Parole without Exclusions
The fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer in the US city of Brooklyn Center in Minnesota was an accident, the police chief has said.
Daunte Wright, 20, was shot after the officer meant to use a Taser, but mistakenly drew her gun instead, Chief Tim Gannon told reporters.
The officer was later named as Kim Potter who has worked for Brooklyn Center Police for 26 years.
Mr Wright’s death has sparked protests and a curfew has been declared.
A film about a young woman who puts her life and dreams of going to medical school on hold while her husband is in prison.
Any day now, with Governor Ralph Northam’s signature, Virginia will eliminate the death penalty.
The news is cause for celebration. Since 1976, Virginia has executed more people than any other state except Texas. Now, Virginia joins a growing wave of states that have rejected this punishment and chosen to make our criminal justice system more humane, equitable and fair.
But the movement to end capital punishment also has a major flaw. It pushes for another form of in-prison death: life without the possibility of parole. Commonly referred to as LWOP, this sentence is frequently touted as a humane alternative to the death penalty. But LWOP is also deeply problematic and riddled with many of the exact same problems as the death penalty.
In the end, sentenced people are still condemned to die in prison, but LWOP sentences receive far less scrutiny by our justice system than death sentences.
The lack of COVID-19 protections in prisons show officials believe that inmates are less than human, that they do not deserve to be protected from death like everyone else, and that their lives do not matter.
More than two thirds of the roughly 203,000 prisoners serving life sentences in the United States are people of color, according to a new study citing official corrections data obtained last year from all states and the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The study, released by the Sentencing Project, found that roughly 20 percent of Black male prisoners are serving life sentences. About 11 percent of Black women serving prison sentences are also serving life, according to the study.
In states like Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, and Maryland, the study found that over two-thirds of those sentenced to life in prison are Black Americans, which account for 46 percent of those serving life sentences nationwide despite only accounting for around 13 percent of the U.S. population.
More than 200,000 people are serving life sentences in U.S. prisons today, and most of them are locked in state correctional facilities. The vast majority of lifers are people of color, about 30% are people age 55 and older, and an increasing number are women.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a number of sweeping criminal justice and police reforms into law, which includes eliminating cash bail for pretrial detainees.
Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, which was spearheaded by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, a judge can still detain an individual if they’re charged with felonies such as murder or domestic battery.
Those who aren’t deemed a threat to the community won’t be required to obtain cash to be released from jail prior to trial.
About 203,000 Americans are currently set to die behind bars. In 1970, there were less than 200,000 people in America’s entire prison system.
