison for distributing flyers informing neighbors that a local police officer was involved in shooting Manual Terán. 

• Rather than protect trans people from harm, jailors in Baltimore are putting them in solitary confinement for weeks and months at a time, which the UN calls torture. The Maryland legislature is considering fixes. 

• Florida Prosecutor Jack Campbell has a written policy instructing prosecutors to make more punitive plea bargains against Hispanic people. “IF EXTENSIVE CRIMINAL HISTORY and/or HISPANIC -> Adjudicated Guilty + Costs,” the memo reads.