“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.

Chicago’s chief prosecutor has removed protections that civil rights advocates say could prevent wrongful convictions. She has pared back her office’s lists of police with serious credibility issues.

Lorelei Cloud was born 3 years before Native Americans living on tribal lands in Colorado were guaranteed the right to vote. She is now vice chair of the Southern Ute Tribe. “I don’t want future generations to have to deal with any of what we’ve had to.”

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“One of the few things that people have when they’re behind bars is hope, and everything that crushes it is a heartbreak,” says an attorney who has represented prisoners applying for parole.

A judge has tossed the racketeering charges filed by the Georgia attorney general against activists who protested against Atlanta's Cop City facility.

Shane Sherman was released from prison in June and got a job at a construction company in Central Oregon, but didn’t have winter workwear. A state workforce development program gave him clothes. Now, that program is set to run out of money.

State supreme courts are a battlefield for pressing issues, from abortion rights to ballot access. But do you know how your court works? Our guide breaks down the structure and procedures of every single state’s highest court.

One of our most-read stories in 2025: In a string of rulings, Hawaii Justice Todd Eddins has rebuked the originalist approach preferred by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court, calling it "white noise." “A constitution adapts,” he wrote. “Due process is agile.”

In the wake of Ohio’s ban on grace periods for mail ballots, Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Republican, offered his advice to voters: “Don’t vote by mail, because there are too many bad things that can happen. Do it in person if you can.”

A 1967 federal law currently requires that states use single-member districts. Advocates for multi-member proportional representation would love to see Congress revisit this.

One of our most-read stories this year: A Pennsylvania county stopped charging people 'lodging fees' for detaining them in jail. Then it forgave $65 million in these fees. “What a light of hope this has been,” said one woman whose son owed $17,000.

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.

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What have we been up to in 2025? Here's a thread by our editor-in-chief on some of our team's favorite stories on the nuts and bolts of local politics, criminal justice, and voting rights this year.

Leaders of Ohio’s association of election officials scrambled to provide feedback before state legislators approved a ban on grace periods for mail ballots. “There wasn’t enough time to even have a meeting.”

Last month, Maine voters 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.

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North Carolina raising the cost of products sold in state prisons by five cents is a significant increase to incarcerated workers who typically earn between forty cents and $1.25 per day.

New Mexico officials granted Jesse Tooker parole on the life sentence he received when he was 17. But they didn’t agree to release him, saying an opinion issued by the state’s attorney general is keeping him behind bars.

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:

Did you know? Last year, Minnesota eliminated prison gerrymandering. The law, signed by Tim Walz in the spring, ended the practice of counting incarcerated people where prisons are located, which skews political power within the state.

2025 was just as busy as 2024, so we’ll forgive you if you missed some of our articles at @boltsmag.org! Our team chose just 10 of our favorite pieces of the year. It was very hard to choose—but these are articles I'd love for you to not miss. (And: thank you for reading us!) 🧵

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.

A voting rights advocate says Ohio's new ban on grace periods for mail ballots could cause major problems for voters. “Where is the sense that our lawmakers are protecting our right to vote?”

Six states adopted new congressional maps this year, and a few more have started the process. So where does that leave the count of the overall partisan shift? You asked, we answered: boltsmag.org/mid-dec...

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From the legacy of the internment of Japanese Americans, to who profits from jailing immigrants, you asked us critical questions about the network of immigrant detention. Here’s what you wanted to know:

Donald Trump carried Pennsylvania’s populous Bucks County in 2024. But the Republican sheriff who then partnered with ICE to aid deportations lost his reelection bid last month.

South Tucson Mayor Roxy Valenzuela rejects calls to increase policing as a response to rising homelessness. “Sometimes the best people to offer those resources are not the cops — it can be a community member or a clinician,” she says.

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One community activist almost didn’t apply to the Massey Commission. She felt the civilian review board was “not set up in a way to make real change” but she joined anyway, hoping she could advance her work to seek justice for victims of police violence.

LA County’s Flex Vote Centers have made it easier for unhoused residents to vote by setting up pop-up polling places at shelters, drop-in centers, and transitional housing sites.

“Narrowing the window when ballots can be accepted, even if they were postmarked with the right date, essentially is disenfranchising folks,” says a leader of a national voting organization. “The right to vote shouldn’t hinge on timely mail delivery.”

The NYPD often issues civil summonses to homeless people, one researcher explains. “A lot of those violations, it’s really unclear whether a criminal or civil summons makes any difference in that person’s material situation.”

The director of a labor development board in Oregon bemoans the lack of funding to support formerly incarcerated workers in the state. “There’s nowhere to turn for more money, the spigot’s off at the federal level and there’s no money in Oregon.”

Democrats in Iowa tomorrow are seeking to defend a seat in the state Senate to keep the GOP from regaining a supermajority. Without that supermajority, the Senate can no longer confirm the governor's nominees on party-line votes.

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.

The charge of “felony murder” allows defendants to be charged with the death of an accomplice, even when the killing was committed by someone else. Between 2009 and 2017, 83 percent of people charged with felony murder in Alabama were Black.

As recently as 2020, providing grace periods for mail ballots was not controversial. But in Ohio and beyond, Republicans mostly now oppose them. That starts with Trump, who has falsely claimed that they lead to widespread voter fraud.

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.”

“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.

Listicle time: We put together 10 of our favorite @boltsmag.org stories of 2025! Check out what you may have missed — some extraordinary journalism from my colleagues here, from voting rights & prison conditions to local elections.

Some sponsors of New Mexico’s Second Chance Act oppose the state attorney general’s opinion limiting parole eligibility, arguing that it contradicts the law. “It’s as clear as we could possibly make it,” said a state senator in a November hearing.

Sheriffs nationwide have enormous control over jail voting access, with many restricting mail and voter guides, making it nearly impossible for incarcerated people to vote. A law in Colorado removed that discretion—and turnout has soared.

Four GOP-run states have drawn new maps this year, while California is the only one run by Democrats. What is happening in the seven other Democratic-run states where the GOP holds some congressional seats? You asked, we answered:

Until Trump began conspiracies about mail voting, Republicans were fully on board with GRACE PERIODS for ballots to arrive as long as postmarked by Election Day. They passed it overwhelmingly in KS, OH, & elsewhere. But now Trump hates it. So 4 red states—KS, OH, ND, UT—all banned it this year.

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.

After President Trump signed a tax cuts package in July, Oregon estimated it would lose $888 million in state tax revenue. A novel workforce development program for incarcerated Oregonians is now set to lose its funding.

Eisha Love, a Chicago activist and trans woman, had to wait nine years after finishing the terms of a criminal sentence to legally change her name. She says trans people shouldn’t be at the mercy of a prosecutor’s decision in order to change their names.