Criminal Justice Reform - KOLUMN Magazine

Racial Justice Act Exposes Racial Bias; Then Is Repealed | EJI, A History of Racial Justice

April 20, 2020June 18, 2020Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform

By EJI Staff, EJI On April 20, 2012, Cumberland County Judge Gregory Weeks issued the first decision under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act, ruling that racial bias had played a role in Marcus Robinson’s 1991 trial and commuting Mr. Robinson’s death sentence to life imprisonment without parole. Marcus Robinson, an African American man who was […]

Five Teens Arrested for Rape Despite Being Innocent | EJI, A History of Racial Justice

April 19, 2020April 25, 2020Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform

On April 19, 1989, a white woman was brutally raped and beaten in New York City’s Central Park. Police officers soon arrested five young men – four black teenagers and one Latino teen – and subjected them to hours of intense interrogation in order to extract confessions. Each young man later claimed that he had […]

Program Teaches Prisoners How to Code So They Can Get Tech Jobs Once Released | BlackNews.com

January 28, 2020January 28, 2020Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform

San Francisco, CA — The Last Mile, a prison rehabilitation program based in San Quentin, California, offers prisoners free training on how to code. This equips them with the training they need to get a job more easily once they are out of prison. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] “At The Last Mile, we are using technology to […]

Her Son Was Careful to Avoid Police Officers. Then He Was Killed by One. | The New York Times (2008)

January 14, 2020January 14, 2020Criminal Justice Reform, Police Brutality

He drove the speed limit. He kept his car in good repair. Instead of shorts or T-shirts, he wore Ralph Lauren dress shirts. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] For years before he was fatally shot by a Dallas police officer who says she mistook him for a burglar in his own home, Botham Shem Jean had gone out […]

1,000 pot convictions tossed as Kim Foxx expunges records of marijuana busts | Chicago Sun Times

January 10, 2020January 10, 2020Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform ...

Foxx went to court Wednesday to vacate and expunge records of people caught up in the drug war — her first move to wipe the books clean after the state legalized recreational marijuana. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] More than 1,000 pot convictions will soon be off the books in Cook County. In a hearing Wednesday afternoon at […]

Fort Worth police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson indicted on murder charge | NBC News

December 22, 2019December 22, 2019African American Commuities, Criminal Justice ...

The case against Aaron Dean, 35, led to a rare murder charge against a police officer when he was initially arrested just days after the October shooting. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] A Texas grand jury on Friday indicted a former Fort Worth police officer for murder after he fatally shot a woman who had been babysitting her […]

US taxpayers spent almost $1 billion incarcerating innocent black people | Yahoo Finance

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019Criminal Justice Reform, Mass Incarceration

In total, among all known exonerees, Americans have shelled out a staggering $4.12 billion to incarcerate innocent men and women since 1989, according to a Yahoo Finance analysis. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Over the last few weeks, the Rodney Reed case has ignited a firestorm of interest, as celebrities, activists, and politicians worked to delay his Nov. […]

$625,000 Settlement for Woman Whose Child Was Torn From Her Arms | The New York Times

December 18, 2019December 18, 2019Criminal Justice Reform

Jazmine Headley sued over a confrontation with New York City workers that was captured in a widely seen video. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The video spread quickly online: Security guards and police officers pry a baby boy from his mother’s arms as she lies on the floor of a public benefits office in Brooklyn. “They’re hurting my […]

Justice for Curtis Flowers | The New York Times

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019Criminal Justice Reform

Delayed and incomplete, but still a triumph. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] First, a quick note about impeachment: More than 600 protests will be taking place around the country this evening. The goal is to voice outrage at President Trump’s behavior and show support for impeaching him. My colleague Michelle Goldberg writes about the planned events in her […]

Freed from prison nine years ago, Brandon Flood is new secretary of Pa.’s pardon board | Will Bunch | The Philadelphia Inquirer

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019Criminal Justice Reform, Mass Incarceration

This column will probably come as something of a shock to all the people in Harrisburg who only know Brandon Flood – a bow-tied, bespectacled policy wonk with sartorial flair – as the persona that he laughingly calls “Urkel Brandon,” in a homage to one of TV’s most famous nerds. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Flood, now 36, […]