Last Friday, I sent a message to NAACP members and supporters to tell them about Gladys and Jaime Scott, two sisters who have been have been incarcerated in Mississippi for the last 16 years.
Arizona's controversial immigration law is actually a business model carefully crafted by private prisons rather than a law aiming to fix anything about America's broken immigration system.
Our Constitutional system of juries, appeals and pardons injects the spark of humanity into the life-or-death decisions that are passed down every day in our nation’s courts.
Hamedah Hasan, a devoted mother of three, fled a physically abusive relationship and sought shelter with her cousin. Hamedah's primary goal was to provide a safe living environment for herself and her three children.
The right to an attorney for people who are unable to pay for one is guaranteed by the 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and reinforced by the 1963 unanimous Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. Or is it?
Benjamin Todd Jealous requested a pardon from Governor Haley Barbour Tuesday for two sisters incarcerated since 1994 despite troubling questions regarding the accuracy of witness testimony.
A serial killer has been on the loose for months and only recently has the story reached the attention of national media.
On September 4, 2005, six unarmed New Orleans residents were attacked, two of them shot to death, as they tried to seek refuge for themselves and their families in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Just imagine walking through your front door after a long day's work and your house has been ransacked and your valuables gone. You call the police to report the crime but no one shows up.
Inspired by Convention? Of course you are! You will return to your community with a renewed sense of commitment to fighting for civil rights and equality. But you might need a road map for advocating on the issues that affect your community.
At the invitation of the Crossroads Correctional Center’s NAACP Prison Branch #4003, and in coordination with the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP, the Criminal Justice Program of the NAACP participated in the first ever criminal justice workshop.
Rarely do we come across a case that so clearly embodies racial hatred, elements of torture and police misconduct. On May 22, 2010 in an Indiana jail, Tevin Bald says he was a victim of exactly such an incident and the evidence backs him up.
On Wednesday the saga of death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis will begin its last chapter. In an extremely rare ruling last summer, the United States Supreme Court ordered a federal judge in Georgia to grant Troy an evidentiary hearing to prove his innocence.
Last week, federal officials announced a decrease in our nation's jail population for the first time since 1982. This comes at a time when overall crime is down despite this being the worst economic recession in decades.
As I was thinking about what to write for this blog, my mind kept floating to personal experiences of friends I've lost to violence and how inept responses to crime have made our communities less safe.
