war on drugs

January 27, 2022 - A formerly incarcerated person who went on to become a public defender in Nashville, Haynes made headlines when she ran for Congress in 2020. Now a voting rights advocate with the Sentencing Project, she has a new book out about fixing the brutality of the criminal justice system titled "Bending the Arc" and recently talked about it with Facing South.  

January 24, 2022 - Drug overdose deaths are climbing nationally and across the South, driven in large part by street drugs contaminated with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid. Many of these deaths could be prevented by allowing drug users to test their supply for fentanyl's presence, but some states still ban testing strips as paraphernalia.

July 20, 2018 - President Trump recently commuted the federal prison sentence of Alice Marie Johnson of Tennessee, who was serving life without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. The move came after a decade of effort by criminal justice reform advocates, who now see hope for more systemic change in a bill that's been introduced in Congress by a key GOP leader.

June 20, 2015 - It's probably no coincidence that the Charleston church shootings came in the midst of a burgeoning movement for black freedom, as there's always violent backlash when black people rise up. The tragedy is a clear reminder that the struggle against institutional racism must continue with fierce urgency.

April 4, 2014 - The ruling means that the woman whose drug use had her facing a possible life term can at most be charged with manslaughter in the death of her stillborn daughter.

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 6, 2012 - Tayna Fogle of Kentucky lost her right to vote when she was convicted of a drug offense. But she turned her life around and now works as a grassroots organizer helping other ex-felons regain their voting rights, now permanently denied by 11 states.