When Hurricane Florence battered the Carolinas in September, Dazia Lee’s tragic story made national headlines.…
Washington state’s Supreme Court abolished the death penalty on Thursday on the grounds that it was applied randomly…
“The reason why these men are in chains in the St. Louis Workhouse is because they are poor. Every lawyer in St.…
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was the perfect witness. She was credible. She had taken the time during a brutal,…
On March 23, 2005, police officers arrested 32-year-old Ben Baker for dealing heroin in Chicago’s Ida B. Wells…

A little more than two weeks before the New York Democratic gubernatorial primary, candidate Cynthia Nixon has…
In a bold attempt to correct a major flaw in America’s criminal (in)justice system, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)…
Laquisha Jones, the black woman accused of beating 91-year-old Rodolfo Rodriguez with a cement brick as he was…
San Bernardino County’s lead gang prosecutor is under investigation after a series of racist and xenophobic posts he…
Meek Mill is seeking justice, and his city is behind him. Fans gathered in droves Monday outside the Juanita Kidd…
I was 34 years old when I could no longer escape the man I never wanted to see again.
A Texas woman and ex-offender who received a harsh five-year jail sentence for voting illegally will not get a new…
While you were worried about Russian collusion, Kardashian pardons, national anthem protests, trade tariffs, border…
The wheels of justice turn ever so slowly when you are a black man caught up in a system designed to hold you down.…
At 14 years old, John Bunn went on trial for murder; the proceeding lasted just one day.
Two men wrongfully imprisoned for a kidnapping and rape they didn’t commit were exonerated Monday in state Supreme…
Right now, there is a black woman sitting in prison, reading about a Texas judge who was found guilty of the same…

In a spoken-word poem, Dwayne Betts details the emotional impacts of juvenile incarceration.

Editor’s note: This is the second of two essays The Root is publishing in partnership with Caught, a new podcast…