Without help, her son cycled in and out of jail, as so many with unmet mental health needs do. Our carceral system has become the primary placement for those with psychiatric disabilities.

Public concerns about police militarization, city spending and racial disparities guided Pittsburgh City Council toward some guardrails for a coming master plan of a new public safety campus. buff.ly/U9yzSyz

A Syrian man won his fight to avoid deportation. Ten months later, he remains detained, Stephanie Casanova reports. Kamel Maklad’s case reveals how authorities are imprisoning people who can’t legally be deported until they capitulate & agree to leave the country, immigration experts say.

Hits from the YES! archive of great solutions-oriented journalism in this @truthout.org newsletter that are still relevant and sorely needed, e.g.: -What to Say When People Say “It’s Impossible” -History Shows That Sustained, Disruptive Protests Work

Israel has “already begun negotiations with the Americans” on a “business plan” to make Gaza, home to 2.2 million Palestinians, into a real estate investment. The plan is on President Donald Trump’s desk, Smotrich claims. He added that the plan is so lucrative the genocide “pays for itself.”

3 Philly correctional officers charged after inmate beaten while naked The incident happened 5 years ago. Rampant human rights abuses of those in Philly jails continue. www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/p...

"...some detainees — who spoke with The Inquirer either by phone from the facility or after their release or deportation — report an ongoing practice of using solitary confinement as retaliation for filing grievances."

“Ms. Cahill needed help and the city took her and locked her away. And it resulted in her death.” www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

"The department pulled training and technical assistance funds for children’s advocacy centers that respond to child abuse and neglect. At the same time, it ended support for a program that offered victims of domestic violence and sexual assault help finding jobs..."

TAKE ACTION: Congress is about to vote on dangerous legislation that would roll back hard-won reforms, harm youth, deepen racial disparities, and undermine democracy in the District. Urge your lawmakers to protect kids: secure.sentencingproject.org/a/take-action-protect-dc-kids

. @equalityalec.bsky.social of @civrightscorps.bsky.social described the proposed quick reaction force as “an online portal to permit random fascist vigilantes to join soldiers...one of the scariest things I’ve seen in US politics in my adult life.” www.commondreams.org/news/trump-v...

Down on health care access but "tough on crime"? Limiting health care increases crime. The officials who mock & undermine the use of government power to support public health are often the same ones who champion using government power to lock people up. boltsmag.org/medicaid-cov...

Here’s my write up on the most racist decision to come out of the Supreme Court in a while. The court approved of Trump’s racial profiling of Latinos with Brett Kavanaugh saying being harassed based on the color of your skin is “common sense.” My latest in @thenation

"I was really shocked... She threatened to have us removed, while she was simultaneously defending this man’s use of the n-word; she was silencing us." - @man-eternally.bsky.social

Juvenile court referrals for Black girls at Pittsburgh Public Schools have dropped by almost 93% since 2019, according to a new report from the Black Girls Equity Alliance.

We have filed another excessive force lawsuit against Allegheny County Jail staff & the county—this time for brutalizing Daronte Brown, a young Black man with a psychiatric disability, and then punishing him with solitary confinement & denial of medical care. community.triblive.com/news/3865840

Our second story in a series by @greennoise.bsky.social that looks at how victims got some justice in an unlikely place after two private equity-backed healthcare companies accused of neglect went bust www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

After a decade of decline, Allegheny County's jail population is on the rise: up 40% from 2022. What’s behind the increase? buff.ly/VSsFjO9

Jacilet Griffin's son died after suffering a critical brain injury while incarcerated in a Texas jail. More than three years later, she's still searching for answers. Lee’s case is one of thousands nationwide that reveal how the criminal justice system fails to account for deaths behind bars.

Solitary confinement is torture, and the conditions of solitary units are utterly inhumane. This hell is not unique to Washington. By incarcerated reporter Christopher Blackwell. www.christopher-blackwell.com

“We now have concrete data to show that when communities come together and mobilize, we can prevent youth violence, even in urban settings with a very high burden."

I spoke with crime prevention expert David Kennedy about the Trump administration’s takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital, and the tactics that might prove more effective.

Trump claimed that D.C. has been “taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals” and suggested that he might expand federal intervention to other major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Chicago. But crime is not out of control in these cities — in fact, it’s decreasing.

"Songs from the Hole" is now on Netflix!

For our friends across the country asking how you can help, this one's for you. 🧵 freedcproject.org/allies

Hakim Ali was many things, but perhaps above all an extremely principled, grounded, & gifted leader — a champion in campaigns to free juvenile lifers and end death by incarceration in PA. Rest in Power. abolitionistlawcenter.org/2025/08/06/i...

