Lenses

Racial Justice

Unconscious bias—as well as overt racial discrimination—continues to taint the promise of justice for all, and these phenomena are particularly acute within the nation’s criminal justice system, where, for example, black people are incarcerated in state prisons at five times the rate of white people.[]Ashley Nellis, The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons (Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2016), 14.

Top Things to Know

  1. Prosecutorial power finds itself in the spotlight.
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  2. Louisiana will no longer base felony convictions on non-unanimous verdicts.
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  3. The feds favor enforcement.
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  4. National prison strike spotlights degrading conditions.
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  5. Prisons restrict access to books.
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  1. Congress reauthorizes Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
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  2. States make changes to juvenile court jurisdiction over young children—and young adults.
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  3. While officers face consequences in some high profile use-of-force incidents involving black men, fatal encounters continue.
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  4. DOJ ceases federal programs for law enforcement.
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  5. Research shows that racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes can begin as early as police investigation.
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  6. Facial recognition is a new tool that raises old concerns.
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  7. As more states legalize marijuana, arrests have plummeted—but racial disparities in enforcement persist.
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  8. Progressive network launches toolkit to spearhead policing policy reform.
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  9. The Trump administration continues its all-out assault on immigration.
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  10. Jeff Sessions exercises little-used power to assign immigration cases to himself—and overturns precedent.
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  11. ICE ramps up enforcement—including in “sensitive locations.”
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  12. Immigrant families are forcibly separated at the border.
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  13. Nearly 14,000 children held in custody, thousands in makeshift cages and tent cities.
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  14. In key cases, federal courts check the administration’s excesses.
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  15. Cities and states push back against federal immigration policies and ICE enforcement.
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  16. Stories from detention: solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, and “deliberate indifference” to health needs.
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  17. The role of risk assessments in pretrial decisions faces new scrutiny.
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  18. A year after judicially ordered bail reforms, Chicago’s money bail situation first improved—and now is “getting worse.”
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  19. Corporations and legislators target the bail bond industry.
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On Our Radar

  • Cities take a new look at closing old jails.
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  • Litigation leads the way in bail reform.
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  • Educational doors open for formerly incarcerated people.
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  • California adopts strict rules on collecting DNA from children.
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  • Midwest police take steps to decrease unnecessary arrests.
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  • “Migrant caravan” makes headlines, leads to increased militarization of border.
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  • Department of Homeland Security targets legal immigrants, U.S. residents.
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  • Activists combine political and direct action to limit ICE’s capacity to detain.
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  • Jurisdictions around the country are working to ensure immigrants have legal representation in deportation proceedings.
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  • A bipartisan effort saves a program informing immigrants of their legal rights.
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Best of 2018