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!
Sixteen-year-old Dinso Pop Yat left his home in Guatemala with just $500 in his pocket to venture alone on a nerve-shattering 2,500-mile journey north, hoping to realize a new life in the U.S. Now he’s attending college.
As the state began implementing its ‘Raise the Age’ law this month, advocates worry whether the system can handle the extra burden on juvenile detention facilities—and keep the young people safe.
A report prepared by Birmingham university students documents the lynchings of 30 African Americans between 1883-1940 in an effort to spark a dialogue about racial injustice. After preparing the report, one student said, the past ‘doesn’t feel distant at all.”
So far the tech giant Apple has swatted away lawsuits linked to fatalities caused by texting drivers. But as U.S. distracted driving-related deaths climbed past 3,000 in 2017, experts say it may take just one judge to change the story.
In Virginia’s Newport News region, some 65 percent of killings in 2018 remain unsolved. It’s a nationwide problem that experts blame partly on overworked police and on the “no snitching” culture.
Jail authorities in one western Pennsylvania county saw a 54 percent increase in the number of females, many of them single mothers, compared to 3.5 percent for men. It’s part of a national trend that some ascribe to the opioid crisis and others to the inequities created by money bail.
Eyewitness videos of shootings have helped bring accountability to law enforcement. But they can also traumatize African Americans who see themselves and those they love in these fatal encounters.
Under Pennsylvania law, as in other states, children can be charged as adults, and placed in adult facilities, for certain felonies; but the federal government mandates they be held ‘out of sight and sound” from adults. That often adds an extra burden to local authorities, even as it does little to rehabilitate the young person, according to advocates.
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.