All Posts
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Micah Haskell-Hoehl
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Logan Schmidt
Series: Covid-19
Policymakers Must Lift the Veil on COVID-19 in Jails and Prisons
COVID-19 is raging through U.S. jails and prisons—places disproportionately populated by poor people and those from communities of color, especially Black and Latinx communities. In fact, the 15 largest COVID-19 clusters in the country are in jails and prisons ...
Series: Covid-19
A View from the Inside
In Maine, reports say that the state prison population has been cut by more than 8 percent in response to the novel coronavirus, that cleaning and sanitation has been ramped up, that people are being released “early” on a Supervised Community Confinement Progr ...
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William Snowden
Series: Covid-19
A New Vision for Justice in New Orleans
In the face of adversity, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated one positive thing—that New Orleans can lock up fewer people in jail and still maintain public safety.
Series: Covid-19
Without an attorney, I might still be confined in a detention facility with COVID-19
People trapped in the United States’ massive immigration detention system have no right to legal counsel if they cannot afford it. Without attorneys, they stand little chance of navigating the complex and adversarial arena of immigration law to win their freed ...
Series: Covid-19
Vera’s New Prevalence Model Suggests COVID-19 is Spreading through ICE Detention at Much Higher Rates than Publicized
Little is known about the prevalence of COVID-19 in immigration detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Yet, conditions of confinement put people at high risk for contracting the virus. New estimates the Vera Institute of Justice ...
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Jackson Beck
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Leah Pope
Series: Covid-19
Coronavirus, Mental Health, and the Enduring Importance of Health-Centered Crisis Response
The novel coronavirus and efforts to contain it have brought about seismic life changes—including the loss of lives and livelihoods—known to lead to mental health crises, and some police departments, like those in Dayton, Ohio and Portland, Oregon, have report ...
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Melissa Garlick
Series: Covid-19
Communities Need State and Local Deportation Defense Programs Now More Than Ever
Nearly nine in 10 people in the United States support government-funded attorneys for people in immigration court, according to groundbreaking public opinion polling released today by the Vera Institute of Justice. The poll suggests what many of us already kno ...
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Leah Pope
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Aaron Stagoff-Belfort
Series: Covid-19
Public Health and Public Safety: The Critical Role of Police During the COVID-19 Crisis
As the full scope of the crisis of COVID-19 in American correctional facilities has come into focus, it is important to recognize the critical role police play as gatekeepers to the rest of the system.
Series: Covid-19
Facebook Post Put High School Student in a Detention Facility Now Struck by Coronavirus
Abigail Hernandez, now 23, ended up at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility because of a Facebook post. At the time, she was in a high school program for children with serious cognitive impairments. Her ability to comprehend consequences could be compared to ...
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Erica Bryant
Series: Covid-19
Unaccompanied Children Suffer as Hearings are Sped Up, Switched to Video During COVID-19 Crisis
Shortly before most schools in the United States closed due to the novel coronavirus, an immigration detention facility in Houston established a shaky video connection to a court in Atlanta. Little voices cracked through halting audio as two dozen children app ...
Series: Covid-19
Two Years in Jail, Never Convicted of a Crime, Now Vulnerable to Coronavirus
Shonday Williams knows what coronavirus feels like. It put her in the hospital, killed her mother’s fiancé, and now, she fears, may threaten her brother. He is among the two-thirds of people in local jails—more than 490,000 across the United States—who have no ...
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Christian Henrichson
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Oliver Hinds
Series: Covid-19
Use this Data to Hold Your Local Jail Accountable During the Pandemic
On Monday, America crossed the threshold of 10,000 deaths from COVID-19. As bad as things are on the outside, the pandemic pales in comparison with the horrors that are being faced by people behind bars right now. “Prisons are kill-boxes. Incarcerated people a ...
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Jack Norton
Series: Covid-19
Albany, Georgia Reduces Jail Population by 27 Percent in Response to Coronavirus
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the country, high incarceration rates in small cities and rural counties—often overlooked in discussions of mass incarceration—threaten to compound a mounting crisis. Decades of investment in carceral infrastructure, ...
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Maria Rafael
Series: Covid-19
In a Precarious Economy, Governments and Courts Must Take Immediate Action to Reduce Criminal Justice Fines and Fees
Poor conditions, inadequate access to health care, and overcrowding put incarcerated people at a uniquely high risk of infection by COVID-19. But there is also a separate, less obvious threat caused by the pandemic, faced not only by those behind bars but also ...
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Jacob Kang-Brown
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Jasmine Heiss
Series: Covid-19
COVID-19 Imperils People in Rural Jails
People in jails and prisons are among the most at risk for contracting COVID-19—and rural America is home to a large number of prisons and crowded jails. As the number of COVID-19 deaths grows rapidly in rural counties, people who reside and work in jails are ...
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Aaron Stagoff-Belfort
Series: Covid-19
Law Enforcement Best Practices Can Help Halt the Spread of COVID-19 by Keeping People Out of Jail
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, hit American correctional facilities this week. Two of the largest jails in the country, Rikers Island in New York City and Cook County Jail in Chicago, have multiple confirmed cases.
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Erica Bryant
Series: Covid-19
Detention May Become Death Sentence for Vulnerable Detainees
COVID-19 has appeared in the United States’ massive immigrant detention system, which holds tens of thousands of immigrants in prison-like conditions that leave them vulnerable to the virus. On March 24, an immigrant who is detained in New Jersey tested positi ...
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Logan Schmidt
Series: Target 2020
Responding to COVID-19: Focusing on People in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Systems
As the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus, or COVID-19, skyrocket in the United States, we are just beginning to see cases in jails, prisons, and immigration detention facilities. These populations are uniquely vulnerable because of the crowding typical ...
Blog Series
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Target 2020: Justice Solutions for a New Decade -
Dispatches from T.R.U.E. -
Dispatches from W.O.R.T.H. -
Dispatches from Germany -
Addressing the Overuse of Segregation in U.S. Prisons and Jails -
Beyond Innocence -
Breaking Point: New York's Mental Health Crisis -
Gender and Justice in America -
It Takes a Village -
Justice in Katrina's Wake -
My Brother's Keeper -
Police Perspectives: Building Community Trust -
Unlocking Potential: Perspectives on Education in Prison -
Two Societies: The Haunting Relevance of the Kerner Commission’s Report -
Eliminating Money Injustice in New Orleans