NEW: There's a bill in Massachusetts that'd do something really important — give a pathway out of prison to people, often women, who are in prison due to a crime they committed against their abuser. Several states adopted a version of this very recently: OK, NY, GA. Can Massachuetts be next?

New Jersey advocates are angry that the outgoing governor vetoed immigrant protections. “When the history of this time is written, it will show that many of our supposed leaders backed down, but that we the people never did,” says one advocate.

“I absolutely think that the reason there was a raid [in Whittier, Alaska] and why we’re pursuing these prosecutions is because it gives some ammunition to the folks who want to say our election system is not safe,” says an Alaska state representative.

📬 In this week's newsletter: New Jersey's outgoing governor vetoes a ban on ICE assistance, Virginia lawmakers move to repeal a Jim Crow-era voting ban, and North Carolina's election board rejects campus voting sites. Plus a lot more:

A New Jersey pastor hopes state lawmakers will pass a law permanently opening jury service to people with criminal convictions. “Why should they be excluded from this right when they’ve come out and are sharing in all the other burdens of society?”

A New Jersey bill would have barred law enforcement from notifying ICE about a prisoner’s release and imposed new limits on how state and local authorities can use funding to help ICE. Governor Phil Murphy vetoed it in his final hours in office.

Today, I spoke w/ @boltsmag.org's @burness.bsky.social. Alex covered how Alaska is punishing American Samoans for voting in local elections. He details how America's colonial legacy gave Am Samoans passports, social security numbers but no right to vote open.spotify.com/episode/2YVa...

Under Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin, people with felony convictions had to appeal to him directly to have their voting rights restored. “This should never have been in the hands of one individual,” says a voting rights advocate.

My latest for @boltsmag.org examines efforts to pass the MA Survivors Act, allowing abuse survivors to petition for resentencing (& release) or avoid lengthy/life prison sentences: boltsmag.org/massachusett...

NEW in Bolts: The Massachusetts Survivors Act would require judges to reduce someone’s sentence or offer pretrial diversion if they find that a person’s actions were directly related to their experiences of abuse.

“It’s a solution to a non-existent problem. I don’t see where this is doing anything to help voters. It’s only going to disenfranchise people,” says an Ohio election official about the state’s new ban on grace periods for mail ballots.

An investigation published by Bolts and Injustice Watch in 2024 revealed that the Chicago police department had failed to report roughly 200,000 police stops over a period of just one year.

On his last day in office, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy vetoed legislation to restrict local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE, saying the bill would have invited legal challenges. Immigrant rights advocates say his concerns were misplaced.

“Billionaires have taken control of this country in ways we’ve never seen before, and it is hurting all of us. Progressives in Seattle who won spoke pretty unapologetically about that reality,” says a newly elected Seattle city council member.

In Colorado, representatives of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe are negotiating with elections officials to work out a new program to register more Native people. The idea is running into a legacy of violence and mistrust.

Since flipping the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015, the Democratic majority has struck down a Republican gerrymander and upheld mail voting against conservative attacks. Three Democratic justices were retained in last fall's election.

After Democratic U.S. Representative Sylvester Turner died in early March, Texas Governor Greg Abbott dragged his feet to order a special election. The contest will finally be decided next week but the seat will have stayed vacant for nearly a whole year.

New Jersey bans jury service for people convicted of an "indictable offense,” which includes felonies and some lower-level crimes that would be misdemeanors elsewhere. The governor’s new executive order opens jury service to many of these people.

Voters in Virginia will decide later this year whether to repeal the state’s lifetime voting ban over any felony conviction. “It’s time for us to not be the only state in the union that is doing this to people,” says Virginia Delegate Marcia Price.

Charged for their jail stays, people leaving Pennsylvania’s Dauphin County jail were saddled with debts that made re-entry almost impossible. Advocates fought for years, and in 2024, the county finally forgave $65 million in “pay-to-stay” fees.

NEW: On his last day in office, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy killed a bill that would have codified in law restrictions on how sheriffs and police can partner with ICE. Some restrictions remain in place, for now, via an attorney general directive.

A new executive order from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy opens jury service to roughly 350,000 people with criminal convictions, but it only affects those convicted on or before Jan. 10 of this year. Lasting reform would require a permanent law change.

A formerly incarcerated man credits a novel workforce development program in Oregon for helping him find stability after his release from prison. “This program has been my light at the end of the tunnel.”

“The right to vote is an essential currency of democracy,” says a Democratic senator in Virginia who sponsored a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions.

Members of the Massey Commission say that their newly-released recommendations for police reform are an important start, but they need lawmakers to implement their ideas. “It’s going to take us holding the decision makers’ feet to the fire.”

