Criminal Justice
Should police respond to mental health crises?
As tensions between law enforcement and the public continue to rise, many are beginning to question whether all 911 calls warrant a visit from armed officers.
Cash bail keeps poor people in jail. Here’s how we fix it
Bail reformers say it’s unconstitutional for a person to be imprisoned because they can’t afford bail. Do bail bonds begin punishing the poor before they’re even found guilty?
Volunteers build first nationwide database of police records
Thousands of volunteers are data scraping public websites to compile police records into a single national database for researchers to mine.
Qualified immunity might not protect police for much longer
The U.S. government is considering changes to qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects police from civil lawsuits.
How police spend their time
The New York Times looks at how police spend their time at work, providing insights that could be useful for “unbundling the police” efforts.
Converting prisons into farms, community centers, and shelters
Across the U.S., prisons, jails, and detention centers are being transformed from facilities that confine people into ones that support them.
Rethinking public safety: Are police always needed?
The mobile mental health service CAHOOTS handles public safety calls related to mental or behavioral health for the Eugene Police Department.
This Atlanta jail is being replaced with a "center for equity"
A decarceration project will see a 1,100-bed Atlanta jail transformed into a “Center for Equity” to serve the local community.
Street medics tend to protesters in the midst of a pandemic
Across the U.S., groups of volunteer street medics are dispensing medical care to police brutality protestors in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
5 must-reads on American police reform
In our weekly roundup, we take you inside the fight to reform America’s criminal justice system, exploring potential solutions to this complex problem.