57 Search results for "life sentences"

While the Constitution supposedly ensures everyone is afforded a fair trial, a new paper by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) says that exercising the right to trial poses many high risks. Because of this, many federal criminal defendants are encouraged to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit in order to […]

When Beyoncé’s Lemonade dropped in 2016, I became the target of ire from many of her fans. The album, its imagery, and subject matter did not move me in the way that it moved most of them, and my apathy towards it and critiques of the artist have always been easily dismissed as hateration. But […]

By Kejhonti Neloms I can never forget the time when your car broke down in the parking lot of those shitty Flaget Apartments across the street from the old folks’ home. It was the West End. It was summer. It was 8AM. I think it was Sprint that fired you. Maybe it was Nextel. I […]

The remains of ninety-five Black people were recently found buried at a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. The vast majority of reports about this discovery neglect to call these dead Black people what they really were: enslaved.   This essay contains discussions of racialized state violence, slavery, and lynching.   “African-American forced laborers” have […]

When people are sentenced to prison time and begin (or return to) incarcerated life, people on the outside often believe incarceration will punish inmates’ misdeeds, teach them cause-and-effect and protect society-at-large. But, what happens to people facing global warming and prisons without air conditioning? According to a report from the Marshall Project, people who are […]

Jesse Williams’ speech at the BET Awards was an instant classic. It was a quotable, resonating soliloquy that brought attention to many people who have been obscured in past and present movements for black lives, including women, on-the-ground activists, and young people. However, many on Twitter asserted that people were excited about the speech primarily […]

President Barack Obama has proven to be a stern believer in the idea of second chances in life. This even includes a lucky few convicted felons that he elects to offer clemency – reduced to time served.

On January 25, 2016, the United States Supreme Court has decided that states have to place a ban on mandatory death-in-prison sentences for juveniles retroactively.

By: Associated Press In one case, a mentally ill New York City inmate hanged himself from a shower pipe on his third try in three days. During that stretch, orders to put him on 24-hour watch were apparently ignored, along with a screening form that said he was “thinking about killing himself.”

The Institute of the Black World along with Black Family Summit Organizations will host a “Free Her” rally in hopes of calling attention to the affects of mass incarceration on women. Thousands of concerned citizens along with members of national organizations are expected to converge on the National Mall in Washington, D. C. on Saturday, […]

The following post originally appeared on the Huffington Post. It was written by Glenn Martin and appears under the title of, “The War on Drugs Didn’t Fail Yesterday.” Glenn E. Martin is a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate who who spent six years in New York State prisons. He’s also the Founder and Chief Risk […]

In a conversation that I had with a close friend, we discussed people using the word Nigga/Nigger and what it meant.  There is this new age argument that Nigga now means friend and is a term of endearment.  But is it really? Is a word that has the power to elicit your deepest rage and […]