Crime Story Daily

This is a curated selection of highlights from Crime Story Daily this week. On the criminal justice policy front: Pieces from HuffPost and the Washington Post highlight renewed efforts at police reform in Phoenix, Arizona – where, earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Phoenix PD – and in Cleveland, Ohio, where residents are now taking a lead in transforming their police department. And a piece from the New Yorker asks, “Did last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests change anything?”. In the wake of last summer’s protests, many elected officials, “true to their...

PM Stories In Texas, a Quarantine Camp for Migrants With COVID-19 Miriam Jordan, New York Times COVID cases among state prisoners more than double since last week, with eight hospitalizations Nicholas Chrastil, The Lens Pennsylvania lawmakers make renewed effort to expand compassionate prison releases, so the elderly and terminally ill don’t have to die behind bars Lindsay Weber, Morning Call Biden Exploring Clemency For Non-Violent Federal Drug Inmates, Advocates Want All Pot Prisoners Released Mauren Meehan, Yahoo! News Advocates Challenge Mysterious Justice Department Statement That Undercuts Forensic Science Reform Jordan Smith, The Intercept What’s Wrong with Forensic Science? Everything, Says Paper Emily Riley, The Crime...

PM Stories After Lethal Injection (2015) Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project Lawmakers ask US Justice Department to stop seeking death penalty Jonathan Allen, Reuters Alabama won’t describe nitrogen execution plans for security Kim Chandler, AP News Homicide Is Seventh Alabama Prison Death in Two Weeks Equal Justice Initiative Prison suicides have been rising for years. Experts fear the pandemic has made it worse. Keri Blakinger, The Marshall Project/NBC News Documents Foreshadow a Grim Future for COVID-19 Spread in Federal Prisons Syeda Malliha and Kadeisha Weise, ACLU Low reports of prison staff COVID-19 shots leave vulnerability on both sides of the wire Kelly Powers and Sammy Gibbons,...

PM Stories It’s Andrew Cuomo’s Turn to Face Justice Zak Cheney-Rice, New York Magazine Andrew Cuomo’s War Against a Federal Prosecutor Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker The Cuomo Report and the #MeToo “Reckoning” That Never Really Came Esther Wang, New Republic ‘Nobody Believed Me’: How Rape Cases Get Dropped Jan Ransom, New York Times #MeToo and Mass Incarceration Aya Gruber, University of Colorado Law School How Atrocious Prisons Conditions Make Us All Less Safe Shon Hopwood, Brennan Center for Justice The reform of prisons has been my life’s work, but they are still utterly broken Frances Crook, The Guardian Mass. State Prisons See Uptick In COVID Cases...

PM Stories These Meds Prevent Overdoses. Few Federal Prisoners Are Getting Them Beth Schwartzapfel, The Marshall Project Overdose Deaths In State Prisons Have Jumped Dramatically Since 2001 Beth Schwartzapfel and Jimmy Jenkins, NPR Critics blast Georgia prison conditions, staffing levels and care Christian Boone, Atlanta Journal-Constitution COVID deaths in Florida prisons: 30% were parole-eligible Grace Toohey and Hannah Phillips, Orlando Sentinel Why we can’t trust the states to prevent wrongful convictions Radley Balko, Washington Post After Key Evidence Was Withheld, 2 Men Spent 3 Decades in Prison Jonah E. Bromwich and Troy Closson, New York Times Rodney Reed And Why It’s So Hard To Overturn Wrongful...

PM Stories The Hidden Cost of Incarceration (2019) Nicole Lewis and Beatrix Lockwood, The Marshall Project The Real Cost of a Prison Phone Call Clint Smith, The Atlantic Many Wisconsin counties earn thousands from jail phone calls. Inmates and their families pay the costs. Chris Mueller, Appleton Post-Crescent Prisons Are Increasingly Banning Physical Mail Mia Armstrong, Slate The Biden Administration must walk back the MailGuard program banning letters from home in federal prisons Wanda Bertram, Prison Policy Initiative Biden Has Said Pot Prisoners Should Be Free. Now He’s Poised to Send Some Back to Prison. Tana Ganeva, The Intercept ‘Solitary by Another Name’: How Efforts to...