Category: Criminal Justice Reform

By Julie K. Brown, Miami Herald The family of Darren Rainey, the 50-year-old schizophrenic inmate whose barbaric shower death led to sweeping reforms in the Florida prison system, has settled a civil rights lawsuit against the state of Florida and others for $4.5 million, the Miami Herald has learned. The deal comes nearly six years […]

In the 1990s, Davis was a policing superstar, hailed as the best crime solver the Crescent City had ever seen. But a dispute over a paid detail at a festival turned into a major federal case against her, brought by a prosecutor involved whose conduct in other cases was called ‘grotesque.’ By Ethan Brown, The […]

Reports say that the officers were reenacting the chokehold used on the young man By Biba Adams, TheGrio Three Aurora, Colorado police officers have been placed on administrative leave after allegedly taking photos at a memorial for Elijah McClain. Brian Maass, an investigative reporter for CBS4 in Denver, posted on Twitter that the officers were taking “inappropriate photos” at the […]

The Instagram post reveals the officers later determined they had the wrong guy. While he did not apparently have a warrant, he was arrested for resisting arrest. By Robert Samuels, ABC10 SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has launched an excessive force investigation after video appearing to show a deputy kicking a man […]

By Darcy Costello, Courier-Journal Louisville Metro Council is considering requiring that officers in “critical incidents,” such as a police shooting, submit to a drug and alcohol test after the incident. The proposed ordinance, filed Friday, would necessitate a change in police policy to require drug and alcohol testing be performed “as soon as practicable” after incidents that cause death […]

By Audrey McNamara, CBS The mother of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died last summer after being confronted by police in Aurora, Colorado, says her son was murdered. After nearly 3 million people signed a petition calling for a reexamination of McClain’s case, Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Thursday appointed the state’s attorney general as a special […]

By USA TODAY Network, USA Today They aspire to be businessmen, artists and president of the United States. Some want to change their communities by removing blight and closing the wealth gap between whites and minorities. Others are bound for the military, historically Black colleges or the Ivy League. These 18-year-old Black men from across the U.S. want to make their […]

By Dakin Andone & Mitchell McCluskey, CNN (CNN) Three Wilmington, North Carolina, police officers have been fired after they were heard on video spewing “hate-filled speech” and referring “to Black people as the n-word,” Police Chief Donny Williams said Wednesday. The officers were identified as Officer James Gilmore, Corporal Jesse Moore II and Officer Kevin Piner. According to a […]

By Tim Elfrink, The Washington Post Sitting in his patrol car in Wilmington, N.C., Officer Michael “Kevin” Piner predicted Black Lives Matter protests would soon lead to civil war. “I’m ready,” Piner told another officer, adding that he planned to buy an assault rifle. “We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f—— n——,” […]

By Emily Hoerner and Carlos Ballesteros of Injustice Watch, NBC 5 Chicago White inmates in Illinois are having their sentences shortened during the coronavirus pandemic at a higher rate than Black inmates, an analysis of public data by a prison reform group shows. State officials released about 3,400 people early from Illinois prisons between March 1 and […]