This story was originally reported and published by MindSite News, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on mental health. To read more stories like this, sign up for the MindSite News Daily newsletter. Michael Johnson had all but given up on living when a letter from his 14-year-old daughter, Ja’Kyra, arrived for him at Pontiac Correctional Center in 2015. […]
Incarceration
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
This Law Gives Prosecutors Authority to Reduce Mass Incarceration
Three weeks after Thanh Tran’s 18th birthday, he rang a drug dealer’s doorbell. In an instant, Tran was caught up in a gang-related attempted murder and attempted robbery case that could have landed him in a California state prison for 75 years to life. Prosecutors presented Tran with a plea bargain of 17 years in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
End to Solitary Confinement Act Is a Step Toward Rehabilitation, Survivors Say
For 20 years, Monica Cosby had been placed in and out of solitary confinement for up to eight months at a time in an Illinois prison. She didn’t realize how much those long stints really affected her until one day when she was in the prison’s yard and spotted a guard walking in her direction. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
What the Road to Redemption Looks Like for Incarcerated People
A weekend visit to family on Long Island, New York, turned into Kenneth Hogan’s last days of freedom. At 20 years old, Hogan was a father of two and his mother’s main support system. Hogan says he sold drugs in Albany, New York, to financially survive and yet he aspired to break his family’s generational […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Black Men Continue to Be Overrepresented in Annual Wrongful Conviction Report
A majority of wrongful convictions have been tied to drug possession allegations that were brought on by corrupt police officers who targeted Black people, a new report revealed. The National Registry of Exonerations tallied 233 exonerations in 2022, of which a majority stemmed from patterns of misconduct by police officers. In addition, NRE researchers found […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
How This Democrat Wants to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley wants to end the school-to-prison pipeline by passing legislation that would establish new federal grants to support schools and states committed to change. Schools across the country continue to implement unfair and discriminatory school disciplinary practices, such as suspension and expulsion, that affect Black children as early as preschool at disproportionate […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Recent Rise in Women and Girls Behind Bars Is Rooted in the War on Drugs
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 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Lawmakers Pass Bill That Would Expand Maternal Health Care in Prisons
The effort to improve conditions for pregnant people in federal prisons took a step forward Thursday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would expand resources and restrict solitary confinement before, during, and after labor. The Pregnant Women in Custody Act, first introduced by California Rep. Karen Bass four years ago, would provide […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Justice For Sex Assault Survivors Expands Behind Bars and Across the U.S.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Adult Survivor Act will go into effect in New York, allowing over 750 formerly incarcerated individuals to file civil lawsuits against the state for failing to protect them from sexual violence they say they experienced while in prison. The new law is part of a wave of reforms across the country […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
The Push to Expand Voting Access for Incarcerated People
Colie Levar Long was just 18 years old when he committed one of the most “horrendous” crimes. At an age when many are preparing to start their lives, Long was starting a life sentence for the murder of a 14-year-old boy. He grew up in Washington, D.C., when many residents were in “survival mode,” he […]
