The risk assessment tool used by Alabama's parole board found that roughly 80% of applicants from August 2023 met the state’s parole requirements.

But the board granted parole to just 5% of them:
boltsmag.org/alabama-parole…

In one of the most sweeping Medicaid drop-offs in U.S. history, Tennessee in 2005 disenrolled some 200,000 people with little warning. This sparked an increase in the crime rate, a new study has found: boltsmag.org/medicaid-cover…

When immigration enforcement and the criminal legal system converge, non-citizens are effectively punished twice for a single crime. Two new books offer bold solutions.

boltsmag.org/beyond-crimmig…

Within Chicago, Clayton Harris’s result in Cook County’s prosecutor race was nearly identical to Brandon Johnson’s last year. Both won predominantly Black precincts, and liberal white precincts on the North Side. But it wasn't enough for Harris countywide. boltsmag.org/cook-county-pr…

“We’re all connected, we all live here together, and there are implications of policies targeting a particular group for the broader society.”

Bolts spoke to the coauthor of a new study showing how cuts to Medicaid can lead crime to increase. boltsmag.org/medicaid-cover…

Five of Oregon’s seven justices are up for reelection this year. And each and every one of them is running unopposed. boltsmag.org/your-state-by-…

Immigration policy is largely set at the federal level. But that doesn't mean that local campaigns can't change the crimmigration landscape. Deportations are far lower than a decade ago, and a new book credits that in part to local organizing: boltsmag.org/beyond-crimmig…

Bolts is now on LinkedIn 💼 Find us over there at the link below and give us a follow!

linkedin.com/company/boltsm…

Incarcerated New Yorkers and their advocates are challenging the state’s lethally opaque system for freedom.

“This is not just death by incarceration,” one man who spent decades in prison told Bolts. “It is specifically death by the parole board.” boltsmag.org/new-york-parol…

The Mississippi Supreme Court struck down the ballot initiative process in 2021. The GOP-run legislature has kept it frozen ever since. boltsmag.org/mississippi-ke…

In his new book, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández explains how immigration and the criminal legal system converged.

“Where Congress and the president see a problem,” writes César, “police, prosecutors, and prisons are their preferred answers.” boltsmag.org/beyond-crimmig…

Officially speaking, nobody remains in solitary confinement in Massachusetts prisons.

But a group of men on hunger strike say that this isn't the case, and that new behavioral units are just isolation by another name. boltsmag.org/massachusetts-…

Some 60,000 Minnesotans with past misdemeanor marijuana convictions will have their criminal records expunged by August, Star Tribune reports: startribune.com/minnesota-pois…

When a state made cuts to Medicaid, depriving people of access to health insurance, the crime rate increased: That’s the finding of a new academic study with important implications for the nation’s policies around health and public safety. boltsmag.org/medicaid-cover…

When a reform emptied Louisiana's prison beds, ICE filled them. In New Jersey, the reverse: A bill preventing ICE contracts saw lockups recoup money by housing federal prisoners.

If agencies aren't siloed, a new book argues, organizers shouldn't be either:boltsmag.org/beyond-crimmig…

As courts debate a Texas law that would allow any local law enforcement officer in the state to arrest a migrant suspected of crossing the border, two new books examine how “crimmigration” came to be — and provide an abolitionist antidote. boltsmag.org/beyond-crimmig…

A new study documents that a steep drop in Medicaid enrollment in Tennessee led crime to rise. Bolts talked to one of the authors about the findings, just as many states now face similar cliffs. boltsmag.org/medicaid-cover…

A Pennsylvania bill would curb court fines and fees for young people in the justice system, PublicSource reports: publicsource.org/juvenile-justi…

As immigration enforcement and the U.S. criminal legal system continue to collide, two new books argue that rooting migrant justice in abolition is key to fighting crimmigration:
boltsmag.org/beyond-crimmig…

The retirement of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx sparked a heated Democratic primary. Eileen O'Neill Burke squeaked out a victory, with support from the head of the city's police union and conservative donors: boltsmag.org/cook-county-pr…