Criminal Justice
More than a year after Sonya Massey was killed by police in Illinois, a namesake commission has wrestled over changes that would prevent future tragedies.
The Latest
Spotlight on: ICE and local governments
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Long Reads
A Future for Susanville
Plans to shutter a California prison offer halting glimpses of a different world: an economy that doesn’t revolve around incarceration, a country where losing your job isn’t tantamount to ruin, and an opening for abolition.
“I’m Just Another Traffic Stop”
Chicago built a new police team to rebuild community trust. It harassed drivers of color instead.
The Prison Next Door
How Arkansas’ secretive plan for a new state lockup angered people in a deep red corner of rural America—and changed how some see incarceration.
The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions
Chris Duncan’s death sentence—built on the testimony of two discredited doctors—illustrates just how faulty the system can be.
Spotlight on jail deaths
Reentry
Prison Conditions
Restorative Justice
Criminalizing Pregnancy

Who Elects their Prosecutors and Sheriffs in 2025?
Our Bolts resource has the answers. Despite being an odd year, 2025 will shape criminal legal institutions around the nation with hundreds of prosecutor and sheriff races.
Rights Restoration
Policing Democracy
Calls from prison and jail
January 8, 2024
San Francisco Expands Free Jail Communications by Adding Tablet Services
The move is part of a recent wave of jails and prisons starting to decouple carceral communications from a profit motive.
August 4, 2023
Massachusetts Is Making Communications Free for Incarcerated People
The reform would eliminate the exorbitant charges people face to keep in touch with loved ones in jail and prison, removing a heavy financial burden for thousands.