In mid April, 2019, a teenage girl who was a resident at LA County Probation's Central Juvenile...
Nationwide, the death penalty continues to decline despite the former president’s execution spree
As WitnessLA readers know, last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland instituted a...
Watch for an important new #MeToo Behind Bars story later this week
We have a new and disturbing story coming on Thursday of this week that is part of...
Happy 4th of July, 2021
We wish you a joy-filled 4th of July as we honor that day in the summer of 1776 when the remarkable...
US Attorney General Merrick Garland places a moratorium on scheduling federal executions
On Thursday, July 1, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Attorney General Merrick...
Troubling Rise in Jail Deaths Nationally, While U.S. Jail Population Becomes More Female
In a new report by the Prison Policy Initiative, research analyst Leah Wang, points to recently...
Do Threats, Extortion, & Ongoing Failure-to-Cooperate Make Civilian Oversight of the LA Sheriff’s Department Completely Impossible?
"The list of lawful orders that the sheriff has disobeyed gets longer every day," said a very...
The U.S. Supremes will decide whether or not to hear three significant cases having to do with sentencing reform
Sunday, Douglas A. Berman at Sentencing, Law, and Policy reminded those of us who are watching...
How Federal policy has failed to protect Indigenous women
U.S. attorneys prosecuted about 60% of crimes reported on Indian reservations; 65% of the cases...
Happy Juneteenth!
On this first Juneteenth since it officially became a federal holiday, we chose the irreplaceable...
Op-Ed: The Case for Defunding the Police & What That Really Means
Crisis responders use de-escalation tactics and peer support to resolve conflict, instead of guns...
Op-Ed: She Reached Out for Help and Got Her Kids Taken Away
She told the officers the truth. Yes, she had survived multiple instances of domestic violence from...
AG Merrick Garland Restores Asylum for Women, Families, and others Facing Domestic Violence, Gangs, & Similar Threats
On Wednesday, June 16, Attorney General Merrick Garland took what justice advocates are calling...
Closing CA’s youth prisons the right way means adequately funding oversight of youth justice “realignment” to the counties
Last fall, when Governor Newsom signed SB 823 into law in order to gradually close...
Justice Wins Big at the Pulitzers
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Friday, June 11, at 1 p.m. Eastern, and for those who were...
“Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem,” a new film on the damage done by the nation’s lowest level criminal charges
The U.S. has a misdemeanor problem. Misdemeanor charges make up over 80 percent of the criminal...
CA’s Jail & Prison populations went down during COVID, but now the jail numbers have crept back up
When the COVID-19 pandemic began its frightening rise in the United States, justice advocates were...
An important new study looks at the relationship between prosecutors & politics, including the actions of California’s lobbyist district attorneys
A new study looks at the role of prosecutors in the various state criminal justice systems, with a...