Note: This is the fifth and final piece in a series examining criminal justice in America. Read the earlier stories here, here, here and here. In December, I wrote that the election of Donald Trump would likely put a hold on many of the criminal justice reforms that President Obama had advocated, many of which once seemed to […]
Criminal Justice
Can’t Afford Bail: Fixing Pretrial Release
Note: This is the fourth piece in a series examining criminal justice in America. Read the earlier parts here, here, and here. Most people sitting in local jails have not been convicted of a crime, and some of them never will be. Nationally, nearly 500,000 people are imprisoned while they await trial, according to a […]
Aging Inmates, Little Release
Note: This is the third piece in a series examining criminal justice in America. Read the introduction here and the second piece here. American prisoners are getting old. Harsh sentencing laws from the 1980s and 1990s mean that more inmates are reaching retirement age behind bars. These aging inmates are forcing some prisons to provide […]
A Fair Chance?
Note: This is the second piece in a series examining criminal justice in America. Read the introduction here. The people most likely to go to prison in the United States are the ones who have been there before. It is known as the “revolving door”: over 650,000 people are released from state and federal prisons […]
Criminal Justice Under a Trump Presidency
Writer’s note: This piece is the first in a multi-part series on criminal justice reform. The series will examine variation in criminal justice policies between states and evaluate the effectiveness of local reforms that have aimed to reduce mass incarceration and improve treatment of ex-offenders. Six months ago, the prospects of criminal justice reform were […]