“When the eight African American sheriffs took over the largest counties in North Carolina, it became a threat to the good ol’ boy system," the Charlotte sheriff told Bolts in 2023 to explain why the GOP was targeting him. This weekend, DHS announced the deployment of federal agents in Charlotte.

Earlier this year, a Florida law that guts the powers of civilian oversight boards went into effect. “They’re making it seem un-American to question policing," said one critic.

Charlotte's black sheriff, who was elected in 2018 and who has not cooperated with ICE, is one of the black sheriffs being targeted by the GOP in North Carolina. boltsmag.org/north-caroli...

Voters in New Orleans elected a new sheriff who wants out of a consent decree that has placed tight restrictions on local control of the city’s jail. The decree was first implemented in 2012 after years of death and dysfunction at the jail.

Bucks County is about as politically competitive as can be, but the local Democratic Party had a triumphant night this month, easily flipping the offices of the DA, sheriff, and controller.

Virginia's Senate Majority Leader told Bolts that the legislature will advance a constitutional amendment in January to let Virginians vote once they're released from prison. The state constitution currently strips people of their voting rights for life.

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Seattle’s newly elected city attorney, Erika Evans, defeated Republican incumbent, Ann Davison, this month. Evans says she will prioritize housing and addiction treatment to those who end up perennially caught up in Seattle’s criminal legal system.

Outdoor recreation for the men in solitary confinement in Massachusetts' maximum-security prison happens in a 200-300 square foot cage where you can’t see the sky. One lawmaker describes what she saw as “truly mortifying.” The men call them “dog kennels.”

ICE today deployed its agents in Charlotte. The decision follows years of retaliation from federal authorities and North Carolina Republicans—ever since voters elected a sheriff who opposed assisting ICE in 2018. Bolts reported on this dynamic in 2023:

“Solitary 100 percent makes it harder to return to society as productive members. It creates a deep-seeded hate and distrust for the system and all connected to it,” says Kwaneta Harris, who has experienced the practice in a Texas prison.

So, as you know, we had a big cheat sheet to the elections on Bolts: nearly 200 key contests that we were tracking, & why. The page is now updated with the results of ALL the races that were on it — from judges to mayors to school boards. You can explore! boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

NEW: With the election of Katie Wilson as mayor and Erika Evans as city attorney, voters shifted Seattle's political landscape to the left. What will this mean for public safety and the city's criminal legal system policies? Find out in my latest for @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/progressives...

An amazing find for reporting and happily a new subscriber.

Clashing, inconsistent testimony and a threadbare defense landed Anthony Boyd on Alabama’s death row. Boyd, who maintained his innocence, was executed with nitrogen gas last month.

Katie Wilson was elected mayor of Seattle this month. A progressive community organizer, she has prioritized affordability, and resisting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

In his final hours, Keith Gavin’s request for a halal final meal was denied by Alabama officials. "I’m a Muslim, I’m supposed to be eating halal food,” he told Bolts shortly before his execution last year. “There’s nothing else to eat but junk food.”

Activists and immigration attorneys warn that a Boston law enforcement program has created formal and informal channels for passing data to ICE. The city is applying to renew the federal grant that supports the program, adding to critics’ worries.

Immigrants’ rights advocates in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County say their sheriff’s decision to help ICE has endangered the immigrants in the region. “We are the workforce of this county and they’ve been after all of us.”

The New Jersey city of Hoboken adopted an ordinance last month, known as the Hoboken Trust Act, that prohibits city officials from using resources to assist federal civil immigration enforcement.

Seattle’s new wave of progressive leadership has taken on national visibility. Its newly elected mayor, Katie Wilson, has embraced comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor-elect of NYC.

Cook County’s main vehicle for righting wrongful convictions is the Conviction Integrity Unit, a group of prosecutors who are supposed to honestly appraise their colleagues’ work. The unit has not exonerated anyone in a year.

Shannon McChristian’s opposition to a new prison in her Arkansas community has changed her thoughts on incarceration generally. “As I’ve come to know more and more, I’ve just been horrified about our entire prison system.”

Donald Trump carried Pennsylvania’s Bucks County in 2024. Last week, the Republican sheriff who’d partnered with ICE to aid deportations lost his reelection bid to Democrat Danny Ceisler.

In Seattle last week, voters shifted the political landscape toward the left. Community organizer Katie Wilson was elected mayor and progressives won three city council seats. A progressive candidate was also elected city attorney.

