Criminal Justice

An executive order issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo could extend voting rights to over 35,000 people.

• By Ashley Hackett

Analysts say the decision breaks the Trump administration's promise to cut the immigration court backlog.

• By Massoud Hayoun

The police chief of Chatham, New York, has a revolutionary strategy for policing the opioid epidemic.

• By Alastair Boone

A drug lab chemist in Amherst had tampered with evidence and abused various confiscated drugs over an eight-year span.

• By Ashley Hackett

After settling a lawsuit for conscience-shocking behavior, a youth detention facility in Sacramento is setting the course to end punitive solitary confinement nationwide.

• By Molly McCluskey

A new study suggests the so-called ACLU effect might be to blame.

• By Kate Wheeling

Two landmark Supreme Court rulings made clear that juvenile life sentences are unconstitutional. Yet hundreds remain in prison, many of them without access to educational programs.

• By Kenneth R. Rosen

Is condemning drug dealers to death really a wise strategy?

• By Francie Diep

The plan's law enforcement strategies have been met with skepticism by some lawmakers.

• By Candace Butera

Seventeen inmates in Oklahoma are awaiting set execution dates.

• By Candace Butera

Ending up on a gang database if you're brown or black is easy—you only have to be suspected of association. Getting off a gang database? That's much harder.

• By Emmanuel Felton

Nikolas Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and 17 counts of attempted murder in the first degree.

• By Kate Wheeling

In the wake of last month's deadly shooting in Parkland, Pacific Standard talked to a few leading scholars on how the insanity defense ought to be used in the courtroom.

• By Candace Butera

A new report looks at gaps in income, education, and wealth over the last 50 years.

• By Dwyer Gunn

The ongoing cases against the J20 defendants represent a dangerous precedent for future social justice movements: guilt by association.

• By Arvind Dilawar

Until we find more certainty regarding how cybersecurity statistics are reported, we won't be to able to fully understand the scope of the problem.

• By Josephine Wolff

Though the office will no longer charge possession, those who are caught selling or delivering marijuana will still be charged.

• By Chinelo Nkechi Ikem

A new poll from the MacArthur Foundation finds most Americans' sentiments about the justice system are at odds with the Trump administration's punitive policies.

• By Kate Wheeling

The San Gabriel Police Department's collaboration with federal immigration authorities marks the latest flashpoint in the national debate over how local authorities should react to the Trump administration's focus on undocumented immigrants.

• By Massoud Hayoun

Since 2013, the Columbus Division of Police has shot and killed dozens of people. The majority of them were black.

• By Alli Maloney

Research has identified embedded racism in IQ tests. Now, prosecutors in at least eight states are using that research—to legalize more executions.

• By David M. Perry

The criminal justice system has been using predictive algorithms for decades, but research shows even the best algorithms are no better than humans at predicting recidivism—and neither are very good.

• By Kate Wheeling

Marsy's Law advocates for the rights of the families of murder victims, and the billionaire behind the measure wants it to spread nationwide. But many say the law is unfairly broad.

• By Emmanuel Felton

In Alaska, a point-based system will replace cash for determining who the state will release on bail.

• By Morgan Baskin