Our mission is even more urgent now. Make a b'day donation to @theunpopulist.net: “[I]f liberal democracy is to be saved, it will have to depend on new institutional voices. We will either provide you w/ fearless, uncompromising, and honest coverage or go down fighting.” shorturl.at/uM7oC

An alarming share of ICE arrests rely on collaborations with local law enforcement – even in places that are "sanctuary cities" Since January, 45% of all ICE arrests were transfers from local jails:

Thanks to Walter Pavlo & @forbes.com for highlighting my new report with @nacdl.org on the failures of criminal restitution. Rather than satisfactorily compensating crime victims, it enmeshes people owing restitution debt in the criminal legal system long past…1/2 www.forbes.com/sites/walter...

I mean, we are living in two different realities now, and this really hasn't always been the case.

GUESS WHAT WEEK IT IS

I appreciate all the local reporters focusing on just how awful the prisons holding immigrants throughout their state are and have always been www.inquirer.com/news/ice-imm...

The case involved the DOJ's Public Integrity Section which Trump basically dismantled upon his return to the White House.

The California Sheriffs Association does not believe the incarcerated firefighters who helped save Los Angeles should be paid for their life saving labor. Despite our bill receiving bipartisan unanimous support in the legislature

"The state is just capitalizing on people who can’t really do anything about it." Time and time again, prisons & telecom companies have shown that they can get away with exploiting incarcerated people and their loved ones. oklahomawatch.org/2025/09/12/w...

Today, Andrew Bilodeau argues that traditional labor unions can and should bring incarcerated workers into the fold by including them in their organizing drives at fast food restaurants, factories, and other workplaces.

Thousands of people detained by ICE are actually held in local, publicly operated jails These facilities–run by elected sheriffs–are making money off of the incarceration of people who are mostly accused of no more serious offense than crossing the border without permission

Huge congrats to the workers of @teamsters.bsky.social Local 320 on their big win. Proof again that workers win when they stand together. Thanks too to @farmaid.org, Willie Nelson, farmers & community for supporting labor and holding firm. Proof again that standing in solidarity with workers works.

Please pay for your news and understand why paywalls exist, and also, maybe question why some news sources and comment operations are able to be free.

Enormous feature via @laurengill.bsky.social. Sharing to read later!

DHS announced that it will financially reward local law enforcement agencies that carry out its anti-immigrant agenda, effectively creating an incentive system in which the more people wanted by ICE that an agency abducts, the more money it stands to make. truthout.org/articles/tru...

👇 Indeed. Prison labor is FORCED labor. #LegalPlunder

Nearly 40% of incarcerated workers are paid *nothing* for their work. And the rest are paid at abysmally low wages. This is not a system built on "justice" for all.

NEW: Trump this week issued an order to withhold federal funds from cities & states that restrict the use of cash bail. Illinois has fully ended cash bail, & Chicago's public defender responds to Trump: 'this is tyranny 101." He explains why cash bail was a disaster. Well worth reading:

Excellent summary of this administration's moral vacuousness when it comes to crime. We must imprison every shoplifter and homeless person, but if you can flatter, donate to, socialize with, or do a favor for Trump -- or if you remind Trump of himself -- you can crime with impunity.

Just finished the intro to this book (Legal Plunder) and I can already tell it’s gonna be a good one. @joshpage.bsky.social & @joesoss.bsky.social are diving deep into how the government and businesses use policing, punishment, and immigrant detention to extract revenues from communities.

According to federal data, 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of those cities are Chicago. 8 of the top 10 states in homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states are Illinois. And yet Trump is sending troops here.

What? This is super cool and super timely: on Monday, Trump signed EOs targeting jurisdictions curbing cash bail, a predatory CJ practice that makes billions for private industry but does nothing to increase safety or ensure court appearance. tinyurl.com/BailEO Glad you're running for office, Chris!

Thank you, @chriswarcraft.bsky.social!

Today’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show. Trump Is Building His Own Paramilitary Force The journalist @radleybalko.bsky.social‬ explains the mechanisms Trump is using to create a personal army. open.spotify.com/episode/3OTs... youtu.be/UcTZ_en5FTM?...

