The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/focus/)
This section features the best criminal justice reporting around the nation, produced by our media partners and collaborators, and journalists who have participated in the Criminal Justice Reporting Fellowship programs sponsored by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, TCR’s parent organization. For a more comprehensive list of Fellows’ work, please check out the “programs” section—and monitor this site for information on upcoming programs and how to apply!
More than 300 Alabamans have been charged since 2014 under state law requiring people with more than two felony convictions to register with local sheriff’s offices and carry cards identifying them as repeat felons. One legal expert compared it to the ID cards Jews were required to have in Nazi Germany.
Young people in youth shelters are particularly at risk, advocates say. City agencies respond they are doing all they can to address their needs.
The County Board of Supervisors says it agrees with a report calling for the provision of mental health care and services as an alternative to incarceration— thereby ending the L.A. County jail system’s unenviable title as the nation’s largest mental institution.
Bill Lapinskas spent 26 years working at Alaska’s only maximum-security prison, the last three as its superintendent. He quit after receiving orders to roll back a program designed to prepare prisoners for release.
Valerie Martinez’ Louisiana parish has one of the most innovative systems in the country for getting guns out of the hands of abusers, thanks to her work. The system has served as the model for similar reforms across this conservative state.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 376,000 drivers have their license suspended for failure to pay or respond. The state legislature is considering amnesty, along with a community service option, to help motorists escape the escalating cycle of fines and fees.
For years, Boyle County in Kentucky’s bluegrass region has taken 50 percent off money paid to inmates by their families as a way to fund jail operations. But recently, authorities decided that the fee didn’t “further any legitimate goal of the criminal justice system.”
In Pennsylvania, court fees and surcharges provide “back door funding” for cash-strapped state and county budgets, while saddling the poorest defendants with escalating debt, a news investigation finds.
Revenue from fines and fees has become an alternative to tax revenue for many local governments. But for poor people like Maleah Hartnett, accumulating court debt is a crushing burden.
The state’s pretrial substance abuse program gives defendants the chance to avoid a criminal record if they agree to spend six months in custody. But justice experts acknowledge it’s not necessarily the best choice for everyone.