Kevin McQueeney

Another State Restricts Life Sentences for Young Adults - Bolts Michigan’s supreme court created new protections against life sentences for people up to 20, pushing the line for who gets second chances beyond age 18.

NEW: In a landmark ruling, Michigan's supreme court has struck down mandatory life without parole sentences for youth up to age 21.

What this means: Nearly 600 Michiganders who expected to die in prison will now get a shot at a different outcome.

I took a few days to write about what's next:

New Research Links Gun Violence Exposure to Higher Rates of Depression and Suicidal Ideation For decades, politicians and gun lobbying organizations have perpetuated the notion that mental health issues drive mass violence. A new study is challenging that narrative, though, showing that, rath...

Exposure to gun violence is linked to depression, risk of suicide, and mental health services use, especially when the violence happens over and over again.

Thank you to @thetrace.org and @fairrionam.bsky.social for covering our latest national research.

www.thetrace.org/2025/04/gun-...

THREAD: Under a new law, thousands of prisoners in Louisiana have been cut off from ever getting a chance at parole.

Why?

Because an algorithm said so. 1/

📖 OUT NOW

‘The Prison Industry’

By @biancatylek.bsky.social and @worthrises.bsky.social, the leaders in “exposing the immoral profiteering by companies feasting at the trough of incarceration”

Mapping the corp-govt collusion in profiting off over-policing, mass incarceration and mass surveillance

Prisons Must Fall book cover

Prisons Must Fall 🌱

Happy Publication Day to this beautiful, hopeful book by @prisonculture.bsky.social and Jane Ball, illustrated by @ollycostello.bsky.social! 💐

The number of American adults in the labour force with a disability since Covid

The True Story of an Indiana Teen Barred From School Over His AIDS Diagnosis Ryan White changed perceptions of the disease in the United States.

Ryan White died thirty-five years ago today. To mark the occasion and to celebrate Ryan’s remarkable life, @teenvogue.com has published this excerpt from my new book. 🗃️ www.teenvogue.com/story/ryan-w...

Medicine on a Larger Scale Cambridge Core - History of Medicine - Medicine on a Larger Scale

Medicine on a Larger Scale: Global Histories of Social Medicine, eds @ahlie.bsky.social, Jeremy Greene, and me, will be available open access from @cambridgeup.bsky.social in May 2025. In a world of growing health inequity, radical social medicine has never been more urgent!
#histstm #histmed #sts

US map titled: Since 2000, over half of all U.S. states have been court-ordered to improve prison medical care

In correctional healthcare systems, care is secondary to controlling costs & avoiding lawsuits.

What will it take to get people the care they need?

www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/heal...

First-of-its-kind database: Majority of people killed in police chases aren’t the fleeing drivers The majority of people killed in police chases in the United States were passengers or bystanders, first-of-its-kind data analysis shows.

"An analysis of police pursuit fatality data shows that most of those killed between 2017 and 2022 were passengers or bystanders."

"At least 1,377 people died in 2020 and 2021, the most recent years for which federal data was available — almost two people a day on average."

Gifted.

The devastating impact of the cuts to the NEH: state humanities councils will be forced to shut down. These terrible impacts will be felt literally everywhere in this country.

All anti-mask laws—even those with so called “medical exceptions”—stigmatize mask-wearing.

Fewer people wearing masks increases the spread of infectious diseases.

No matter how lawmakers try to spin it, any law that criminalizes wearing a mask endangers public health. Period.

Orleans Parish went 91% no 🙅🏻‍♂️

If you have not already done so, today is the last day for voting on the proposed constitutional amendments in Louisiana. Polls open until 8pm. #NoToThemAll

The EO that included restoring monuments/memorials on federal property is a full-on embrace of Confederate ideology. Beginning Monday @uncpress.bsky.social will make my book No Common Ground available to read FOR FREE for the next two weeks. Educate yourself about what this embrace means. ✊

Advocates in DeKalb County Secure First of Its Kind Water Affordability Legislation in the Deep South Yesterday, elected officials in Georgia passed sweeping legislation to address water affordability issues and implement stronger protections against shutoffs in DeKalb County. These efforts are the re

It’s so crucial, amid this onslaught of cruelty and immiseration, to highlight local victories.

Here in DeKalb County, organizers just won the South’s first-ever water affordability law—capping bills at 3% of income, expanding shutoff protections, and securing debt relief for low-income residents.

In the past 30 years, Louisiana has exonerated 11 people facing execution. Radley Balko & Tucker Carrington wrote a great book on the junk science used by West & Hayne to falsely convict people including Duncan. One more reason to #AbolishTheDeathPenalty.
www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/radle...

Please use the link in the post for a link to the full text shown in this image

My statement on being denied tenure at the Medill School of Journalism drive.google.com/file/d/1BBBI...

Trump administration freezes $175 million in federal funding to Penn According to a White House tweet, Wednesday's decision is a result of Penn's

They are coming for every university, if you think you’re safe because it hasn’t been yours yet I don’t know what to tell you. Join AAUP, refuse to comply, organize your colleagues

Brown Medicine doctor deported despite federal court order. What we know. A court order that would have delayed the deportation of Dr. Rasha Alawieh was issued while her plane was on the tarmac, but it took off anyway.

And here’s another case. She’s only a completely valid H1-B, and they ignored a court order that stopped her deportation.

Ignored a court order.

www.providencejournal.com/story/news/l...

Brown University professor held by customs officials at airport after travel to Lebanon Serving the Brown community since 1891

This is outrageous www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...

THIS IS INCREDIBLE! Cohen Children’s Medical Center has confirmed that it has successfully ELIMINATED sickle cell disease from Sebastien Beauzile, using the groundbreaking genetic treatment Lyfgenia. He has made HISTORY by becoming the FIRST in New York to be CURED of sickle cell anemia! 🧪🧵⬇️

Bereaved come together to mark five years since Covid-19 pandemic outbreak Hundreds of events across UK commemorate those who died and pay tribute to health workers

"Towns and cities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland hosted hundreds of events to remember those who died and also pay tribute to frontline health and social care workers, volunteers and researchers on the annual Covid Day of Reflection." U.S.?? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Fwiw one thing university faculty can do is provide simple explainers for their students on how federal funding works and how cuts to higher ed & endowment taxes will concretely damage their education and possibly spike tuition costs

Many students don’t know how university finances work!

Memos of Blood and Fire | Peter Coviello So if you ask me about the signature strength of the department where I work, I will tell you. It is world-caliber field-defining research, wedded to a fantastically dynamic practice of instruction, a...

I’m a professor at a public university, a proud union member, and a fierce believer in the value of a humanities education for my students. I felt every word of this essay by Peter Civiello in my bones. READ IT. SHARE IT. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

"Poor food served in the chow hall drives hungry prisoners to the commissary, which only adds to the companies’ bottom lines... 'Crappy food is being paid for twice. And then the state is paying for the medical care on that.'"

www.themarshallproject.org/2025/03/08/f...

Trump administration to drop case against plant polluting Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Biden-era suit sought to curb emissions of the carcinogen chloroprene at Denka plant formerly owned by DuPont

The Trump administration has formally agreed to drop a landmark environmental justice case in Louisiana

“It’s obvious that the Trump administration doesn’t care anything for the poor Black folk in Cancer Alley” - community organizer Bobby Taylor told me:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I'd like to please be added!