Criminal Justice

February 25, 2016 - The public defender system in the state with the nation's highest incarceration rate is teetering on the brink of insolvency while people sit in jails without lawyers.

January 8, 2016 - Since President Obama launched the White House Police Data Initiative last year, citizens have mobilized to bring data on police traffic stops and use of force to the public in easy-to-use online formats.

November 25, 2015 - Outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) signed an executive order this week to automatically restore voting rights to certain felons. The state is among several in the South with harsh felony disenfranchisement laws that disproportionately deprive African-American citizens of access to the ballot.

November 20, 2015 - A task force studying ways to fix the state's broken health care system takes aim at a law that criminalizes prenatal drug use.

October 30, 2015 - A shocking incident of police brutality that occurred this week in a classroom in Columbia, South Carolina has raised concerns about the treatment of female African-American students in public schools — a problem that goes far beyond this one case.

October 6, 2015 - A Clean Air Act loophole exempts the auto industry from criminal penalties, so federal law enforcement officials are considering bringing charges against emissions-cheating Volkswagen under other laws. Criminal charges in environmental cases have ample precedent, as BP, Transocean, Halliburton, Wal-Mart and Duke Energy can attest.

September 1, 2015 - It's been a year since the body of an African-American teen named Lennon Lacy was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, N.C. under circumstances that have led many to question the official suicide ruling. At last week's memorial service for Lacy, state NAACP officials provided updates on the still-open case, offering hope that the truth will be revealed.