Crime Story Daily

This is a curated selection of highlights from Crime Story Daily this week. On the criminal justice policy front: Pieces from the AP and USA Today center on rising crime, police reform, and the Biden administration’s “political high-wire act” in balancing the two. Over the last year, a nationwide increase in shootings and homicides has catapulted violent crime back into the political spotlight. In the first three months of 2021, the homicide rate in more than 30 US cities increased by 24%. In a meeting at the White House last week, Biden outlined a plan to crack down on gun...

PM Stories Everyone on Death Row Gets a Lawyer. Not Everyone Gets a Kim Kardashian. Keri Blakinger and Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project Biden vowed to end the death penalty. Can he keep his promise? Crystal Hill, Yahoo! News Criminal justice group urges clemency for offenders released to home confinement during pandemic The Hill I was sent back to jail for going to a computer class. It’s time to act on home confinement. Gwen Levi, Washington Post Few immigrants in detention have been vaccinated. That needs to change. Nicole Narea, Vox ‘How do you make them pay?’: Locked up in Alabama for debt Connor Sheets,...

PM Stories This Is What Billionaire Justice Looks Like Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times The Rise and Fall of an Herbal Viagra Scammer Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, New Republic A secret algorithm is transforming DNA evidence. This defendant could be the first to scrutinize it. Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post ASU research finds likely increase in false guilty pleas during pandemic Peter Samore, KTAR Federal Judge Rules Prison System Has Failed To Protect Inmates From COVID-19 Kevin Dayton, Honolulu Civil Beat Inside The Nation’s Overdose Crisis in Prisons and Jails Beth Schwartzapfel and Jimmy Jenkins, The Marshall Project Nearly Half of State Incarcerees Suffer From Substance Abuse: Survey...

PM Stories Prisons Have a Health Care Issue – And It Starts at the Top, Critics Say Keri Blakinger, The Marshall Project Five years later, Virginia prison still not meeting terms of court-ordered settlement over shoddy medical care Ned Oliver, Virginia Mercury King County’s courts are ‘barely keeping up’ with a massive backlog of cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic Sara Jean Green, Seattle Times Chatham County Jail’s backlog costs taxpayers $6.76 million and counting Coco Papy, Savannah Morning News Colorado’s largest jails cut their populations because of coronavirus. Now the numbers are creeping back up. Olivia Prentzel, Colorado Sun We Know How to Fix...

PM Stories Prisoners, Doctors, and the Battle Over Trans Medical Care Aviva Stahl, Wired Most inmates have had their COVID shots – but their guards likely haven’t Amy Worden, Salon Compassionate Release and the Pandemic: A Policy Failure? Emiley Riley, The Crime Report ‘Not everyone has to come to jail’: COVID-19 changes could lead to sweeping transformation Emily Hamer, Wisconsin State Journal Federal Judges Handed Down Smaller Sentences Due to Brutal NYC Prison Conditions: Analysis Natalie Colarossi, Newsweek The Uncomfortable Truth About Wrongful Convictions James M. Doyle, The Crime Report The Prosecutor Exodus Thomas Hogan, City Journal ‘I couldn’t think about this case without thinking of my...

PM Stories Wrongful Convictions Haunt the US Maurice Possley, Sojourners More than 2,800 have been wrongly convicted in the US. Lawmakers and advocates want to make sure they’re paid their dues. Christina Carrega, CNN Supreme Court rules against inmate in death penalty case AP News Execution Pause Is Incomplete Step Toward Biden Abolition Pledge Jordan S. Rubin, Bloomberg Law The State of COVID-19 in US Prisons Kayla Hui, VeryWell Health Federal Court Case: Corrections Officials Botched COVID-19 Response In Prisons Kevin Dayton, Honolulu Civil Beat King County’s courts are ‘barely keeping up’ with a massive backlog of cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic Sara Jean Green,...