Positive news alert! CA AB 2605 advances to Appropriations. The bill would require counties to report public defender caseload numbers, a significant step in tackling the state's caseload crisis. The Wren Collective full statement here: medium.com/@wrencollect...

Read today's Wren Collective newsletter about the expansion of criminal penalties for voting as part of federal and state efforts to suppress the franchise. Subscribe here: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/coordinate...

Candace Mitchell of The Wren Collective writes a post-script to the Afroman case.

In this week’s Wren Collective newsletter we discuss the raft of Islamophobic action coming from the states— it’s dangerous rhetoric and goes well beyond rhetoric. open.substack.com/pub/defendin...

In this week’s Wren Collective newsletter we discuss the raft of Islamophobic action coming from the states— it’s dangerous rhetoric and goes well beyond rhetoric. open.substack.com/pub/defendin...

In this week’s Wren Collective newsletter we discuss the raft of Islamophobic action coming from the states— it’s dangerous rhetoric and goes well beyond rhetoric. open.substack.com/pub/defendin...

Writing for On The Sixth, the Wren Collective’s @ntbaszynski.bsky.social writes about Ohio’s “HB 741—another legislative attempt to reinforce a two-tiered system of justice, where your pretrial freedom is tied to the money in your pocket”

Parole, clemency, second look laws are safety valves to provide mercy and second chances. Today’s Wren Collective newsletter explores how they are underutilized and narrowing. #parole #secondlook #justiceforall

Today the Wren Collective launched wearesafety.info: a new website that documents the various ways that this administration is attacking public safety in order to obtain unearned power.

Rewatching Frederick Wiseman’s film Domestic Violence is an exercise in epistemic humility, writes Rebecca Silber of The Wren Collective #frederickwiseman #domesticviolence #wrencollective

April 1 @ 6pm: Community Over Cages and PAD Atlanta host Tale of the Jail-- centering the lived expertise of advocates fighting for human rights in Fulton County, GA. The Wren Collective is a proud participant in the Community Over Cages Coalition. #diversion #pretrialreform #FultonCounty

In this week's Democracy Under Attack, The Wren Collective looks at the Prairieland trial, FL's new domestic terrorism bill, and the many ways governments are trying to prosecute, investigate, and surveil its way out of opposition. defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/guilt-by-a...

The Trump Administration’s attacks on cities are part of a pattern of assault on local governance. The Wren Collective’s Jay Jenkins writes about recent preemption fights for Defending What Matters open.substack.com/pub/defendin...

Trump's SOTU last night contained a multitude of lies about the economy, crime, and immigrants. But he never once mentioned ICE or CBP. That silence is telling. 🧵 defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/what-trump...

In this week's newsletter, we look at the right's war on journalists and their willingness to use the criminal and civil rights system to suppress the truth. Read in this week's democracy under attack. defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/straight-o...

In Attacking Dallas and Its Budget Process, AG Paxton is no HERO open.substack.com/pub/wrenacti...

ICYMI: In Texas on Fire, Nikki Baszynski of The Wren Collective highlights how a new TX law is trying to end telehealth and medication abortion in the state. Subscribe here: wrenactiongroup.substack.com #wrencollective #reproductivehealth #texas

The Wren Collective is proud to be part of the Community Over Cages coalition fighting against the expansion and overcrowding at the Fulton County jail. This ACLU-GA report digs into the problems there and with proposed solutions for county leaders. #criminaljustice #jails #wrencollective

The Wren Collective's Jay Jenkins writes in Texas on Fire that Taylor Rehmet's victory in the SD-9 race last week is "the latest battle in Tarrant County’s war on the basic democratic rights of its citizens."

The scale of incarcerated people who are pregnant in local jails in Texas is shocking: more than 400 people per month across the state between Sept. and Nov. 2025. Amazing advocacy from the Texas Jail Project to keep our state focused on health, safety and transparency in our jails.

We at The Wren Collective are looking for a digital and design consultant. Please circulate widely. www.scribd.com/document/991...

The TX SD-9 Result Isn’t Shocking If You’ve Been Paying Attention open.substack.com/pub/wrenacti...

The Assault on Fourth Amendment Protections open.substack.com/pub/defendin...

There are too many heartbreaking stories to count as we watch DHS yank fathers, mothers, caretakers, and children off the street to meet quotas. But it's important we not look away, because every impacted person is worthy of our attention and outrage. wrenactiongroup.substack.com/p/trump-admi...

@angelajdavis.bsky.social writes about the attacks on progressive prosecutors and the implications for our democracy. Read more below ⬇️

Another exoneration in Texas, this time, in Travis County. Elections matter. www.kvue.com/article/news...

