Understanding a problem is step one in figuring out how to address it. That's why this victory in #Kentucky - two years in the making - is such an important milestone for the #EndJusticeFees movement. Grateful to the allies who've been in this work from day one.

He's been on a racist crusade throughout his career and now his allies are all-but ensuring he gets more power, and more of an opportunity to decimate people's lives. This is what happens in a system that tolerates prosecution as a hunt and rewards its hunters. #elections #justice @propublica.org👇🏽

The latest in what's been a systematic dismantling of protection & support for the most vulnerable people—isolating them in the midst of chaotic processes with generational consequence. This, while people who hold power leverage it to insulate themselves from accountability. #immigration #Trump #DOJ

Last Monday, I noticed a jarring addition on ICE's 287(g) program: a K-12 school district police department. How did the Caney Valley Public Schools briefly end up on ICE's list of 1,315 law enforcement agency partners? Here's what we know so far 🧵 cc: @austinkocher.com

It starts with a ticket or a fine. Then it cascades. Debt, debilitating choices, and the threat of having your license suspended—of having your life and livelihood destroyed. The #RoadToOpportunityAct can end this, and can be another step forward in the #FreeToDrive movement. #Massachusetts #mapoli

This is how corrupt and corrosive #immigration detention and #incarceration can be: Victory means limiting private vendors to a *35 percent* markup in their efforts to profit off of the most vulnerable and scared people in our country. @vanguardnewsgroup.bsky.social👇🏽

Here it is. The latest in *This Week is #FreeToDrive and #EndJusticeFees*. #advocacylife #justice

Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. adults has a criminal record. Many are trapped in underpaid, unstable, and unsafe jobs. NELP’s new fact sheet unpacks the evidence and explains why we need to center job quality for #workers with records. www.nelp.org/insights-res...

I was hired as a prosecutor—straight out of law school. At the *local* level. And I wasn't anywhere close to ready for that kind of power. Now we're gonna turn that up? And encourage a sharper, unethical tilt toward adversarial "justice"?! #AUSA #DOJ @bloomberg.com👇🏽

You're not as safe as you think. The carceral system continues to evolve—it will find new ways to use #technology to target. To punish. To oppress. And the legal protection intended to guard you, and the people who have far fewer resources, are thin. At best. Excellent piece by @yberger.bsky.social.

It’s crystal clear now that Trump has lost control of this war. He badly misjudged Iran’s ability to retaliate. The region is on fire. 1/ I’m going to explain to you in this🧵what I’ve learned - in part from closed door briefings - about the four biggest current crises.

#Advocacy is, often, chaos. And there are always a thousand decisions to make. You're gonna spend time trying to find the "best" decision? Cool. You do that. Your opponent just made a good decision, and they're getting ahead. Welcome back to The Struggle and the Joy. #advocacylife #leadership

If it's #Friday, it's time for "This Week in #FreeToDrive and #EndJusticeFees"! This week: expanded fee elimination work with conservative allies in #Oklahoma, an alarming trend in automated traffic enforcement, and looking ahead to a convo with #Missouri partners about ending pretrial fees.

Slavery never ended. It evolved. When Nadia Reed and Harold Mortis and Richard Lilgerose refused to risk their health for the pennies they're "paid" for their labor, #Colorado assaulted them. Shackled them. Threw them into solitary. After a judge ordered this to stop? Nothing changed. @boltsmag.org👇🏽

A jury of your peers. Unless you're Black. Because then those peers are deemed unintelligent or biased or just too different to be fair. And if your life is on the line? Even more reason to isolate you. Masterful reporting from @mississippitoday.org👇🏽. #deathpenalty #criminaljustice

Victims support matters. Funding that support through #finesandfees is failed policy. Excellent new essay from @rachelbarkow.bsky.social unpacks how '80s ideologies—defined by racist stereotypes and states' consistent push to minimize their responsibility—have failed everyone. Especially victims.

The science of racism with Professor Keon West

Americans can tolerate a genocide in Gaza, ICE killing and kidnapping people, Trump's racism and cruelty, but I do think high gas prices - in addition to all the other chaos - might be a bridge too far.

Prosecutors want "finality"? I get it. As a prosecutor, I did, too. But finality at the cost of someone's life? Marcellus Williams wanted finality. Lance Shockley wanted it, too. Patty Prewitt can't get it. Why doesn't their closure matter? @themarshallproject.org👇🏽 #DNAtesting #justice

Jack Smith: "My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it."

"These are the fun ones." 👈🏽what a probation officer once told me about arguing a #supervision violation. Due process & rules of evidence barely apply. It's laughably easy to get someone locked up—for years. Now Neil Gorsuch is planting the flag, alone: Jaron Burnett deserved due process. #SCOTUS

Looking back on the week that was... Here's the latest in *This Week in #FreeToDrive and #EndJusticeFees* #advocacy #justice

Government weaponizing language against its own citizens. Labeling people to instill fear. And sow seeds of distrust. Despite the law acquitting people of the things they're accused of being. Anyone—me, you—could be their next target. #immigration #Trump #DHS

A tried-and-true tactic in our nation's history—find the people you don't like for reasons you can't say aloud, then weaponize the law to label them as "criminal," "less-than," or "other." And let the people you do like, for reasons you can't say aloud, win the game you've rigged for their benefit.

Alabama is set to execute Sonny Burton on March 12, even though he never killed anyone and the state admits that. Sonny has stayed on death row for 33 years while his health deteriorates. Governor Ivey must commute his sentence.

