That truth is uncomfortable. It disrupts a story we rely on to stay unaccountable. Calling the system “broken” allows us to believe that harm is incidental, that outcomes are the result of neglect, oversight, or malfunction. It lets us talk about fixes without confronting foundations.
Nearly 40 percent of incarcerated people have a diagnosed mental illness. Another majority have trauma histories so severe they’d meet clinical criteria, if anyone bothered to check
2025 is ending with a justice system altered in ways we have not seen in more than a decade. Some of those changes move us toward fairness, accountability and real public safety. Others drag the nation backward into the failed punishment-first playbook that has never delivered safety, only overcrowded jails, destabilized communities and political theater.
In America, we like to believe that truth always wins. That, if a person is proven innocent, they walk free.
But, in the real world of the U.S. justice system, innocence is not enough.
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We don’t lock up women to make communities safer. We lock up women because it’s easier than fixing poverty, easier…
The 13th Amendment didn’t end slavery. It rebranded it. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime…” That…
The quiet budget strategy no one voted for Cities claim they’re keeping order. In reality, many balance their books with…
Hell is local. On any given night in America, seven out of ten people in your county jail haven’t been…
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