Willie's case is a perfect example of how absurd Ohio sentencing is. As it stands right now, he will serve more time for robbery than other people serve for murder. He will be 81 years old when he gets out of prison.

A family here legally tries to get medical care for their seven-year-old, and ICE wrests them away in front of the ER and sends them to Texas. Media must. stop. reporting. any claims that this is about safety. www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

What politicians mean when they support DHS's goal to deport 100 million people. Read and subscribe to Texas On Fire. wrenactiongroup.substack.com

The DA and County Commissioners' work won't undo this wrongful execution, but it mattered to the family and is critical to helping us understand how fallible our criminal justice system is. Hat's off to Dallas and the lawyers at @innocenceproject.bsky.social innocenceproject.org/news/tommy-l...

UPDATE from @stevenzetti.bsky.social: Last week, the Texas Observer revealed that James Rodden, the ICE lawyer with a white supremacist X account, was back trying cases in a Dallas courtroom. Now, a member of Congress wants Rodden to finally face consequences.

My latest investigation: Far from the border, a father and son met Border Patrol tactics. They haven’t seen each other since. www.ms.now/news/border-... Our full @ms.now documentary comes out tonight

In Minneapolis, attorneys report they have been denied access to clients detained at the Whipple Federal Building. The right to counsel is enshrined in the United States Constitution, but we now regularly see elected officials treat constitutional rights as gravel. abcnews.go.com/US/lawyers-a...

This is a transparent attempt to create a pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act. One provision applies when a group of people "opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws." And when it's (allegedly) the state itself...

Last night, Wren's founder @jrbrand07.bsky.social spoke to @jesspish.bsky.social about Minneapolis, the Insurrection Act, and why using it now would be totally unprecedented (and why this was always the plan). defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/a-wren-con...

We are told Texas is a "freedom state," but every day we see officials trying to regulate what we read, what we believe, who we love, and how we use our bodies. Today, the Wren Action Group is launching a new Substack to fight back: Texas is on Fire. 🔥 🧵 wrenactiongroup.substack.com

CA spends 19x more on incarceration than public defense. It’s a bad investment: if a fraction of those resources were devoted to public defense on the front end, CA could save money and improve public safety on the back end. Tune in as Wren’s Josh Schwartz & Leon Parker chat w/ David Greenwald:

"The idea of extra-judicial, extra-violent, unaccountable beat-down units is not a novel one. Arguably, these special tactical groups are the purest form of American policing." sheriffs.substack.com/p/the-killer...

This weekend, NYTimes columnist Ross Douthat claimed that homicides started spiking in 2020 because of the George Floyd protests. John Roman thoroughly debunks this myth in his substack and it's an important read. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...

Violence prevention groups have helped dramatically reduce serious crime, especially in places like Philadelphia. The @PhillyInquirer documents how the DOJ is doing everything it can to make Philly less safe. www.inquirer.com/crime/philad...

Grateful to @vera.org and their partners for this campaign for legal representation in the immigration system. As former public defenders and champions of the right to counsel, we at the Wren Collective know how vital it is for ppl in the immigration system to have lawyers by their sides.

Today, the House Judiciary Comm. will vote on two mass incarceration bills that threaten to impose federal control over local criminal justice systems

Excellent reporting here about Nanon Williams' fight against his wrongful conviction in Texas, his relationship with Rob and Michele Reiner, and the Harris County DA's office's fight to keep him in prison. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

From all of us at The Wren Collective, we wish you a happy New Year. May 2026 bring a little more kindness, empathy, and support for one another.

Today I went to the museum where the Gestapo HQ was and realized some of these guys literally got less time for helping do the holocaust than we now routinely give to nonviolent drug offenders

As we close out 2025, our last newsletter looks back on what has happened to democracy in this country, while celebrating the heroes who have stood up for it. Check it out here: bit.ly/4b6wq7a

Just a devastating investigation by Anat Rubin @calmatters.org on the impact of flat-fee defense contracts, as told through the lens of one firm in the state. One stat: of 2,000 cases resolved, they investigated just 9. calmatters.org/investigatio...

The right to a fair trial is at the heart of our legal system. But in CA, the reality is far from fair: prosecutors have almost triple the support staff of public defenders, who fight back to defend people. It’s time for equal investment in public defense. #PublicDefense #California #EqualJustice

“I think it’s really important for visions of safety, visions of justice, to be crafted by the people who live in those communities and care about those communities, I don’t think it should be based on partisan agendas." Candace Mitchell on Congress's attack on DC washingtonian.com/2025/11/21/w...

Modern criminal cases involve tons of digital evidence. Far too many defense attorneys just don’t have the resources to keep up with it all. CA needs to invest in public defense so that these attorneys have the investigative staff they need and their clients get the defense that they deserve.