Not that consistency or hypocrisy have any meaning any more, but . . . www.cnn.com/videos/polit...

This EO is a blatant effort to use "cash bail" to detain poor people. DC allows for pretrial detention. This EO would lead to detention of ppl that judges decide to release (often w/ non-financial conditions). If the Admin cared about crime, it would advocate for REDUCING pretrial detention.

In postponing this rule, the agency is delaying economic justice for millions of working families. The fight isn't over. The Martha Wright-Reed Act is the law, and complaints from prison profiteers & a small group of sheriffs won't change that. More 👇 www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/07...

Take a moment to read these words by death penalty attorney Kelley Henry, about the killing of her longtime client, 69-year-old Byron Black.

In the last six months, a gargantuan network of American prisons and jails has been redeployed to accomplish Trump’s immigration goals. Here's how the administration enlisted this criminal justice infrastructure to detain immigrants.

It's remarkable how much national crime and violence and murder debates go on with no grasp of the history of crime/violence in the USA. Deep South/Gulf coast states have always had highest murder/gun violence in the country. Always. In general the South has higher rates of crime/violence ....

expanding the police state via tech contracts is graft example 1 billion

“Thorpe is part of an experimental program in the Maine state prison system that allows incarcerated people to work remote jobs from custody. Though unconventional, these opportunities have proven immensely rehabilitative.” Way to go, Maine! 👏🏾

Great news!

ICE's use of electronic monitoring has rapidly expanded. Now, more than 200,000 people on any given day are regularly surveilled & detained by ICE – over 4x as many as a decade ago.

This is so powerful, especially in showing how incarcerated people help each other survive. The fascism unleashed by Trump and the targeting of Rümeysa Öztürk are new & horrifying but this account will be very familiar to anyone familiar with US prisons, which have long been dehumanizing hellholes.

1. We interrupt this programming for some LEGITIMATELY GOOD NEWS Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows How did the city do it? Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue

The executives at the nation’s largest private prison operator, GEO Group, are wasting no time in upping compensation and cashing in on the immigration detention and deportation boom. www.investing.com/news/sec-fil...

Into books about social (in)justice and saying goodbye to landmark bars of Minneapolis's West Bank? Join me to celebrate the release of @joshpage.bsky.social and @joesoss.bsky.social's book Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice at ‪@palmersman.bsky.social! #sociology #booksky

Of all the things I write about, medical neglect in prisons and jails is the one that just drives me nuts. "I watched people die. I watched a guy lose a leg. I watched my friend go blind. It was crazy. It was insane in there." reason.com/2025/07/11/a...

Great piece illustrating just how awful prison charges for calls are (see also the recent book by @joesoss.bsky.social & @joshpage.bsky.social - Legal Plunder).

Hot damn! @uchicagopress.bsky.social is now shipping @joshpage.bsky.social and @joesoss.bsky.social's lively and incisive new book on the reorientation of US policing and punishment toward the relentless extraction of resources from America's most vulnerable. Only $26! tinyurl.com/LegalPlunderBook

This is an absolute must-read!

Looking forward to reading this!

Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice, my book w/ @joesoss.bsky.social, is now available. 30% off through @uchicagopress.bsky.social (see below). Look out for info about book-related events beginning in late-August.

The biggest beneficiary of prison labor isn't a private company – it's the prisons themselves.

#Baltimore Mayor #BrandonScott invested in 42 summer youth camps, 29 literacy programs, extended the rec center hours to 11 p.m, planned block parties, opened the pools for safe fun, & opened several schools up for summer classes. Crime is down 62%. 🔥🔥 www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

November 2000: "Renting [jail] beds is a lucrative business. If I built 500 beds, I could rent them all tomorrow morning,"

They don't even try and hide the graft here. Telecom companies give counties cuts of telephone and video call revenue. Jails then restrict in-person visits and price-gouge families reason.com/2024/03/22/l...

I hope the outrage over Khalil spills over to broader outrage over pre-trial detention more broadly, but I’m not even vaguely optimistic. Pre-trial detention in and of itself is often problematic. But it’s our blasé indifference to its human costs that distinctly infuriates me.