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The Marshall Project
Policing the Police: A Week of Racism, Abuse and Misconduct
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. The Department of Justice announced an investigation into the Worcester, Massachusetts, police department this week. The probe will look at...
Between Addiction and Prison, I Left My Boy to Grow Up Without a Dad
Before I went to prison, I was a doting father in spite of my bitter divorce. I’d spend weekends with my boy, D., going to Philadelphia Eagles games and the Happy Tymes Family Fun Center in Warrington, Pennsylvania. We’d practice soccer in my backyard using a net I’d put up. I’d make him dribble around cones, taking shots while I stood in the goal. “Stick to the basics, son! Don’t show off until you’re good,” I’d call out. Then I’d purposely miss the ball, diving like Beckham himself had just gotten a zinger past me.
In Greater Cleveland, Federal COVID Relief for Criminal Justice Goes Mostly to Pay Police
Illustrations by Susie Cagle. After The American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law in 2021, Cleveland asked residents and property owners how they would choose to spend the city’s $511 million in federal relief money. About 1 in 5 people who responded to paper and online surveys selected “safety and policing” as a top priority.
Mississippi Auditor: Prison Company Must Pay $2 Million for No-Show Workers
A 2020 investigation by The Marshall Project exposed how prison operator MTC billed the state millions for ghost workers. Mississippi’s state auditor on Monday demanded a private prison operator pay nearly $2 million after the company improperly billed the state for thousands of prison guard shifts that were never actually worked. — State Auditor Shad White announced the demand — the result of an inquiry his office launched in late 2020, followingan investigation by The Marshall Project that revealed the company’s ghost workers practice.
7 Key Criminal Justice Takeaways From the Midterms
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. As results from the midterm elections continue to trickle in, this week our team has a roundup on how some...
Ahead of Midterms, Most Americans Say Crime is Up. What Does the Data Say?
More people than ever believe crime is up in their area, polls show. But public perception doesn’t always match reality. This is The Marshall Project’s new Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here.
Why So Many Jails Are in a ‘State of Complete Meltdown’
Additional reporting by Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Rachel Dissell in Cleveland. In California, lawyers accused staff at the Los Angeles County jail of chaining mentally ill detainees to chairs for days at a time. In West Virginia, people held in the Southern Regional Jail sued the state, saying they found urine and semen in their food. In Missouri, detainees in the St. Louis jail staged multiple uprisings last year, while in Texas, a guard at Houston’s overcrowded Harris County Jail said she and her coworkers had started carrying knives to work for fear that they wouldn’t have backup if violence broke out.
Would a Death Sentence Help The Parkland Families Heal?
After a Florida jury voted to sentence Nikolas Cruz to life in prison earlier this month for the murders of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, news coverage focused on the disappointment and rage of his victims’ families. Many of them wanted the death penalty, and some will speak in court at his sentencing on Nov. 1.
Why Millions of Americans Will Be Left Out of the Midterms
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. As the midterms rapidly approach, more than 12 million Americans have already voted, to be followed by upwards of 100...
I Spent Over 40 Years Working in Corrections. I Wasn’t Ready for Rikers.
I started as commissioner of New York City’s Department of Correction in June 2021. In that role, I was responsible for running New York City’s jails, including the legendarily brutal Rikers Island. Having spent 42 years in the criminal justice field, I thought I was professionally and emotionally prepared for what I would encounter. But even though I had headed up a probation department and a youth corrections system; served as an advocate, academic and non-profit director; and toured correctional facilities throughout the world, nothing could have been further from the truth.
How We Analyzed Cases of People Cycling In and Out of Cleveland’s Courts
The Marshall Project examined tens of thousands of criminal cases in Cuyahoga County. The Marshall Project has been scraping criminal case records from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas for over a year, building a nearly-complete database of cases from 2016 to present. Forthis story, we focused primarily on defendants with multiple criminal cases. Such cases represent the majority of all those in the system.
Five Things to Know About Cleveland Courts’ Revolving Door
In most cases, people who repeatedly appear before the courts are not committing violent crimes. As part of our ongoing “Testify” series, The Marshall Project scraped years of court documents to understand what happens in Cuyahoga County courts. Our newest analysis examines who cycles repeatedly in and out of courtrooms, prisons and jails, and why. Here’s what we found:
Fetterman and Oz Battle Over Pennsylvania’s Felony Murder Law
PHILADELPHIA — Tyreem Rivers didn’t intend to hurt the elderly woman he followed home from the bank. He just wanted her black leather pocketbook stuffed with cash. As she climbed the stoop to her front door, he snatched the purse and ran. He did not shove or hit the woman, court records show. But 85-year-old Mary Tonzola tumbled down her front steps, breaking several bones. She died two weeks later, after picking up infections in the hospital.
Progressive Sheriffs Are Here. Will They Win In November?
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. You may have heard of “progressive prosecutors,” like District Attorney Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, who campaigned to shrink the prison...
We Surveyed U.S. Sheriffs. See Their Views on Power, Race and Immigration
In an exclusive new survey, The Marshall Project found that sheriffs are key to our debates on policing, immigration and much more. Over the last decade, debates about police violence, mass incarceration and other criminal justice issues have generally focused on police chiefs and prosecutors. But sheriffs demand equal attention. In an increasingly partisan America, they lobby state legislatures and Congress. They run jails and carry out evictions. They decide how aggressively to investigate and arrest people on matters ranging from guns to elections to immigration. And they may shape how new abortion laws play out at the local level.
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The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.
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