Nov 30 Watch 3:52 Newark Youth Court gives juvenile offenders a jury of their peers By Student Reporting Labs How should efforts to implement criminal justice reform handle minor offenses committed by juveniles? Officials in Newark, New Jersey, are trying a new approach: municipal courts, public schools and police have aligned to develop an alternative sentencing program for teenagers:… Continue watching
Oct 09 Watch 2:27 ‘That Moment When’ a future civil rights lawyer learns the value of showing up By Steve Goldbloom, Zach Land-Miller Despite feeling unqualified to provide legal advice, Bryan Stevenson discovered that just “showing up" for others can make a huge difference in their lives. Continue watching
Jan 12 Obama reaches for upbeat outlook in final State of the Union By Josh Lederman, Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will deliver a final State of the Union address Tuesday brimming with optimism — far more than most Americans possess. Continue reading
Oct 16 Watch 9:25 Can a pilot program keep prisoners from going back to jail? By PBS News Hour In the second part of our series looking at how prison recidivism can be reduced, NewsHour follows three inmates, Jordan Taylor, Carlos Colon and Ashley Wilson as they move from prison back to everyday life, in our series “Broken Justice.”… Continue watching
Dec 29 Watch 6:02 Website that kept watch on D.C. homicides shuts down By PBS News Hour Homicide Watch, an online database that records and tracks homicide cases, was created to document under-reported crimes in Washington, D.C. The site has been praised by law enforcement and the families of victims, but is shutting down in that city. Continue watching
Nov 13 Twitter chat: What do we owe the wrongfully convicted? By Nora Daly The federal government offers exonerees $50,000 for each year spent in prison on a wrongful conviction. Should this same standard be enforced in all 50 states? What other programs should be put in place to ensure quality of life for… Continue reading
Nov 09 Watch Exonerated but not free: What do we owe the wrongfully convicted? By PBS News Hour In the US, state laws governing compensation for wrongfully convicted people vary significantly. While some states offer sizable packages for the exonerated, at least 20 offer nothing. And even for those that do, it may not be enough to make… Continue watching
Nov 09 Four wrongfully convicted men, four very different outcomes By Saskia de Melker When a wrongfully convicted person gets released from prison, it is a major news event: Local television crews capture the first steps of freedom and the speeches on the steps of the state capital, audiences empathize as they grapple with… Continue reading
Aug 22 Watch ‘Orange Is the New Black’ author’s biggest mistake inspired prison activism and a hit TV show By PBS News Hour Continue watching
Aug 07 Watch Debating criminal justice reforms to improve rehabilitation and lower recidivism By PBS News Hour The calls to address prison crowding and conditions have intensified as American inmate populations have grown. Jeffrey Brown gets debate on the shifting perceptions of the criminal justice system from Bill McCollum, former attorney general of Florida, Bryan Stevenson of… Continue watching