Ga. prison officials in ‘flagrant’ violation of reforms, judge says (via @wrdw_wagt)
wrdw.com/2024/04/24/ga-…

With criminalization of homelessness spreading nationwide, could we see a vicious cycle where people are:

(1) arrested & incarcerated ->(2) released into homelessness ->(3) arrested & incarcerated for being homeless?

Prisons will be the “housing solution” for homelessness.

Over the coming months, we'll share more about each Fellow, but for now, join us in showing them some love!

Great hearing from Rᴏʙᴇʀᴛ L. Tsᴀɪ about the legal life of the incomparable Steve Bright, detailed in his new book Demand the Impossible. Thanks to Eric Segall for the insightful questions. Georgia State University College of Law CenterA2J

Compare this with historical rhetoric used to describe Chinese immigrants during the 19th century, Haitians during the 20th century, and Hitlerian rhetoric regarding Jews. And people do not believe this is dangerous because they share his views.

Tenure-Track Faculty Salary Increases Trailed Inflation For 8th Year In a Row; Median Salary Is 9.7% Lower Than Five Years Ago bit.ly/3J2BWsf

Today, Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration was released by Columbia Univ Press. This anthology explores & reimagines the U.S. justice system: cup.columbia.edu/book/excessive…. In End Mandatory Minimums, I call for a paradigm shift rather than a pendulum swing:

Happy to report that my article 'Public Defense and an Abolitionist Ethic' has found a home with NYU Law Review. Looking forward to working with the law review's phenomenal editors to get it into print. Thanks to the many who have provided wonderful feedback. SSRN coming soon!

As we've previously shared, GA is an outlier on death penalty & intellectual disability, being the only state requiring juries to decide guilt or innocence while also deliberating intellectual disability with the insurmountable standard of proof of beyond a reasonable doubt.

Last night, Georgia executed Mr. Willie James Pye, a Black man with an IQ of 68. Because GA did not have a statewide public defender system when he went to trial, Mr. Pye was represented by a low-paid court-appointed lawyer w/a history of using racial slurs against Black people.

22% of people in state prisons today were homeless/in transitional housing when they were arrested. The data is clear: One of this country’s leading responses to homelessness is incarceration.

This was such a fun and rewarding project with Anna Roberts.

THREAD. Across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of children have been banned from visiting their parents who are awaiting trial in local jails. Why? A conspiracy to make money. We just filed two landmark civil rights lawsuits to stop it, but the story is unbelievable.

This is a little over half of the yearly budget of the Cook County Public Defender’s Office; an office that employs about 700 people and handles most of the criminal cases in Cook County.

Breaking: Civil Rights Corps alleges two MI counties banned in-person jail visits to profit from videochat fees. “That video visitation is going to work,” one official said. “A lot of people are going to swipe that Mastercard and visit their grandkids.” theappeal.org/michigan-count…

Thrilled that my new paper, Younger and Older Abstention, will be published in the Michigan Law Review. The abstract is below. If you would like a full draft, please reach out. Comments very much welcome. #newlawreviewarticle (1/4)

I am thrilled that Boston College Law Review will be publishing my new article Parent-Child Privilege as Resistance. I welcome comments and feedback. Thank you for checking it out!
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

This is a must read report. The racial turnout gap in elections is growing, and SCOTUS’s Shelby County decision is a big part of the story. It’s been hard to show that quantitatively until now, and the findings here are stark and sobering.

After the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision Shelby County v. Holder, the racial turnout gap grew almost twice as fast in the counties that would have been covered by the Voting Rights Act if it were in full force. brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

spirited panel on barriers to voting rights access with J. Sailor Jones, Kendra D. Cotton, @lring86, Poy Winichakul of Southern Poverty Law Center, and Anthony Michael Kreis. Thanks to all who came out and we look forward to continuing these collaborative efforts.