JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — Voters in San Francisco have recalled Chesa Boudin, the local district attorney who sought to change policing in that city and came to represent one extreme of a polarizing debate over criminal justice in America. Boudin was elected in 2019 after vowing to reform the way San Francisco handled crime, with a goal…
Earlier this summer, 3,100 people were released from federal prison ahead of schedule under a new criminal justice reform bill signed into law late last year. Many will find jobs and housing, transitioning back into their communities. It’s an important step in the ongoing fight for criminal justice reform. But it hardly fixes America’s over-incarceration…
Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli will host the 2019 Eurovision competition, unless something big comes up, you know, like a criminal indictment. The major televised event, which will be held in Tel Aviv this year to honor Israel’s win last year by singer-songwriter Netta Barzilai, will be co-hosted by Refaeli and three other Israeli talents —…
This story was co-published with The Marshall Project. My grandfather, a rabbi in Louisiana, served as an Army chaplain during World War II. To the day he died, he couldn’t talk to us about what he saw. The atrocities he witnessed left him deeply scarred. To my surprise, a draft memoir I’d never known about…
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is getting a pat on the back for his leadership in attempting to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system. It’s a bipartisan affair, with both Republicans and Democrats who worked on the bill crediting him for taking the reins, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was influential in convincing…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Amy Bach has won the 2018 Charles Bronfman Prize for her research in statistics about the criminal justice system. The organization announced on Wednesday that it was giving the Jewish humanitarian award to Bach, a lawyer and award-winning author. She is the founder and executive director of Measures for Justice, an organization that…
Last week, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his intention to end cash bail for all misdemeanor and nonviolent felony cases across New York State. In his State of the State address, Cuomo acknowledged that the cash bail system, in which someone arrested for a crime awaits trial at home in exchange for money…
Among his many titles, Jared Kushner has been charged with one more: talking out criminal justice reform with lawmakers. BuzzFeed reports that the president’s son-in-law is discussing legislation to reformm criminal justice with Sens. Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat Thursday. Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, joined the meeting…
