California voters passed Proposition 36 in 2024 in response to concerns about homelessness, public substance use, and retail theft. Proponents promised: “Proposition 36 is NOT about going back to an era of mass incarceration. This is about creating a new era of mass treatment.” However, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera)'s analysis shows that in ...
Twenty-four people have died in county jails so far this year.
How are people dying?It typically takes months for Los Angeles County to publicly issue causes of death for people who have died in LA County jails. And even once autopsy reports are finalized, they don’t tell the whole story. When the coroner rules that a death is the result of “natural causes,” jail conditions can still be to blame. Researchers h ...
A catchall label for very different incidents has fueled calls for harsher punishment. A closer look points to solutions that help youth thrive and address safety without feeding fear.
“Violent ‘teen takeover’ chaos” reads a July 6 NBC News headline. The news segment features footage of fights and arrests in North Charleston, South Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina, over the holiday weekend. If you’re a regular consumer of news, this and similar footage from elsewhere in the nation may be familiar to you, as the supposed “tee ...