Millions of Californians with criminal records will receive a second chance at normal lives after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a historic bill that seals their criminal convictions from the eyes of potential employers, landlords, and licensing agencies. The legislation, which eliminates certain felony convictions from background checks, could be revolutionary for California’s Black communities, which […]
Incarceration
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Homicides Committed by Black Women Are Rare. So What’s Going On?
This year has been marked by tragic moments of public violence, from a grocery store massacre in New York to a small-town school shooting in Texas. But three incidents this summer have stood out for an unusual similarity. In July, a shooter opened fire in a Dallas airport after threatening to blow up the facility. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
The Land of the Free Leads the World in Incarceration. Why?
This story is part of a special Juneteenth project with Vox which explores the ongoing struggle for freedom for Black Americans. When Sylvester Shockley was 9 years old, he says he was arrested for breaking into businesses and sent to an “all-boys reform school” — what he later realized was a detention center for “juvenile delinquents.” […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Lawmakers Have Promised to Reform Criminal Justice, But Bills Are Lingering in Congress
When Dawn Brooks recalls her time in prison, she uses a simple word: “unfathomable.” She remembers the lack of toilet paper and feminine and hygiene products. She remembers the lack of alcohol-based hand sanitizer in the midst of the COVID pandemic. She remembers having to miss meals because of her severe peanut allergy: The prison […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Exonerations of Black Americans Rise to More Than 1,600, Report Finds
More than two-thirds of people exonerated in wrongful conviction investigations last year were Black, including three on death row, according to an annual report from the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE). The cases included the overturned convictions of two men — Sherwood Brown and Eddie Lee Howard Jr. — who were taken off Mississippi’s death […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
The Rise and Fall of Prison Education
Within days of his arrival at a maximum security prison in Illinois, Kilroy Watkins was given an exam book, a pencil, and one hour to complete a required test to assess new prisoners’ skills and abilities. When the results came back, the 20-year-old was very disappointed. “It was embarrassing,” Watkins said, recalling his shock three […]
