MEDIA
See and hear members of our team discuss the importance of ending poverty jailing, the devastating impacts of private probation, alternatives to financial bail, and the process of investigating and building a case. Read media coverage of our cases.
Follow us on Twitter for the latest news about our work!
JUDGE IN HOUSTON STRIKES DOWN HARRIS COUNTY’S BAIL SYSTEM
Eli Rosenberg, The New York Times
"A federal judge in Houston has overturned the county’s bail system for people charged with low-level crimes after finding that it disproportionately affected indigent residents and violated the Constitution.
"The judge, Lee H. Rosenthal of Federal District Court, ordered Harris County to stop keeping people who have been arrested on misdemeanor charges in jail because they cannot pay bail."
Why won't the county settle the lawsuit over the bail system?
Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle
"Why are Harris County officials wasting millions in taxpayer money on high-dollar lawyers to defend a bail system that has now been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge?
"The county's handling of a class action lawsuit, which is intended to stop criminal court at law judges from jailing people simply because they're poor, continues to intrigue and outrage. But an exchange late Tuesday with two top county offices left me more baffled than ever."
Alec Karakatsanis, The Johnson Institute for responsible leadership
Watch Civil Rights Corps Founder and Executive Director Alec Karakatsanis talk about our urgent work after being awarded the Emerging Leader Award by the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership at the University of Pittsburgh.
Lawsuit: Tennessee driver's license law punishes poor
Stacey Barchenger, The Tennessean
"Nashvillian James Thomas can't drive to see his doctor or get to his volunteer work each week because he owes $290 for a trespassing conviction, a crime the formerly homeless man faced for sheltering under a bridge.
"Thomas and more than 146,000 Tennesseans have had their driver's licenses revoked since 2012 because of a state law that says court fines that go unpaid for a year result in automatic revocation, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Nashville on Wednesday."
In Fight Over Bail’s Fairness, a Sheriff Joins the Critics - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Read New York Times coverage of our work to end wealth-based detention in Harris County, Texas here.
To the left, watch some of the probable cause videos we played in court during the March 2017 preliminary injunction hearing.
Katherine Hubbard, AirTalk
Civil Rights Corps attorney Katherine Hubbard discusses how California's bail system keeps people in jail simply because they cannot pay.
justice, not profit
A look at the investigative process behind our case against the private probation company, Providence Community Corrections in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The case was begun by Civil Rights Corps staff when they were leading the organization Equal Justice Under Law.