Originally published by MindSite News. KIPP North Philadelphia Academy charter school has been operating since 2018 in the red brick school building on North 16th Street at Cumberland Street. Bright KIPP banners hang off the four-story building, but you can still see the fading letters “M Hall Stanton” on the facade. That’s because KIPP only […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics & Policy
From Fighting the Klan to Fighting DEI: The Justice Department’s Shift on Civil Rights
WASHINGTON — Consent decrees meant to hold police departments accountable for misconduct have been dismantled in several cities. Voting rights cases have been thrown out and replaced with investigations into alleged voter fraud. Civil rights laws have been used to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A Child Shot His Teacher, and Now a Former Assistant Principal Could Face Prison
As one chapter closes in the nearly three-year battle to hold someone accountable in the case of a Virginia first-grader shooting his teacher, another will open in the weeks ahead. Former assistant principal Ebony Parker faces up to four years in prison if convicted in criminal court. The trial is expected to start on Nov. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence, Partner Content, Public Safety
A Trace Analysis of 150 U.S. Cities Shows One of the Greatest Drops in Gun Violence — Ever
This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. Gun violence is trending downward for more than three quarters of cities with the most shootings, according to a new analysis by The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub. For more than half of […]
Posted inHBCUs, Public Safety
Deadly Homecoming Weekend Prompts HBCUs to Rethink Campus Safety Plans
BOWIE, Maryland — Bowie State University junior Tamia McClorin remembers people running after a shooting near campus during her first homecoming two years ago. It’s an image she can’t forget. “I literally saw a guy that was shot and just lying in the ditch. … I was just freaking out,” McClorin recalled. “It was literally […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Former Deputy Convicted in Killing of Sonya Massey After 15-Month Wait for Justice
An Illinois jury on Wednesday convicted a former sheriff’s deputy of second-degree murder in the death of Sonya Massey, who was shot inside her apartment last year after moving a pot of hot water into a sink. The 36-year-old mother of two called the police for help. She was shot dead on her kitchen floor. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Indiana Man Seeks Clemency With Help From Jury Foreperson
After spending more than three decades in prison, Kofi Modibo Ajabu believed he had exhausted all legal avenues to reduce his 240-year sentence. Ajabu was a college student when he was convicted along with two other men in the March 1994 stabbing deaths of two Indiana teenagers and one of their friends in what prosecutors […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, Partner Content, Public Safety
Juvenile Detention Centers: No School, No Fresh Air and Isolated
This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter here. In the hours after 17-year-old David was locked in housing unit H, voices filtered into his cell. The sound came from multiple places at once: the seams of the door, the vent by the ceiling, the walls themselves. They knew he’d just […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration, Politics & Policy
Cannabis Convictions Still Haunt Black Families. This Nonprofit Offers a Lifeline.
Sitting in a Virginia state prison cell, Bryan Reid would often slouch his shoulders, droop his chin, and pout his bottom lip — the posture of someone struggling to believe how his life had come to this. Before he was transferred in 2018 to Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells, he was a proud father of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Violence Against Women
She Got 27 Years for Killing Her Abuser. Judge Rules Oklahoma’s Survivors Act Won’t Free Her.
No one disputes that Tyesha Long shot and killed her ex-boyfriend nearly five years ago. But after spending almost three years in prison for manslaughter, Long’s hope to walk free under a new Oklahoma law meant to give domestic violence survivors a second chance, have been stumped. Long, 26, asked Oklahoma County District Judge Susan […]