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Criminal Justice

Accountability in Crime and Law

476 stories published since 2008

A Liar’s Testimony Convinced a Jury to Convict a Man of Murder. Will Florida Execute Him Anyway?

Justice Dept. Says It Will Investigate Deadly Conditions at Four Mississippi Prisons

We’ve Gotten a Lot of Questions About Our Database of Credibly Accused Priests. Here Are the Answers.

Dating Apps Can Be Dangerous. Congress Is Investigating.

Sexual Abuse Reports From Illinois’ Catholic Dioceses Are Still Missing A Lot of Data

How These Jail Officials Profit From Selling E-Cigarettes to Inmates

Sex Offenders Were Becoming Cops. After Our Stories, Alaska’s Governor Wants That To End.

Alaska’s Public Safety Officer Program Is Failing. Can It Be Saved?

How to Navigate California County Jails: A Guide for Inmates and Their Loved Ones

California Governor’s Budget Makes Stronger Jail Oversight a Priority

California Gave Billions in Taxpayer Dollars to Improve Jails. But That’s Not How These Sheriffs Are Spending It.

We Found Villages That Hired Criminals as Cops. Now Officials Want It To Change.

Alaska’s Law Enforcement Crisis Is a Public Emergency. Here’s How Experts Want to Fix It.

A New Study Prompted by Our Reporting Confirms Elkhart, Indiana, Police Department Lacks Accountability

We Investigated Magistrates. Now, Lawmakers Want to Overhaul the System.

New York City Paid McKinsey Millions to Stem Jail Violence. Instead, Violence Soared.

These Homes for Mentally Ill Adults Have Been Notoriously Mismanaged. Now, One Is a Gruesome Crime Scene.

These Cops are Supposed to Protect Rural Villages. They’re in the Suburbs Instead.

He’s a Liar, a Con Artist and a Snitch. His Testimony Could Soon Send a Man to His Death.

30 Years of Jailhouse Snitch Scandals

How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Detain and Deport Immigrants

A Jail Increased Extreme Isolation to Stop Suicides. More People Killed Themselves.

Alaska’s Uneven Rural Law Enforcement System Often Leaves Remote Villages With No Cops

Mississippi Takes Steps to End Damning Delays in Evaluating Criminal Defendants

These Sheriffs Release Sick Inmates to Avoid Paying Their Hospital Bills

She Leapt From a Moving Car to Escape Her Rapist. Then, She Waited 18 Years for an Arrest.

Netflix Series Based on Our Work Explores Costs of Not Believing Rape Victims

Some of the Country’s Worst Prisons Have Escaped Justice Department Action

Inside The Prison Where Inmates Set Each Other On Fire and Gangs Have More Power Than Guards

A Year After an Inmate Was Choked to Death in Jail, a Murder Charge but Few Details

The FBI Told Congress Domestic Terror Investigations Led to 90 Recent Arrests. It Wouldn’t Show Us Records of Even One.

We Found Photos of Ole Miss Students Posing With Guns in Front of a Shot-Up Emmett Till Memorial. Now They Face a Possible Civil Rights Investigation.

Cops in One Village Have Been Convicted of 70 Crimes. Here’s What They Had to Say About It.

The Questionable Conviction, and Re-Conviction, of Ricky Joyner

The Village Where Every Cop Has Been Convicted of Domestic Violence

Deadly Delays in Jail Construction Cost Lives and Dollars Across California

Digital Jail: How Electronic Monitoring Drives Defendants Into Debt

Have You Worn an Electronic Monitoring Device or Supervised Someone Wearing One? We Want to Hear About It.

“Dire” Law Enforcement Crisis in Rural Alaska Prompts Emergency Declaration, New Federal Funding

The Sheriff Lost Reelection. Then the Spending Spree Began.

There Has Been an Explosion of Homicides in California’s County Jails. Here’s Why.

How Nine Sheriffs Who Lost Reelection Made Life Harder for Their Successors

Wasted Funds, Destroyed Property: How Sheriffs Undermined Their Successors After Losing Reelection

“No More Silence”: Her Kidnapping, Sexual Assault and Murder Stunned a Town, and Started a Movement

A Lawsuit Over Ferguson’s “Debtors Prison” Drags On

“Enough Is Enough”: Native Leaders Ask William Barr to Help Fix Alaska’s Law Enforcement Crisis

Cruel and Unusual: A Guide to California’s Broken Prisons and the Fight to Fix Them

Lawless

Have You Experienced Sexual Violence in Alaska? We’d Like To Hear Your Story.

Why We’re Investigating Sexual Violence in Alaska