I too remember the earlier, woke wars. tons of spent microaggression munitions strewn about everywhere, friends crying out for God as they were slowly cancelled...look, if you weren't there, you'll never understand

For incarcerated people, #books are power are hope. #Bookbans are acts of oppression. Challenging them requires understanding them. 3/18. 1p EST. 👇🏽 @themarshallproject.org hosts a virtual event teaching you how to investigate book bans.

Few organizations I've worked alongside for as long as, and respect as much as #Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC). And few states have been at the center of this work the way Minnesota has been—for years. Check out this incredible conversation from the MNJRC about the future of their work.

Cutting off visits isn't just neglect. It's exploitative. Revenue generation—malicious wealth extraction—dressed up as concern for incarcerated people and their families. 2.7 million kids who want to talk with mom or dad are the customer base for these predatory private companies. #EndJusticeFees

We’re launching Redemption Songs, a limited-run newsletter that spotlights one song each week by incarcerated artists. Starting March 22, we’ll tell the story of mass incarceration over almost a century, one song at a time. Sign up now to get a new song each Sunday afternoon over 25 weeks:

#Idaho joined the #FreeToDrive movement years ago. Now, lawmakers want to undo their own win—and undermine their own economy & workforce. Not the only state that's tried to move backwards. Headwinds are real. But @finesandfeesjc.bsky.social & our conservative allies have held & will hold the line.

The truth doesn't matter. Who you are, what you did or didn't do, anything regarding your redemption or healing—none of it matters. They want your face. Their story. And reasons people should fear you. This dehumanization isn't an accident. It's a tactic of state violence. #immigration #Trump

I've known Insha for years and have seen her navigate some of the most challenging policy conversations and campaigns in our field. Through it all, she's been a champion for human dignity and ideas that shift what's possible. Huge congratulations to Insha, and to the team and board at @vera.org.

A pastor, a warden, and an educator walk into a bar... Actually, they walk into the #DesMoines Register and drop facts: if #Iowa is serious about strengthening safety, more punishment won't work. When a warden tells you that, you listen. Better ideas here👇🏽, incl. limiting the harm of fines & fees.

Hope isn't a gift. It's a necessity. #Clemency is a critical tool in the criminal legal system. It's an act of justice. Of redemption. Of hope. And the hell that unfolds when a governor chooses to ignore it? John J. Lennon spells it out. @themarshallproject.org👇🏽

We can't push justice policy into the future if we're making decisions about people rooted in the past. That's a problem with #riskassessments that advocates have raised for years and that Robert Sampson's research sheds new light on. From @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social👇🏽. #criminaljustice #publicpolicy

Your body and your time belong to us. That's the message NY prisons are sending to people who are trying to visit someone who's incarcerated—trying to do the most basic act of mercy the system allows. #incarceration #families @prismreports.org👇🏽

#Immigration detention, #jail, #prison all share a brutal truth: for so many people, release is part of the punishment. Nearly everyone behind the walls is coming out at some point—often worse off. The system shows you how fragile your freedom is and fractures any life you want to build with it.

What you assume about your team speaks louder than what you say to your team. How do I know? Because of the blank-as-f*** stares I got when I told a team they need to do better. Of course they do. The worst part? They already knew it. Welcome back to The Struggle and the Joy. #advocacy #leadership

A driver's license isn't a plastic card. It's an existential tool for survival. On the #FreeToDrive campaign, we fight debt-based license suspensions. Identity-based policies like this? Different basis, same cruelty. #Kansas #TransRights @19thnews.org👇🏽

Like many African American parents, my mom tried to prepare me for the possibility of police brutality through a generational ritual known as The Talk. As ICE detentions and arrests expanded last year, I started wondering if immigrant mothers were having their own talk. From me, via @19thnews.org:

Why #evidence and #data are never enough on their own. Cashless bail doesn't undermine #publicsafety. It does help protect #DueProcess. Don't let policymakers fool you. This isn't about what works. This is about maximizing punishment—because they can. @themarshallproject.org👇🏽

Freedom, with an asterisk. Because the system can't ever fully let anyone go. Well, it could. But it chooses not to. Leonard Peltier is a voice for freedom and redemption—and a man labeled by the system as a permanent, radical threat. @ict-news.bsky.social👇🏽

If it's #Friday, it's time for *This Week In #FreeToDrive and #EndJusticeFees.* Progress in #Arizona. Challenges in #Ohio. Building blocks in #Wisconsin.

#Incarceration systems excel at seeing you as less-than-human, coercing you into believing that about yourself, and exploiting that vulnerability. By design. This @prismreports.org story isn't about Bedford Hills. It's about prisons and jails in this country. #NewYork #justice

When the #FirstStepAct was being debated, we (JLUSA) opposed it. For many reasons: who'd benefit the most, implementation foresight, resource constraints. Peter Navarro isn't the face of incarceration. But he's right: Implement. The. Law. Even though it's flawed policy—as is now being exposed.

Happening TODAY! The Center for Youth Justice—at #Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy—hosting a virtual launch for the Forgotten Children Initiative. The start of a hard, necessary conversation to connect the history of abuse and neglect of young Black men to current #youthjustice issues.

As a prosecutor, I helped build walls in the maze of #incarceration. As a defense attorney, I helped people navigate that maze. As an #advocate? I'm trying to knock those walls down. And #lawyers working in partnership to the movement, not just alongside it, will be crucial to our success.

Navigating #probation is like trying to cross a minefield. Blindfolded. Imagine doing that while worrying about where your next meal is coming from—or if it's coming at all. In 39 states, that's not hypothetical. It's what someone is dealing with as you read this. New report from @prisonpolicy.org👇🏽

I found that this is wrong. Democracy actually is a powerful motivating force for a critical slice of the population *if they perceive a real threat*. I call this the "legibility" theory of democratic backsliding: the more legible the threat, the more likely it is to prompt effective pushback.