“What gets lost is that trans people, particularly trans women of color, are more impacted by the criminal legal system,” says the director of legal services for the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois.

Lawyers for a group of prisoners whose death sentences were commuted by President Biden allege that the Trump administration is now seeking to imprison them “in the most oppressive conditions in the entire federal prison system.”

As it faces the rising costs of mass incarceration, North Carolina’s prison system is squeezing more revenue from incarcerated people and their loved ones by increasing its markup on canteen products.

On East Anchorage Book Club Podcast, I speak with Bolts Magazine Journalist Alex Burness about his article, “Americans by Name, Punished for Believing it.”The story is an in-depth look at the 11 American Samoans facing charges of voter fraud in Whittier. Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

An upcoming ballot measure in Virginia would make it the 26th state to allow anyone who is not presently in prison to vote. Currently, people with any felony convictions lose their right to vote for life.

New Mexico’s Second Chance Act bans life sentences without parole for juveniles. But the state’s attorney general’s narrow interpretation of the reform appears to conflict with the law and is keeping at least one man behind bars.

Iowa Republicans lost their supermajority in the state Senate last year, which means they can no longer confirm appointees of Governor Kim Reynolds on a party-line vote.

Did you read and enjoyed the piece from my colleague Alex Burness on the prosecution of American Samoans for voting? If you want more: listen to this podcast where @burness.bsky.social discusses the story. It's the East Anchorage Book Club podcast (love it): open.spotify.com/episode/2YvV...

This is massive news that I somehow totally missed. Thank god for @boltsmag.org, seriously

Congress could mandate that states use proportional representation, with parties getting a number of seats proportional to their share of the vote. Advocates are already pushing for some states to experiment with this reform.

Virginia lawmakers advanced a constitutional amendment to repeal the state’s lifetime ban on voting for people with felony convictions. “This is a moment that’s been a long time coming,” says an advocate who has fought to expand rights restoration.

To kick off the year, constitutional scholar Quinn Yeargain has identified seven legal questions that will shape democracy in 2026. Learn about the questions swirling around the VRA, Trump’s executive order, and more.

For years, private parties—citizens and organizations alike—have been able to sue government officials for violating the VRA. But a federal appeals court has said they cannot, and the U.S. Supreme Court will soon consider the issue.

New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherill has opposed expanding civilian boards’ investigatory powers of police. “We have worked with civilian boards and I support civilian boards, but not up to the level of subpoena power,” she said last April.

Ohio’s new ban on grace periods for mail ballots follows years of GOP crusading against mail voting, which the president and other leaders have falsely claimed introduces voter fraud into elections.

Today, Virginia is the only U.S. state where someone convicted of any felony loses their right to vote for life, unless it is personally restored by the governor. On Friday, lawmakers advanced a constitutional amendment to repeal that rule.

There has long been confusion around the voting rights of American Samoans. Plenty of non-citizen nationals in Alaska had voted for years prior to the recent Whittier case; few people were aware any issue existed.

“The stigma behind individuals with a criminal background—that’s a stigma that has always prevailed in America,” says a New Jersey criminal justice reform advocate. An executive order opening jury service to people with records aims to lessen this stigma.

The most impactful voting rights case in 2026 is undoubtedly Louisiana v. Callais, which will determine the future of the Voting Rights Act. Legal scholar Quinn Yeargain unpacks what’s at stake here—and in other major cases poised to shape democracy.

“Expanding community oversight of policing has been an uphill battle for decades,” says state Senator Angela McKnight, who represents Jersey City. She is a sponsor of a bill that would strengthen investigatory powers for civilian oversight boards.

Over the last decade, Virginia governors signed executive orders to automatically restore voting rights to people with felony convictions, but Republican Glenn Youngkin rolled back those reforms. Virginia lawmakers moved this week to enshrine rights restoration into law.

Unión del Barrio first started its community patrol program more than thirty years ago in response to police harassment of Latinos. The group reactivated its community patrols in response to increased federal immigration enforcement in San Diego.

“No amount of solitary confinement of a person while they're pregnant is ever fine,” says the leader of a gender justice organization. A California law explicitly codified the practice last year, allowing pregnant women to be held in solitary for 5 days.

Without Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Black residents in West Tennessee worry about the future of local democracy: “In my heart of hearts, I would know that there is a certain degree to which my vote wouldn’t matter.”

New Jersey’s legislature has since 2018 considered various bills to reform jury service eligibility to include people with criminal records, but none has passed. An executive order from the outgoing governor has now opened up the possibility for thousands.