Criminal Justice

November 22, 2013 - Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) gets a slap on the wrist for coke possession. Black and Latino men and women don't get off so easily.

November 13, 2013 - A police sting operation in a small North Carolina town on Election Day led to the arrests of 59 people -- mostly African Americans -- for illegal possession of drugs, alcohol and guns. Some residents question the timing, saying they believe it was an attempt to intimidate black voters from showing up at the polls.

October 4, 2013 - Held in solitary confinement at Louisiana's notorious Angola prison for 41 years for a murder he did not commit, Herman Wallace passed away today -- just three days after his conviction was overturned and he was set free.

September 20, 2013 - As U.S. incarceration rates fall, private prison companies are taking steps to guarantee profits with contracts requiring states to either meet prison occupancy quotas or pay for empty beds. Louisiana and Virginia are among the states locked into the highest occupancy guarantee requirements.

September 16, 2013 - A new report documents an overall rise in homicides in states that have passed versions of the controversial self-defense law. The increase in "justifiable" homicides has been especially dramatic in some Southern states, and African Americans have borne the brunt of the increase in deadly violence.

August 30, 2013 - After a decade of efforts to end prison rape, formal audits of prisons and jails are set to take place. But the first round will be conducted by the Virginia-based American Correctional Association -- the very organization that's been criticized for failing to address the problem.

August 29, 2013 - If we're going to claim New Orleans has made progress since the unnatural disaster of Katrina eight years ago, perhaps we should first define what we mean by "progress."