There are fewer people imprisoned today than in 2008. But the cash bail system can still keep people locked up, unable to buy their way out.
Kelan Lyons
Kelan is a Report For America Corps Member who covers the intersection of mental health and criminal justice for CT Mirror. Before joining CT Mirror, Kelan was a staff writer for City Weekly, an alt weekly in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a courts reporter for The Bryan-College Station Eagle, in Texas. He is originally from Philadelphia.
Posted inJustice
BEST OF 2022: In their own words: Prisoners testify on solitary confinement bill
The incarcerated testified on a bill that would reduce the use of solitary confinement and establish independent oversight of the DOC.
Posted inJustice
When cash bail is high, some families finance freedom through GoFundMe
It took fish fries, fundraisers and GoFundMe to bail Bryan Jordan out of jail. Was it enough to keep him home?
Posted inJustice
New Jersey mostly got rid of cash bail. Why hasn’t Connecticut?
CT’s efforts to end cash bail were stymied by the bail bonds industry, a lack of bipartisanship and worry over what would replace it.
Posted inJustice
The problem of cash bail in CT: ‘They just cannot claw their way out’
There are fewer people imprisoned today than in 2008. But the cash bail system can still keep people locked up, unable to buy their way out.
Posted inJustice
CT’s right to collect money from former prisoners is curtailed, but not ended
CT can no longer take money won in lawsuits to pay for the cost of a person’s imprisonment — unless they’ve been convicted of certain crimes.
Posted inJustice
CT Senate gives final approval to juvenile crime bill
Republicans have been hounding Democrats for a year to pass legislation addressing car thefts and shootings. This session, Democrats listened.
Posted inJustice
Heeding patient concerns, Whiting Forensic Hospital bill gets final passage
The bill is based on recommendations made by a task force formed in the wake of the physical and mental abuse of a patient in 2017.
Posted inJustice
Solitary confinement bill heads to Gov. Lamont’s desk
This is the second year in a row lawmakers have passed a bill to limit the use of solitary confinement in prison and jails.
Posted inPolitics
CT House passes juvenile crime bill
The bill passed over the concerns of Republicans who said it didn’t go far enough and Democrats who worried it would harm children of color.
Posted inJustice
Trooper charged with manslaughter in fatal police shooting of Mubarak Soulemane in 2020
The criminal charge is part of a broader reckoning in Connecticut and across the U.S. over police killings of Black people.
Posted inJustice
Multimillion-dollar settlements OK’d in psychiatric hospital, prison lawsuits
The settlements deal with hepatitis C among those in the state’s prisons and jails and the abuse of a patient at Whiting Forensic Hospital.
Posted inJustice
Crime victims’ concerns and patients’ rights at odds in debate over Whiting bill
A bill would make it easier for people found not guilty by reason of insanity to earn release from Whiting Forensic Hospital.
Posted inJustice
In their own words: Prisoners testify on solitary confinement bill
The incarcerated testified on a bill that would reduce the use of solitary confinement and establish independent oversight of the DOC.
Posted inJustice
Advocates threaten discrimination lawsuit over treatment of Whiting patients
The attorneys argue that their clients’ rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act are secondary to concerns of public safety.