Reforming the criminal legal system has been a persistent rallying cry among advocates, a growing number of prosecutors, and some lawmakers. At the height of the pandemic, there was a 37% drop in the jail population of girls and women. Stay-at-home orders and slowdowns to routine court proceedings contributed to the decrease, according to 2021 […]
Christina Carrega
Christina Carrega is the criminal justice reporter at Capital B. Follow her on Bluesky @chriscarrega.bsky.social.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
‘I Was on My Knees, Handcuffed’: Black Man Shot By Mississippi Police Tells His Story
JACKSON, Miss. — Michael Corey Jenkins held his neck, covered in white gauze bandages, as he struggled to form words. He wanted to explain the violent abuse he endured at the hands of deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office last month. “I was on my knees, handcuffed, and he was standing over me,” Jenkins […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Police Shot Handcuffed Black Man in the Face in Mississippi, Attorney Says
BRAXTON, Miss. — A 32-year-old Black man came close to death last month when he was shot in the mouth while handcuffed during a drug raid in this small, predominately white village, according to an attorney for his family. Six white sheriff’s deputies falsely accused him and a friend of selling drugs and “dating white […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Does Sentencing Day Help Families Heal, or Open Old Wounds?
More than 30 years ago, a news camera was allowed inside a Milwaukee courtroom to capture the sentencing of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The hearing started with friends and relatives of the 17 victims who chose to give impact statements. One by one, they calmly entered the courtroom and approached a podium several feet from […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
The ‘Black Cop’ Isn’t Enough Reform to End Police Brutality
More than 25 years before Nas released “Cops Shot the Kid,” KRS-One wrote about the “Black Cop,” describing them as strategically placed props in a systemically racist system used to oppress Black people. During slavery, there were Black overseers who beat other enslaved people. Fast forward to 1993, KRS-One wrote, “Black slave turned black cop […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Unarmed and Killed: Sinzae Reed’s Family Awaits Justice Four Months Later
It has been nearly four months since 13-year-old Sinzae Reed was fatally shot in an Ohio apartment complex by his neighbor Krieg Butler, a 36-year-old white man. The boy’s death was declared a homicide after a county coroner’s autopsy found he had been shot twice, including a fatal wound to the chest. But Butler remains […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
The Tyre Nichols Video Is Coming Out. You Don’t Have to Watch.
Footage of five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers, who were fired after participating in a traffic stop that resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols earlier this month, is expected to be televised during Friday’s prime-time lineup. It’s unclear how long — and how horrific — the video will be. But since the police department announced […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Public Safety
Kansas City Police Dismissed a Black News Site’s Reports of Missing Women. Then One Showed Up.
For more than a month, a 22-year-old Black woman was allegedly held hostage inside a makeshift room in the basement of an Excelsior Springs, Missouri, home. Bound with handcuffs, gagged by duct tape and a metal collar with a padlock around her neck, she was repeatedly raped and whipped by her kidnapper, according to court […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
A 13-Year-Old Black Boy Was Killed. Will Stand-Your-Ground Protect the Shooter?
A white man accused of killing a 13-year-old Black boy in Columbus, Ohio, has roamed free for nearly 90 days after prosecutors dismissed murder charges against him, prompting the boy’s family to demand officials provide an explanation and put the man back behind bars. Police say Krieg Allen Butler claimed he fired a gun in […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers Are in Prison. The Person Accused of Protecting Them Is Now in Court.
Jacquelyn Lee Johnson, the former district attorney accused of unethically meddling in the investigation of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder in 2020, was expected to face a judge this week for arraignment on a felony charge of violating her oath of office. But the hearing in the long-awaited case has been delayed at her attorney’s request, according to court records. […]