The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/focus/page/2/)
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!
Nearly 200 people on Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry were convicted as adults for offenses committed as juveniles, some for offenses committed when they were as young as five years old. Should there be a statute of limitations for such crimes?
Jail authorities in Iowa’s rural Wayne County have earned nearly $1 million by housing inmates from nearby counties. That’s helped fund some long-needed improvements in health care for inmates.
On any given day, dozens of children ages 14-17 are housed in adult jails in counties across Pennsylvania while facing charges in adult court, thanks to a tough-on-crime law passed in 1995.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in office less than a month, but some of his appointments suggest a surprising willingness to consider major changes in the state’s justice system.
Butler County, Pa., jail authorities have set aside special cells, some of them padded, for inmates whose behavior renders them unfit for the general population. But they concede this doesn’t address the real needs of individuals who find scant help in the outside world.
Virginia legislators may soon end a policy of suspending driver’s licenses for non-payment of fines that critics say amounts to a penalty for being poor. Low-income motorists who need their cars to get to work—and to earn the money to pay their traffic debts— can face jail if they’re caught driving illegally.
Former prison nurse Jose Vallejo is one of several corrections employees who have come forward with unsettling claims that Arizona inmates’ lives were put at risk when the state contracted with a private company for correctional health care services.
Nebraska began shifting more inmates into stricter post-release supervision regimes to relieve prison overcrowding after legislators passed a sentencing reform package in 2015. But it’s added a new burden to already-stressed local jails and courts.
As rural jails bear an increasing burden of individuals with mental health problems, jail authorities in Quincy, Il., have deployed innovative measures such as video counseling, special training for corrections officers, and partnerships with police and health providers.
Thomas Arrowhead, now 38, was found guilty of a sodomy charge when he was 12 years old. But because he committed the offense before a 2014 Oregon law that allowed judges discretion in requiring juveniles to register as sex offenders, he will likely have to live with the label for the rest of his life.