Crime Story Daily

This is a curated selection of highlights from Crime Story Daily this week. On the criminal justice policy front: Mother Jones reports that this week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order instructing the DOJ to end its contracts with for-profit prison companies. The decision will affect a dozen private prisons across the country that currently incarcerate about 14,000 people, or roughly 9% of the federal prison population. A piece from Time asks, “What happens to the federal death penalty in a Biden administration?”. Biden is the first president in US history to openly campaign on abolishing the death penalty...

PM Stories US Incarcerated Population Dropped Below 2 Million Last Year For First Time Since 2003 CJ Ciaramella, Reason California Lawmakers Up Ante Against Money Bail With Pair of Bills Maria Dinzeo, Courthouse News Jason Williams says office won’t oppose parole bids as new DA launches reform agenda John Simerman, NOLA.com Queens Prosecutors Long Overlooked Misconduct. Can a New DA Do Better? Troy Closson, New York Times As prison COVID-19 deaths rise rapidly, inmates’ relatives, advocates sound alarm Conrad Wilson, Oregon Public Broadcasting Limited Testing in Mississippi Prisons May Be Obscuring Virus’s Toll Rebecca Griesbach and Maura Turcotte, New York Times Justice delayed: Philly courts backlog...

PM Stories Biden’s Private Prison Executive Order Doesn’t Undo Mass Incarceration Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Truthout Biden’s order terminates federal private prison contracts. Here’s what that means. Char Adams, NBC News Why The Biden Administration’s Choice To Lead The Bureau of Prisons Matters Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, The Appeal Federal Judges Are Retiring Now That Joe Biden Will Pick Their Replacements Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost Judges with criminal defense or civil rights backgrounds are rare in federal court. We need more. Nadia L. Farjood, San Diego Union-Tribune Why We Need Public Financing for Prosecutor Election Campaigns Rory Fleming, Filter Magazine The Prosecutors’ Union That’s Suing George Gascón Has A History Of...

PM Stories Biden Will End the Justice Department’s Use of Private Prisons Madison Pauly, Mother Jones What Happens to the Federal Death Penalty in a Biden Administration? Madeleine Carlisle, Time After Trump’s Execution Spree, Criminal Justice Leaders Urge Biden To End Death Penalty Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost Committee advances bill to end death penalty to Virginia Senate floor Tyler Arnold, Inside NoVA Defense lawyers raise COVID-19 fears in Georgia death penalty case Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution ‘No Beds Left’: Houston’s Jail is a COVID-19 Superspreader Jerry Iannelli, The Appeal State Prison Inmate’s Diary Details The Ordeal Of Battling COVID-19 Behind Bars Gwynne Hogan and Jake Dobkin, Gothamist Missouri...

PM Stories The Case That Made Texas the Death Penalty Capital Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project Maurice Chammah Charts The History Of The Death Penalty In ‘Let The Lord Sort Them’ NPR Virginia moves toward banning capital punishment, in a shift for prolific death penalty state Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider, Washington Post ‘Progressive prosecutors’ want Virginia to end the death penalty, cash bail and mandatory minimums Margaret Matray, Virginian-Pilot Oregon Bill Would Enable People to Vote from Prison Kira Lerner, The Appeal An old arrest can follow you forever online. Some newspapers want to fix that. Elahe Izadi, Washington Post The Ambitious Plan to...

PM Stories How Not to Manage a COVID-19 Outbreak in Prison Tomas Keen, The Crime Report Coronavirus death counts exceed one per day in Pa. prisons. Gov. Wolf needs to use all the tools he has. Editorial Board, Philadelphia Inquirer  7 prisoners file restraining order, ask federal judge to compel Oregon to vaccinate them against COVID-19 Andrew Theen, The Oregonian ‘I’m just grateful’: COVID vaccinations start for inmates at Worcester County Jail Melissa Hanson, MassLive Prisoners are 5 times more likely to get COVID-19 than the overall population. A 69-year-old prisoner is trying to change that one livestream at a time. Jamie Roth, Dylan...