Police staffing at its lowest in decades? fantastic. What's frightening is a proposal to subsidize the housing costs of new police officers. triblive.com/local/fright...

ICYMI: Amazon still doing Amazon things The company is not only reintroducing new versions of old features that allow police to access footage from Ring users Amazon is introducing a new Ring feature that will allow police to request *livestream* access to our home security devices. @eff.org

A must-read to understand Black August -- its origins, its importance to Black liberation, its connection to abolition, and why "there can be no freedom for the masses of Black people within the white supremacist capitalist system." www.liberationschool.org/study-fast-t... via @pslweb.bsky.social

"If people are so upset about governmental cruelty, they can start by dismantling the mass incarceration state that exists throughout the country. That would be excellent preparation for closing down #AlligatorAlcatraz." #EvergladesConcentrationCamp via @blackagendareport.bsky.social

The US federal prison system has been in a state of crisis for a decade. The Trump admin has already made it worse.

Improving public safety has nothing to do with police & prisons. As Baltimore & other cities have shown, community anti-violence programs are far more effective, as are other investments in community well-being — the same programs & investments Republican leaders in DC are gutting.

The next meeting of the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board is 4:00 PM Thurs., Aug. 7 in the Gold room of the City-County Bulding in downtown Pittsburgh. Be there if you can, any time before 6:00 to show the public is watching & cares how our detained neighbors are treated!

The summary is that they are trying to criminalize every aspect of homelessness so they can arrest & forcibly commit unhoused people. Currently(/before), there are not enough mental health & substance use treatment beds/facilities, and this does not add anything, which only leaves imprisoning people

That lawsuit is ALC's Hammond v. PADOC, which asserts that holding people with mental illness in solitary confinement violates their constitutional rights. Here Malika describes the harrowing brutality & danger of solitary confinement via @solitarywatch.bsky.social solitarywatch.org/2025/07/07/v...

Want to help end the racist brutality & torture of solitary confinement in PA? Join us Wed. eve at the quarterly meeting of our Solidarity Not Solitary Coalition. No experience necessary, different projects/approaches to choose from. July 30 6–7:30 pm Zoom abolitionistlawcenter.org/2025/07/24/j...

Latetst issue of Transformative Justice Journal!! #transformativejustice #prison #abolition #criminaljustice @transformjusticesg.bsky.social transformativejusticejournal.org/volume-6-iss...

An Allegheny County Jail corrections officer has been suspended after a video surfaced on social media purportedly showing him making a racist comment about Black people while holding a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

“65% of incarcerated people at the Allegheny County Jail are Black. It is disturbing that someone who is so violently racist is in a position of power and anything short of his immediate termination is unacceptable.” — @tanishaevonne.bsky.social of ALC via @pghcitypaper.com

This AM we shared @1hoodpower.bsky.social's post of the IG video. He's now suspended. He should be fired. As ALC's @tanishaevonne.bsky.social told @triblive.bsky.social, for Davis to be the first point of contact for people taken to ACJ, that’s terrifying. triblive.com/local/allegh...

“Transgender people who U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detain are no longer recognized by their gender identity, and detention facilities are no longer required to take special care in housing trans detainees.”

"According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, suicide is the leading cause of unnatural deaths in prison. Between 2001 and 2019, more than 4,400 people [died via suicide] in state and federal prisons."

The former *police commisioner* said a “rogue” NYPD unit was run by Adams cronies and reported directly to direct City Hall — exactly as we reported. Adams was so tight with the unit, sources told us, he had secret access to live body-cam footage. www.propublica.org/article/eric...

"People in immigration detention are describing it as 'hell on earth' ... [I]t is."

As @elienyc.bsky.social points out in his latest @thenation.com newsletter, new report shows "Trump lost in district court 94.3% of the time. But when cases went to the Supreme Court in this past term, Trump won 93.7 percent of the time." www.courthousenews.com/scotus-the-h...

Our community organizer @tanishaevonne.bsky.social gave Innamorato credit for appointing “people who are really great” but noted the board lacks a young person who was incarcerated at Shuman. Representation matters if we want real "juvenile justice". www.publicsource.org/allegheny-co...

Solitary confinement is barbaric. Lawsuits to hammer away at the practice -- and all the inhumane practices that typically accompany it -- work. Statewide legislation barring it outright would be even better ( and we're working on that too). www.msn.com/en-us/public...