Social Movements & the Law

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The first Black police chief in Waterloo, Iowa, is facing intense opposition from some current and former officers as he works with city leaders to reform the department, including the removal of its longtime insignia that resembles a Ku Klux Klan dragon.

Bard College, a private liberal arts college, is geared towards students interested in advocacy and will allow former inmates to enroll in the Bard Prison Initiative to pursue higher education.

Some of the country's top CEOs and tech executives shared their reactions to the Derek Chauvin verdict on Twitter, Facebook and in letters to employees.

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones says 250 years of slavery and 100 years of legalized segregation robbed Black Americans of the ability to accumulate wealth; cash payments would help repair the damage.

From remote reference to technology access, libraries across the country are providing a range of services for people and families affected by incarceration.

The Intercept mapped climate crisis risks for over 6,500 detention facilities in the U.S.

The long-term goal is fundamentally to reimagine how the state serves its citizens in the project of public safety.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington, D.C., government has struck a deal with the U.S. Marshals Service to improve the situation at the city's main jail after it came under criticism and the Justice Department announced that 400 federal prisoners would be transferred out because of substandard conditions.

The Chicago Police Department has taken steps to end the 15-year ordeal of a man who alleges he has been detained more than 60 times on the belief he was the man named in a southern Illinois arrest warrant, a lawyer for city said Monday.

Wesley Bell’s decision not to charge the officer who killed Michael Brown exposes the limits of the movement to elect reform prosecutors.

The Intercept mapped climate risks for 6,500 detention facilities. In some already miserable places, the suffering is set to intensify.

On the latest episode of Intercepted, historian Simon Balto discussed his new book and the origins of Chicago police as a moralistic enforcement agency.

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The extrajudicial killings of black people must stop.

The plaintiffs say cyanide gas executions are unconstitutional and bring back horrendous memories of the Holocaust.

In June, Democrats passed a measure to limit qualified immunity, with support from moderates who’ve since spoken out against the “defund” message.

Court records in an arson case show that Google gave away data on people who searched for a specific address.

Insurance companies have spent $17 million to defeat proposals to weaken or abolish the for-profit bail industry in the United States, a system that brings insurers $15 billion in business a year, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign contributions, company financial...

SEATTLE (AP) — Isaiah Obet was behaving erratically and in mental distress in 2017 when Auburn police officer Jeff Nelson ordered his police dog to attack and then shot Obet in the torso. Obet fell to the ground and Nelson fired again, fatally shooting Obet in the head.

Anyone can access portions of a web portal used by law enforcement to request customer data from Amazon, even though the portal is supposed to require a verified email address and password. Amazon’s law enforcement request portal allows police and federal agents to submit formal requests for customer data along with a legal order, like […]

Scholars who study policing explain what they have found that could help reduce police prejudice and violence.

Tyre Nichols died after he was beaten by police at a traffic stop. Campaign Zero has previously revealed research-backed ways to curb such violence.

Police misconduct records are either secret or difficult to access in a majority of states - 35 of them plus Washington, D.

The city's leaders hope overhauling the department's training — and better responses to people in crisis — will reverse the trend.

Vera works closely with government and civic leaders to urgently build and improve justice systems that ensure fairness, promote safety, and strengthen communities.

The U.S. Justice Department, in the midst of investigating policing practices in three major cities, will toughen oversight of federal monitors who supervise implementation of police reforms mandated in civil consent decrees, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday.

Camden, New Jersey, created a brand new police force to forge better ties with the community.

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – County leaders are forging ahead with reforms aimed at increasing police transparency and ending racially biased policing in communities of color. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors signed off on three proposals. Supervisor Nathan Fletcher introduced three proposals to increase police accountability and promote practices that can lead to better relations between community members and police....

The Appeal is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to exposing how the U.S. criminal legal system fails to keep people safe and perpetuates harm. Our work shows the human and economic costs of our expansive carceral system, equips people with the tools to make change, and elevates solutions that seek to create a safer society without clinging to punitive responses.