Criminal Justice Reform

How Can We Make Communities Safer? Listen to Residents First.

Justice reform should put community members with direct experience into the driver’s seat.

April 12, 2022
Crowd of mourners and police at Eric Garner's funeral in NYC

Criminal Justice Transformation: Anna Deavere Smith and Darren Walker

Anna Deavere Smith, actress, playwright, and founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University, and Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation

September 16, 2020

U.S. Supreme Court’s Denial of Application to Vacate Stay in the Case of Raysor v. DeSantis

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision will disenfranchise nearly 1 million individuals in Florida. Denying people their right to vote due to unpaid debt is reminiscent of a Jim Crow era “poll tax,” continuing the systemic criminalization of the poor and people of color.

July 17, 2020

We Must Keep Their Names Alive

The criminalization of poverty is a stark reminder of the legacy of race and the criminal justice system.

June 2, 2020

Now Is the Time to Transform the Criminal Justice System

People are being released from prisons during the pandemic, but what is happening in the communities they’ve returned to?

April 24, 2020
Open prison cell

Steph Cha on Racial Tensions and Representation

Your House Will Pay deals with a clash between two families, one black and one Korean, a year before the L.A. Uprising.

February 10, 2020
Steph Cha

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh Is Willing to Tear It All Down

In her first two years, the city’s mayor has had no shortage of challenges and controversies.

November 1, 2018

Former Prosecutor Adam Foss Speaks Out on How to Fix Our Criminal Justice System

Foss will be speaking at the Aspen Institute Symposium on the State of Race in America on April 4.

March 29, 2017

Rethinking Criminal Justice with Marc Levin

Research has found that criminal mediation leads to greater victim satisfaction and lower recidivism.

June 26, 2016