Justice
Compassionate release exists. Almost no one gets it
The First Step Act promised early release for the dying and incapacitated, and the data shows the mechanism works when used — and is rarely used.
Monica Cummings
Justice
Reporting on courts, prosecutors and oversight bodies, from the filing of a claim to the enforcement of an order. Each piece explains what a judgment decided, what it declined to decide, and how the outcome changes the position of people bringing similar cases. For readers following litigation closely.
Case reporting from tribunals, prosecutors and oversight bodies, with a judgment's reasoning explained and its consequences for similar claims.
Justice
Juvenile life without parole: shrinking, but still on the books in half the states
Supreme Court rulings banned mandatory JLWOP and required individualized sentencing, yet more than a thousand people are still serving sentences imposed as children.
Colin Reyes
Justice
Public defenders carry triple the caseloads the system says are workable
National standards call for 150 felonies or 400 misdemeanors a year; heavy counties assign multiples of that, and the consequences land on the clients, in years of prison.
Monica Cummings
Justice
Court fees and fines: how a misdemeanor becomes a debt that lasts years
Justice-system fees attach to everything from arraignment to probation, and nonpayment converts to license suspension, warrants, and jail time — the mechanism courts now call legal financial obligations.
Monica Cummings
Justice
What a police consent decree actually requires a city to do
Federal consent decrees bind departments to monitorable reforms — use-of-force rules, training, accountability data — and the monitor's public reports are where compliance is fought over.
Monica Cummings