A peak New York moment on @NY1: Zack Tahhan, who spotted the alleged subway shooter, grabs our mic and begins interviewing other witnesses. pic.twitter.com/ax3nXpSbvb
— Mariya Abedi (@msabedi) April 13, 2022
"In May of last year, Fair submitted her public-records requests for the DAVID and criminal background searches performed on her. She also persuaded fellow mermaid Smiley, whom Mia also occasionally attacked on social media, and their boss Anderson to submit identical requests."
Bob Norman for Miami New Times : "Wreck Bar Mermaid Sues Broward Sheriff's Office for Invasion of Privacy" Tweet
shot dead
Grand Rapids Police Department released multiple videos last week of the deadly traffic stop that led to Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man, being shot dead by police officers. The Michigan State Police are leading the criminal investigation into the shooting and will forward evidence to county prosecutors. The Washington Post (April 14, 2022)
more police on more police
After a man shot up a subway car full of people in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he would double the number of police officers on subways. But there already is a heavy police presence in the subway. From the beginning of his term, Adams has made aggressive policing of subways a centerpiece of his administration. Within a month of taking office, he had already flooded the system with 1,000 additional officers. The Intercept (April 13, 2022)

confusion
A woman’s arrest after her abortion in Texas, caused national outcry and fear about the state criminalizing women’s healthcare, but the truth of the situation may come down to an error by a first-term Democratic district attorney. The state law “explicitly exempts a woman from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her pregnancy.” People on both sides of the abortion issue condemned her arrest. The Washington Post (April 13, 2022)
imprisoned with poison
Illinois prison and health officials made misleading and inconsistent statements about a Legionella outbreak at several state prisons last month, according to records and interviews with incarcerated people. Advocates and prison watchdogs say the inconsistencies highlight long-standing problems with accountability and oversight of the prison system’s water treatment practices. During routine water testing. When inhaled into the lungs, Legionella can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially deadly form of pneumonia. Injustice Watch (April 12, 2022)

a death in shadows
Her husband died after he was transferred from jail to a hospital. Now members of the jail's oversight board and her have questions about her husband undergoing surgery and having a Do Not Resuscitate code issued when she never even knew he was even in the hospital. It took two months for her to learn details about his death. PINJ (April 12, 2022)
slow moving
A government watchdog found a “substantial likelihood” the federal Bureau of Prisons committed wrongdoing when it ignored complaints and failed to address asbestos and mold contamination at a federal women’s prison in California that has already been under scrutiny for rampant sexual abuse of inmates. AP (April 12, 2022)
no follow up
"The Senate delivered former President Donald Trump a bipartisan criminal justice reform deal shortly after the last midterm election. Staging a sequel for President Joe Biden this year won’t be so easy. Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are still in talks over finalizing a package that would serve as a more narrow follow-up to the 2018 prison and sentencing reform bill known as the First Step Act." POLITICO (Mar. 9, 2022)

retraction
A panel of state lawmakers moved to make possession of any more than 1 gram of a substance containing fentanyl a felony in Colorado, undoing part of a bipartisan 2019 law that made possession of up to 4 grams of a controlled substance a misdemeanor. Nearly 2,000 people have died after ingesting substances containing fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, since 2015. Colorado Newsline (April 14, 2022)

must read: how a mermaid took down a sheriff
"It began with online attacks from Mia and her husband Jeff and became worse when the couple moved in next door to Fair’s home in Fort Lauderdale. [...] Fair says the scariest part of it all is that Jeff has the power of the badge: He’s a lieutenant with the Broward Sheriff’s Office" Miami New Times (April 20, 2022)
🔔Attention researchers and reporters🔔
— Morgan Godvin (@MorganGodvin) March 31, 2022
I am at your disposable if you think anything in the American Prison Newspapers archive (1,800 issues across 220 years!) might be of use to you.
We have The Angolite now!
Free archival research is a good deal.
COMMUNITY BOARD
- Sign: Demand Clemency And Stop The Execution Of Richard Bernard Moore
- FLORIDA COPS NEARLY SENT A FIVE-YEAR-OLD TO JAIL
- Organizing Transformative Justice Responses to Campus Sexual Violence, April 26 7PM – 8:30 PM EDT
- Why “Crime” Isn’t the Question and Police Aren’t the Answer
- I Grew Up Believing I Was Dumb. A College Education Behind Bars Healed That Wound
- Job: VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMS COMMON JUSTICE
- A Campaign of Terror Against Reproductive Rights Is Already Forging a Post-Roe World
- Alabama Wants to Criminalize Medically-Necessary Care for Trans Youth. Two Dads are Fighting Back.
- Safety Planning and Intimate Partner Violence: a toolkit
HOLY SHIT YALLhttps://t.co/j70CV9Tncu
— Jessica Pishko (@JessPish) April 14, 2022
Meanwhile at Dixon Correctional Institute in Louisiana pic.twitter.com/PijPLgeXHl
— Morgan Godvin (@MorganGodvin) April 13, 2022
OUR LATEST

Maryland police unable to use smell of weed to stop people anymore; Virginia prison phone calls get more affordable
justice from the frontlines: June 4, 2023 officer impersonation Maryland State Police issued a warning, alerting the public that impersonators are making phone calls acting

Bowser introduces safety legislation. Congress Blocks D.C. Police Reform Bill. Stricter Gun Laws in MD. Black Victims and Families Disproportionately Denied Support.
justice from the frontlines: May 22, 2023 Tougher Sentences and Limited Early Release Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed new legislation that includes measures to streamline

D.C. Homicides Surge to a Decade-High. Change in D.C. Pretrial Detention Laws. Virginia Extends Youth Detention Stay. W. VA Closes Legal Gap on Stalking Crimes
MD has one of the highest rates of prisoners sentenced as kids; D.C. murder rates top decade high; Detective who shot 17-year-old in Baltimore identified