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!
At a time when Philadelphia and other large urban centers are seeing a surge in homicides and fatal shootings, homicides in the city of Chester, Pa., are down 63 percent this year, and fatal shootings are down 43 percent. What’s Chester doing right?
Thomas Raynard James is serving a life sentence in a Florida prison for a murder he says was committed by someone who happened to have the same name as his. Thirty years later, a GQ journalist found the man who may be the real killer. “The police,” he acknowledged, “were looking for me.”
Amid rows of snap peas and summer squash, incarcerated gardeners in Oregon cultivate job skills, inner peace―and fresh produce for the prison cafeteria―in Lettuce Grow, a program that now serves 200 individuals a year.
Even before police “defunding” became a slogan, a number of cities were working on strategies that replace some policing functions with civilian personnel. Widespread coverage of one such program, called CAHOOTS, is an example of how the media can make a contribution to a debate that is fogged by partisan rhetoric, writes journalist Mark Obbie.
In a five-year experiment launched in 2016, Denver found that linking housing with services such as counseling for substance abuse and mental health treatment reduces homeless individuals’ exposure to the justice system.
Corey Glassman, sentenced to life in prison for his part in a 1986 fatal stabbing while he was a teenager, nearly lost hope of seeing freedom. But as society began to rethink life without prison for juveniles, Glassman realized that he would have to earn the right to restart his life.
Despite warnings in 2019, the state has failed to address violence, contraband and homicides, according to the Department of Justice.
Opposed by victims’ advocates, a bill outlawing juvenile Life Without Parole died in the state senate. Reformers said it sent a “we don’t care” message to young people trying to rehabilitate themselves behind bars.
Alabama has the nation’s fifth highest rate of COVID-19 deaths among incarcerated populations, but the vaccine supply is still only a trickle.
Just 26 tests were conducted in suburban and rural juvenile detention facilities during the first six months of the pandemic—a statistic nearly buried because of the state’s lack of transparency, according to an investigation by The Imprint. A health expert called it “a heartbreaking example of children who get lost in systems.”