Pope Leo XIV told inmates at one of Equatorial Guinea’s notorious prisons on Wednesday that they are not alone, as he delivered a message of hope during a visit that drew attention to prison conditions, human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have denounced for years here.

In Penobscot County, rising jail costs contributed to a roughly $7 million deficit that resulted in a 15% property tax increase for residents last year.

Sherodd Craft, who was released from state prison a year ago after a judge vacated his conviction for a 2001 shooting that killed a teenage girl in Albany, on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Albany and three former city detectives who had integral roles in the investigation.

We originally published the piece below several years ago, at a moment when concern about the Supreme Court’s politicization was becoming harder to ignore. It focused on a part of the Court’s power that receives far less attention than its final rulings: its ability to decide which cases it hears, and when.

Just after 6 p.m. on a February evening in 2016, the Supreme Court issued a cryptic, one paragraph ruling that sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions... Read the full article in The New York Times.

The $4 billion would help pay for mixed-income projects, conversions of offices to apartments, renovations to aging buildings and new middle-income apartments built by union workers. A 33-story mixed-income high-rise in Midtown Manhattan, with rents as low as $1,000 for one-bedroom apartments. A 30-unit apartment building in the Bronx for survivors of domestic violence who have struggled with homelessness. A Brooklyn building for formerly incarcerated women and their families

About ten years ago, we collaborated with the Skidmore College Project on Restorative Justice to put on a forum on criminal justice reform and the role of faith communities in the Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs, New York. . It brought people together to talk about what a more humane system could look like and what responsibility communities have in making that real. There was a focus on restorative justice and the barriers people face after incarceration, but

Credit: Leela Stockley / BDN Composite; Linda Coan O'Kresik / BDN; Documents via Penobscot County commissioner's office On March 24, No Penobscot County Jail Expansion held a community classroom about the proposal for a larger jail in Penobscot County. Speakers argued that incarceration does not improve long-term public safety because it often fails to address root causes such as addiction, poverty, and mental illness. Read the full piece in Bangor Daily News .

North Carolina legislators on Tuesday plan to discuss recommendations for better treating criminal suspects who have a history of mental illness.

ALBANY — For 23 hours a day, Anthony Marshall sat alone in a cell no bigger than a bathroom. The teenager’s time in solitary confinement stretched from months into years as his mental health unraveled. Now, more than a decade later, a $390,000 settlement tied to that extended isolation has been frozen by the state, caught in a legal fight over who gets the money. Read the full article in the Times Union .

A sign on a door at the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is pictured at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Feb. 21, 2023. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that mandatory life in prison without parole for those convicted of second-degree, or felony, murder is unconstitutional. In a 72-page opinion, Chief Justice Debra Todd, writing for the majority, said such an automatic sentence is “inconsistent” with the protection guaranteed under the state constitution against cruel pun

Apartments and condos in Austin Read the article on Vox.com

The Maine Legislature passed legislation to strengthen existing avenues for oversight of Maine jails, a compromise after an initial proposal for a corrections ombudsman faced pushback.

A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that incarceration is only one part of a much larger system of “correctional control,” with millions more people under probation and parole supervision than behind bars. It offers a clearer picture of how deeply the criminal legal system reaches into communities across the United States The U.S. criminal legal system controls approximately 5.5 million people when incarceration, probation, and parole are counted together, bu

Today is Good Friday, a day that not only followers of Jesus, but people of all faiths and beliefs, can join in solidarity in recognition of the one common denominator that unites us all: pain.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine is one of the groups behind the case against President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship that's now before the Supreme Court.

Proponents say the bill — passed by the Legislature this week and expected to be signed by Gov. Janet Mills — clarifies an existing law and would allow sheriffs to turn away federal immigration officers in some instances.

They say love is easy when everything is going right. But Shymel and I… we learned what love really is when everything wasn’t. There are days when the weight of our reality tries to convince me that something is wrong with us—like love isn’t supposed to feel this hard. But then I remind myself… every couple faces challenges. Ours just looks different. It doesn’t mean our love is broken. If anything, it proves just how strong it is. We’ve had moments where frustration could’ve

Rikers Island. Photo by Karsten Moran Two men who had been held on Rikers Island died in the past week, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would “pursue every avenue” to shut the troubled facility as soon as possible. Read the full article in The New York Time .