Jomari DeLeon made two drug sales over 24 hours, making less than $200. Kingpin? Hardly. Yet this first-time offender was sentenced to 15 years. Even...
Arizona’s prisons cost taxpayers $1.3 billion annually, employ thousands of people, and are responsible for the lives of 42,000 incarcerated people, yet lack independent oversight, transparency, and accountability. Here are a few of the stories from people in prison and...Read More
Brian Keys is ten years into a 15-year sentence for selling drugs in a school zone, his first felony. Remarkably, he now has the support of the judge who sentenced him, plus the sheriff of the county where Brian was...Read More
I started a thing recently with my son Jay for when he calls. When I pick up, I say, “Jay’s Kitchen, how can I help?” And he always says right back, “What’s on the menu for today?” Every day I...Read More
John Brookins’ story is filled with pain and injustice. But more than that, John’s story is a love story, one that goes all the way back to his childhood, when he met a girl named Karen at the Salvation Army...Read More
Since Denise Rock started the criminal justice reform group Florida Cares in August 2017, the organization has impacted reform and activism around the issue in the state in a remarkable way. Yet it got its start in the most ordinary...Read More
“If anyone thought I was not going to voice my opinion and that I was just going to let my son become a statistic, they had the wrong mom,” says Lavern Rushin. “They had the wrong mom.” Lavern is the...Read More
“Tuve una infancia difícil”, dice Margarita Zamora. “Mi padre nunca quiso tener nada que ver conmigo. Cuando se enteró de que mi mamá estaba embarazada, la dejó porque él era un hombre casado. Mi mama siempre tenía muchas relaciones cortas....Read More
When Darlene Wells and Jesse Dunaway met, it was “empathy at first sight.” She was working as a nurse at the institution where Jesse is a prisoner, and he was working in the staff dining hall. “You get to see...Read More
My name is Judy McCarroll. My son’s name is Lawrence McCarroll. We were both sent to prison for drug offenses in 1995. I was sentenced to 27 years, and Lawrence was sentenced to 33. For both of us, this was...Read More