Chicago's public defender does not want to bring back Illinois' old bail system. "You had Black folks being cycled through in shackles. You had prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges speaking really quickly. We had people haggling about money."

Mainers rejected a conservative measure to target mail voting last week. In the nation’s oldest state, advocates had warned the measure would limit ballot access for many voters.

📣 Do you want to support our work at Bolts? Sign up to give $5 monthly, and we’ll immediately get $60 in matching funds! That’s right: The NewsMatch program is multiplying all new monthly subscriptions by 12x (up to $1,000) through the end of the year.

Missouri’s referendum on minimum wage and paid sick leave last year won by a margin of 58 to 42 percent statewide. Under a proposal advanced by the GOP, it would have failed because it didn’t win more than 50 percent in every congressional district.

Chicago police are required by law to document every time they pull someone over. But an investigation by Bolts and Injustice Watch last year revealed the department failed to report hundreds of thousands of stops.

Confirmed: Katie Wilson will be mayor of Seattle, ousting the incumbent from his left. And Erika Evans will be the new city attorney, ousting the GOP city attorney after promising to take the office in a more progressive direction. What do progressives' win mean for law enforcement? NEW IN BOLTS:

An immigration advocate who registered to vote in Pennsylvania for the first time this fall says she is “full of hope and happiness” because Sheriff Fred Harran, who has closely partnered with ICE, was defeated, thanks in part to her vote.

NEW in Bolts: In Seattle, voters ousted a mayor who oversaw a surge in encampment sweeps, and a Republican prosecutor who pursued punitive policies toward homeless people and drug users.

The U.S. prison labor system has deep historical roots. After the Civil War, states criminalized Black people through "vagrancy laws" and sent them into forced labor through convict leasing. Historian Robert Chase explains:

An Alabama prison guard who left incarcerated people unsupervised in outdoor cages for hours was suspended for three days. But he was still allowed to participate in executions as part of the team of officers who administer the death penalty:

Advocates in New Jersey are asking lawmakers to enshrine into law a state directive restricting cooperation with ICE. “It’s in the hands of the current legislature and the current governor, and you know, we need them to step up and get it passed.”

After over 500 hearings, lawyer Douglas Jennings quit representing clients before the South Carolina Parole Board, citing the board's consistent rejections. "I just couldn’t justify taking somebody’s money," he told Bolts last year.

The newly elected sheriff of Pennsylvania’s Bucks County vows to end his county’s contract with ICE. “It makes immigrant communities afraid to call the police,” he said. “You’re talking about some of the most vulnerable members of society.”

Survivors of domestic violence who went to prison for crimes related to their abuse have for years asked California lawmakers to make courts take that abuse into consideration. For the third year, California killed such a reform.

Three Democratic justices prevailed last week in Pennsylvania. Justice David Wecht told Bolts, “We all campaigned on the basis of vindicating the Pennsylvania constitution’s free and equal elections clause.”

In this week's newsletter: A look at Democrats' historic election night and what the results mean for voting rights and immigration policy in several states. Plus, a list of downballot races whose results we've been following. mailchi.mp/boltsmag/...

Glenn Youngkin’s policy decisions denied voting rights to thousands of Virginians who were released during his tenure. Democrats' triumphs last week could significantly expand voting rights restoration in the state.

Local law enforcement around the country have rushed to join ICE’s 287(g) program this year, but New Jersey’s conservative sheriffs have not been able to follow suit due to a policy put in place by the outgoing Murphy administration.

Partnerships with ICE have been a flashpoint in sheriff’s races since the first Trump administration. A Democrat flipped a sheriff’s office in suburban Pennsylvania last week after promising to end a contract with ICE.

Just now on MSNBC: a great segment by @chrislhayes.bsky.social on the Bucks County sheriff candidate who ran against ICE’s 287g program. Very proud our attention to how local elections matter to ICE policy at @boltsmag.org is helping put these local stakes in the national discourse. They matter.

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“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.

In New Jersey, the lame-duck period that follows November’s elections is often productive for passing new legislation. Advocates are calling on lawmakers to pass legislation barring law enforcement from working with ICE.

Many in Bucks County were outraged when Sheriff Fred Harran signed a 287(g) agreement this spring to assist ICE. Harran lost his reelection bid last week against a Democratic challenger who said he’d terminate the agreement.

Maine voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure with restrictions on voting, 64 to 36 percent. “It sends a strong message that Mainers agree: We should not be making it harder for people to have their voices heard,” the Maine secretary of state told Bolts.