In 2015, New York announced it had reached a landmark settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the state's aggressive use of solitary confinement to discipline inmates. Five Mualimm-ak is one of the activists who pushed for the changes. He spent five years in solitary and says it left him broken. "When people say you survived solitary? Nobody survives that," he says. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, agreed to a multi-year process phasing in limits on the time inmates...

In January, Dylann Roof was sentenced to death for killing nine black churchgoers at a prayer meeting in Charleston, S.C. Since then, some commentators have debated whether Roof should have had the right to fire his attorneys when they wished to introduce evidence of mental illness — and whether, or when, mental illness should disqualify someone for capital punishment. Most Americans oppose the death penalty for the mentally ill, a category that ranges from mild to severe. But our research...

California lawmakers have unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul pretrial release in the state that could virtually eliminate the use of money bail. Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, introduced legislation last December to change a system they argue unfairly punishes the poor by keeping them stuck in custody if they cannot afford expensive bail rates. Updated with new details last Friday, the proposal envisions instead a system of risk assessment to...

Legislation signed by Brown in 2014 settled some of the next debate: guidelines for the grant proposal process. It set aside 65% of Proposition 47 savings for the state Board of State and Community Corrections, requiring that money also go to programs developing housing and employment opportunities for released inmates. And it required that the committee awarding the grants have a diverse membership, including people who had been formerly incarcerated. In crafting the grant proposal...

As the Sacramento County Main Jail handles more inmates with psychiatric problems, the Sheriff’s Department is developing a new section staffed by UC Davis medical professionals, social workers and deputies that can provide intensive mental services without 24-hour care. Under a plan passed by county supervisors this month, the county within weeks will add 20 new outpatient beds to the section of the jail for inmates with mental health issues. For Sacramento’s new program, four social...

Margaret Love is a big believer in second chances. Since leaving her post as a pardon attorney for the Department of Justice, where she worked from 1990 to 1997, Love has been the executive director at the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, a non-profit with a focus on sentencing reform. (She also runs her own private practice .) At CCRC, Love has turned her attention to raising awareness around state-level forms of relief. “Nobody knew what was going on,” she says, explaining the need...

(Lisa) Rosales is one of seven female police chiefs in Los Angeles County, an all-time high. Women lead departments in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Claremont, Hermosa Beach, Alhambra and Manhattan Beach. Several of the chiefs gathered recently at USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy for a panel discussion on female leaders in law enforcement. Rosales said her style of policing encompasses listening, empathy and patience — qualities she said have helped de-escalate potentially volatile...

As he left the courthouse on his final day serving as head of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago, Zachary Fardon handed reporters an open letter . He was one of 46 U.S. Attorneys sacked by President Donald Trump , in part because he didn’t fit within the White House’s (and U.S. Justice Department’s) new criminal justice scheme. In the five-page document, he offered his prescription for saving the youth of Chicago , now perhaps the most embattled city in the United States . Brick and...

On Wednesday, March 1, 2017, the first job fair in a San Diego County jail was held for participants of East Mesa Reentry Facility ’s (EMRF) culinary training program and Reentry Works San Diego job center . Fifty-six inmates who are within a year of release attended the job fair, holding portfolios containing their résumés and pointers from the San Diego Second Chance Program , the operator of the job center that organized the job fair along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department .

Alan Wurtzel met Carole Markin on Match.com in 2010. On their first date, he took her to coffee. After their second date, he walked Markin to her door, followed her inside and, she said, forced her to perform oral sex. Wurtzel later claimed the act was consensual, but in 2011 he pleaded no contest to sexual battery and was sentenced to a year in jail. His victim was disappointed in the short sentence, but she still believed a measure of justice would be served with her assailant locked...

In a move long sought by civil rights activists, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Wednesday ordered a comprehensive review of the county’s bail system. In a move long sought by civil rights activists, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Wednesday ordered a comprehensive review of the county’s bail system. “Getting out on bail correlates much more to a person’s ability to pay, than to any likelihood of appearing in court or relative risk to the safety of the public,”...

It costs the taxpayers of L.A. County $177 a day to keep someone in the "largest and most costly local jail system in the United States," according to a motion by county supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis. About half the people in those cells are presumed innocent and awaiting trial, and according to Sheriff Jim McDonnell, most in that group can't afford bail. The proposal is similar to legislation at state and national levels that seeks to address the injustice of bail. State Sen. Bob...