"There is an obligation both to incarcerated persons and the taxpayers not to keep someone incarcerated for longer than they should be," a Louisiana district attorney said. "Timely release is not only a legal obligation, but arguably of equal importance, a moral obligation."
"Sometimes I even feel like they wanted me in there, because I was in there so long," said one 18-year-old who was wrongfully incarcerated for 166 days.
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"Just because I made some bad choices in my life, they shouldn't be allowed to make bad health choices for me and my baby," said one woman whose labor was induced against her will.
"The most valuable thing taken away while in prison is time," says the author of Corrections in Ink.
The war on drugs conspires with the war on guns to make a mockery of justice.
In Criminal (In)Justice, the Manhattan Institute scholar argues that most reforms favored by social justice activists—and many libertarians—make life worse for communities of color.
In Criminal (In)Justice, the Manhattan Institute scholar argues that most reforms favored by social justice activists—and many libertarians—make life worse for communities of color.
High recidivism rates are not surprising when life in prison features the same factors that drive crime.
Libertarians have some common ground with the abolitionists—but if they insist on anti-capitalism as a litmus test, abolitionists will find themselves isolated and marginalized.
Former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan are now serving lengthy prison sentences for what became known as the "kids-for-cash" scandal.
It is unclear if, or when, she could be freed by a prisoner exchange.
A new report emphasizes that the U.S. would still have a very high incarceration rate even if all drug war prisoners were released.
However, the cruel policy that threatened him with years in jail remains in place.
Overzealous three-strikes laws claim another victim.
In the right circumstances, home detention is cheaper and more effective than prison.
The prisons are filled with aging inmates who no longer pose a public threat.
Electorally vulnerable Democratic governors have historically been tougher on crime than Republicans.
The COVID-19 pandemic drove an unprecedented drop in incarceration, a new study finds, but the authors warn it could bounce right back.
Total prison population, imprisonment rates, and racial disparities in incarceration all continued their slide.
The U.S. incarceration rate peaked in 2008, but it's good to see two "law and order" candidates talking about clemency.
State involvement in people's lives—even "for their own good"—ends up becoming a backdoor way of policing and control.
Joe Biden has said plenty of regrettable things about criminal justice, but that wasn't one of them.
Sen. Tim Scott (R–S.C.) criticizes Joe Biden's record on mass incarceration.
Biden picked a V.P. candidate whose record on police and criminal justice reform is as terrible as his own.
In the age of coronavirus, they are a danger to the lives of people both inside them and outside.
Gov. Greg Abbott made the change after a Dallas salon owner was jailed for reopening her salon.
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"The policy was abhorrent," Biden said of Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk program. Yes, but so was pretty much every criminal justice policy Biden pushed through the Senate.
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"We are a prison system that's overstuffed and under-guarded, and that is a lethal combination of policies," says state Sen. Jeff Brandes.
But can the city commit to reducing its jail population—and will Rikers' infamous culture just be transplanted to the new jails?
This year, Mississippi and North Carolina both ditched a vague "good moral character" clause that kept occupational licensing out of reach for people with criminal records.
The U.S. incarcerates people for petty crimes at an alarming rate.
The climate of opinion has changed so dramatically that Democrats are politically obliged to support reform.
The senator and presidential hopeful went to bat for dirty prosecutors, opposed marijuana legalization, and championed policies that endanger sex workers.
"As a system, it's working," Barr says of the criminal justice system. "It's not predicated on racism."
The ACLU is releasing reports on what's driving mass incarceration in every state, and how to cut prison populations in each one.
The former top G-Man thinks "mass incarceration" is a misnomer and that taking Martha Stewart down was pretty much the work of God.
Contrary to what many supporters of legalization seem to think, prisons are not overflowing with pot smokers busted for possession.
Texas alone bans 10,000 books, including The Color Purple and Where's Waldo?
Hope Zeferjohn's role was limited to chatting with the "victim"-who was never actually trafficked-on Facebook.
Brenda Menjivar Guardado is scared to go back to El Salvador, but she's even more afraid of dying in custody.
Author of Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration-and How to Achieve Real Reform talks about why ending the drug war isn't enough.
Talking about racism won't end these problems